Batman: The Dark Knight #11

[reubs]

I didn't see a review, preview, or a thread for this.

Any thoughts on issue #2 with the new writer? I thought #10 was okay for a first issue of a new arc, and I read #11 at lunch today. I'm kind of underwhelmed here, and I'm wondering if it's just me.

[nosocialize100]

I reviewed it over at my site and...how is this not better with Finch off writing? You’d think a new writer would fix this book, but Batman: The Dark Knight (2011-) #11 proves a major overhaul is in order. Scarecrow is some sort of pedophile, capturing kids and pressing his gases up their noses. Batman not only gets shot point blank due to his inability not to take the front door, but he also magically falls down a hole from said shot. Talk about lucky. Really, this is what is bad about comics from top to bottom.

[Desaad]

I think all the personal drama stuff is quite compelling, with the pianist and all that, but the actual Scarecrow/Batman scenes are terribly mediocre.

[thwhtGuardian]

I was a little underwhelmed with this, the last issue was pretty decent but this one didn't feel like there was enough story in the issue. We got a few interesting snippets that could end up being interesting if followed up on but just by them selves they fell short.

I jumped on to give the new writer a chance so I think I'll give him one more issue to keep me but I really need a book to be a consistently good read to keep it.

[reubs]

I want another Batman book, and I'm really holding out hope that the new writer in 'Tec will make that happen. I've sunk too much cash into this title (first 5 issues and now last 2) for it to stay so "blah" and forgettable for me. I'm glad I'm not the only one. And to think, we don't even get Batman, Inc. this week to offset it!

[RoughNTumble]

I'm surprised at the harsh reactions so far, I really enjoyed this issue. It reminds me of a bronze/golden age comic.

[FailureByDesign]

Was hoping for less setup this issue, it felt as though i had finished reading it in less than 10 minutes.

[SpideyZERO]

I thought this was a fun issue. Nothing outstanding, but at least readable compared to prior issues and have a tangible plot. I am looking forward to finding out what Scarecrow is trying to do other than scaring little kids. I do agree that the sequence with Batman heroically leaping into action to save Gordon, then immediately gunned down by Scarecrow and fell into a hole was rather hilariously bad....

The art seems slightly rushed in this issue too

[ArnoldoAAD]

Im really surprised as well of some of the comments

I thought it was pretty good, way better than the White Rabbit arc

I do agree it was a little slow but its well done, the comic is really taking shape

though Hurwitz job in the Penguin is still much better than this i think this was pretty good for a second issue

I thought this was a fun issue. Nothing outstanding, but at least readable compared to prior issues and have a tangible plot. I am looking forward to finding out what Scarecrow is trying to do other than scaring little kids. I do agree that the sequence with Batman heroically leaping into action to save Gordon, then immediately gunned down by Scarecrow and fell into a hole was rather hilariously bad....

The art seems slightly rushed in this issue too

from what i understood he is using their sweat and tears to develop a better fear serum

[RoughNTumble]

I think finch probably isn't the best fit to work with hurwitz. Several of scarecrow's scenes would have benefited from a more abstract artist like kudranski.

[Conway]

The art is the most memorable thing about this arc so far. I read both issues less than an hour ago and all I can remember is a couple shots of the Scarecrow, of Gordon, and something about little kids.

[Retro315]

I think we're still in tolerable territory here. There's a cohesive narrative ... it's not a stretch to believe a classic Batman villain has constructed a house full of tricks and traps. That part I quite laughed at - how straight out of the 70s it feels, like an Englehart/Rogers story.

The young Scarecrow melodrama ... yeah, I found that preposterously on-the-nose ... but this is a post-Snyder universe, and every single Batman villain is basically about to receive this treatment. "Such and such sicko horror trauma when I was a child and now I'm a villain!"

Because you know ... childhood horror tends to lead to a lot of extroverted behavior later in life, and all criminals are disturbed mentally.

No but even those leaps are nothing new to Batman readers, and in the case of Scarecrow; the archetypal template for "pscyhology-based" Batman stories (seriously, Joker has never been a madman, just wicked), I actually find no fault greater than any standard fault of Batman stories in general.

But you do need to point out the story holes. Batman's got an unbelievable set of goggles/lenses that allow him to detect insanely accurate heat-signatures in that old house, through walls and lead paint ... but he can't see through a refrigerator? OK ... accepting that Scarecrow guessed that an old fridge with some enhancement would cancel out thermal optics ... Bruce's high-tech optics still probably should have spotted that classic pitfall trap/tarp with some leaves on it in the front yard.

Scarecrow's look itself is surprisingly classic, and I dug it, including the old-timey gas sprayer device and the blunderbuss. The shambles of that old house as well; felt very 1920s/dust bowl, and that stuff lends itself to abject horror because of its familiarity. Everyone's town has a house or two from that era that's in massive disrepair, that kids break into on summer nights and everyone always says is haunted.

There's a fair bit of good here, to be had with the preposterous. And that shot of the Batmobile at the very least impressed me. Bruce's compassion for children is still a strong point, and Scarecrow actually abducting children is pretty hardcore. He's not a pedo, that implies something sexual (that's Mad Hatter's bag, although initially Vicki Vale was hardly underage). But he is definitely trying to prove some twisted point using children as victims. Which is sort of ... you know ... thematically appropriate, given Batman's backstory?

[Seattle Freeze]

#10 intrigued me but I didn't like #11. I tolerated what was going on with the kids in the last issue but now he's kidnapping more kids and torturing them. Then we see Scarecrow tortured as a child. Enough of the violence against children, DC! I'm getting thoroughly tired of it because the graphic depictions of it keep getting worse. How is this even rated teen and not mature? I'm seriously considering dropping BDK from my pull list.

Asside from that, this issue didn't really take the story any further so I paid $3 for what? And so now Crane was tortured as a child instead of becoming crazy as an adult. Why does the nu 52 keep wanting to invent new origins for classic villains?

Yep, definitely not happy with this title.

[Godlike13]

Thought it was not bad.

[ArnoldoAAD]

#10 intrigued me but I didn't like #11. I tolerated what was going on with the kids in the last issue but now he's kidnapping more kids and torturing them. Then we see Scarecrow tortured as a child. Enough of the violence against children, DC! I'm getting thoroughly tired of it because the graphic depictions of it keep getting worse. How is this even rated teen and not mature? I'm seriously considering dropping BDK from my pull list.

Asside from that, this issue didn't really take the story any further so I paid $3 for what? And so now Crane was tortured as a child instead of becoming crazy as an adult. Why does the nu 52 keep wanting to invent new origins for classic villains?

Yep, definitely not happy with this title.

its an analysis on the character

Hurwitz also explored the childhood of Penguin in Pain & Prejudice, he shows how he was bullied and mistreated as a kid then how he kills an entire family and by the end of the 3rd issue you felt that his mother died

I like that this is taking his time to explore Scarecrow

and there is obviously a point to the use of children, like retro said, Bruce got traumas as a kid too, and its not just violence for violence sake