THE DARK KNIGHT #5
finally wound down its first volume after false starts and massive delays this week. Rather than harp on its many failures, I'll instead hope for better things in the book's soon-to-be-relaunched future ... even when what we've gotten so far has made that anything but easy.
(DC has its new #1 slotted in for September 28th. I sincerely hope it makes that date.)
It's been very difficult to feel anything but contempt for cruel society girl Dawn Golden as Batman has beaten up half of Gotham trying to find her, and her story's resolution arrives just as quickly and as pointlessly as her rescue (which really involved Batman simply opening a door and finding her) two issues ago. While David Finch's storytelling skills haven't improved, a lot of the writing in this issue was a notch above what we've come to expect from these pages. When Bruce says he still cares about Dawn "because we were children together when my mother and father were still alive," it's enough for me, and Finch deserves a lot of credit for finally making me understand Bruce's feelings here. Because up until now, Finch has written him as a massive jerk.
The rain analogies are solid, too, but the rest of the dialogue is as trite, as rushed, and as random as it's always been in this book. To keep up with deadlines, art duties were shifted from Finch to Jason Fabok, whose detailed style perfectly fits the issue's demonic proceedings as well as it meshes with the darker palette of new colorists Peter Steigerwald and Tony Avina. (Earlier issues drawn by Finch were far too bright and colorful for the book's subject matter. They looked great. They just didn't fit the mood or tone.)
The epilogue with the young girl who stole The Batmobile feels particularly tacked on, and it's hard to even care when Finch teases that it's maybe not the end of her story. Especially when the main story ended on such a fizzle of a bummer.
We don't get a resolution of The Penguin's story (such as finding out who was in his hospital room two issues ago) and, even more shockingly, we don't get a resolution of the Gordon story, either, which is probably good, because every page Gordon's not on is another page he can't threaten another grown man with "a spanking he'll never forget." Truly some of the most terrible Gordon characterization ever put to page.
I know…I KNOW. I said I was going to be positive, so here's where that kicks in. Finch's story was a mess, but the idea behind it wasn't that bad. And I can't imagine the amount of time and effort it must take to write and draw a book like this, especially when one of Finch's greatest strengths is the massive amount of detail in his pencils. But the last two issues weren't even drawn by him, when it should have been the other way around. Someone else should have been brought in for scripts, allowing Finch to exercise his true strengths in the art department.
And that sounds like what we're getting in the next volume. Finch is flying solo on the first issue, but Paul Jenkins is coming on board for issue two to help write it. Jenkins has sole writing credit for issue #3, while Finch is sharing art duties on the second two issues with Fabok. Hopefully the book will stay on schedule and still reflect Finch's vision for it.
Ultimately, the failures of this book lie not with Finch but with DC's editors. They should never have allowed it to drift this far off track. They should also have offered Finch some help with the writing (though, in their defense, the issues were already coming in so late that there probably wasn't any time for rewrites). A good editor would have seen Finch's good ideas, helped him with a little story direction, and guided him through some better dialogue. Instead, the book was dumped on the market as-is, and way behind schedule to boot.
That's why I hope the next volume will be better. The editors aren't secretly planning the relaunch anymore. It's here. Now they need to shift their attention to what's happening in the books, and I hope they'll do a better job of guiding guys like Finch who have good ideas and great talent but suffer a bit in the execution and timeliness departments. Finch can go down in history as one of the finest Batman artists of all time, and I'm rooting for his narrative skills to land in that ballpark, too. It's going to take some time. It needs to stay on schedule. But I have hope he can do it.
I'll be reviewing the new volume of this book for BOF and it's not a job I accepted lightly. Had I not promised Jett that I'd review the first volume, I wouldn't have wasted my money buying its first five issues -- and BOF doesn’t get free reviewing copies of the new volume, either.
So why am I going to keep spending my cash on this book? Because despite its many failings, I believe in Finch's ability to tell Batman stories. I love his art. He obviously cares a lot about the character to have taken on such a huge undertaking, and I can't say enough about the dedication it takes for any creator to take on both writing and penciling duties for a major title. I want the best for Batman. I want the best for this book. And I'm hoping DC will do right by Mr. Finch and give him the help he needs to get it done and get it right. We shall see.
(I really hope) I'll see you on September 28th! - John Bierly
