Batman:Shadow The Last Arkham

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic! This is why he is the greatest detective in comis
Review: Batman goes under cover as a patient in Arkham to catch a serial killer. While inside, Nightwing (Dick Grayson, the first Robin) tries to break him out. These two former partners team up once again to catch the killer in this collection of Batman: Shadow of the Bat #1-4. Outstanding storytelling and art by some of comics greatest talent.

Rating:
Summary: A highly intelligent Batman story
Review: One of the finest pieces of graphic literature the Batman storyline have spawned during the 90s, 'The Last Arkham' was the storyline that made up the four first issues of 'Shadow Of The Bat' in 1992. Written by the spectacular Alan Grant and drawn by Norm Breyfogle, 'The Last Arkham' goes far beyond the quality and subject matter usually found in the monthly comics, and reminds me of those wonderful days of Dennis O'Neil and Neil Adams in the 80s. Resisting the urge to use any of Batman's classic foes, Grant did the impossible here: He created two new 'classic' characters - Jeremiah Arkham and Mr. Zsasz, both of whom are fascinating characters and were used often in the Batman comics since - not an easy task after fifty years of Batman comics.

Like the best of Batman stories, 'The Last Arkham' creates a good mix of action, suspense and some criminal psychology - I wouldn't call it deep, Jeremiah Arkham's behaviorism theories, but it's highly intelligent and well written. Commissioner Gordon and Nightwing play important parts. The lead villain, Mr. Zsasz, is a great creation, and since he's not an established enough character to make for a good one-on-one story, the rest of the rogue gallery are thrown into the mix to make some nice scenes in the asylum as well as the terrific action scene in the beginning of part four. The storyline and dialogue are sharp and mature.

The artwork is basically standard, but at that it's terrific: Under the flat coloring, Breyfogle's linework is superb. The page compositions are fantastic; I especially loved the very last page of part four.

Highly recommended for Batman fans, a terrific book to add to your collection.

Rating:
Summary: A highly intelligent Batman story
Review: One of the finest pieces of graphic literature the Batman storyline have spawned during the 90s, `The Last Arkham' was the storyline that made up the four first issues of `Shadow Of The Bat' in 1992. Written by the spectacular Alan Grant and drawn by Norm Breyfogle, `The Last Arkham' goes far beyond the quality and subject matter usually found in the monthly comics, and reminds me of those wonderful days of Dennis O'Neil and Neil Adams in the 80s. Resisting the urge to use any of Batman's classic foes, Grant did the impossible here: He created two new `classic' characters - Jeremiah Arkham and Mr. Zsasz, both of whom are fascinating characters and were used often in the Batman comics since - not an easy task after fifty years of Batman comics.

Like the best of Batman stories, `The Last Arkham' creates a good mix of action, suspense and some criminal psychology - I wouldn't call it deep, Jeremiah Arkham's behaviorism theories, but it's highly intelligent and well written. Commissioner Gordon and Nightwing play important parts. The lead villain, Mr. Zsasz, is a great creation, and since he's not an established enough character to make for a good one-on-one story, the rest of the rogue gallery are thrown into the mix to make some nice scenes in the asylum as well as the terrific action scene in the beginning of part four. The storyline and dialogue are sharp and mature.

The artwork is basically standard, but at that it's terrific: Under the flat coloring, Breyfogle's linework is superb. The page compositions are fantastic; I especially loved the very last page of part four.

Highly recommended for Batman fans, a terrific book to add to your collection.

Rating:
Summary: Breyfogle & Grant Magic!
Review: The thing I found so interesting about Last Arkham was the insight that was provided into the inmates at Arkham. Especially when put under the cruel fist of Jeremiah Arkham. Breyfogles art is (as usual) clean and crisp with a gritty darkness few artists are capable of. Of course Grant provides a fantastic story to match. Particularly interesting is the Jeremiah Arkham/Zsazz interview, which reminisces the reader to Silence of the Lambs. A truly excellent read - highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Well enough but nothing special
Review: When I first started reading the presented story in this collection (it collects 'Batman: Shadow of the Bat #1-4') my interest was sparked. It all started off rather promising and seemed to be something more than your average Batman tale. Jeremiah Arkham is an interesting character and Arkham Asylum is a scene with great potential for psycho-thriller storylines (take for example "Arkham Asylum" by Grant Morisson). It's too bad that when the story was half done, in a good way, it seemed to shift over as if on automatic pilot. It then evolved into a cliche Batman-knows-all-and-hunts-down-the-crook story of which we have so many already.

A short intro to know what it's about a little:
In Arkham Asylum, Gotham City's nutthouse for the criminally insane, we find a rather unexpected inhabitant, Batman. He was put there because he went berserk and lethally attacked an officer. This because of his frustrations about not knowing what to do in the multiple-murdercase he's trying to figure out. All the clues lead to only one person, Zsasz, but he is already in Arkham Asylum and has been there all the while the murders took place. Batman is puzzled and him being locked up doesn't seem to help too.

Like I said, it all starts off rather promising and intriguing. But it lacks an evenly interesting conclussion and instead just hops over on an already paved path. The art is not spectacularly good either, but it's sufficient. It's only painfully obvious that the artist mostly concentrated on making Batman look good, and hurried a little doing the rest of the panel. Fans of Nightwing will not appreciate how he looks here. And a thing I don't mind easy is something which bugs me more than a little in this book: the coloring is .. let's just say "not good". It looks a little like the colorist really wanted to do it with other colors but that they weren't there right then, and than just opted for the next best thing.
All in all it isn't exactly the worst Batman story imaginable, but it isn't good or bringing something new to the character neither. If you're looking for a good Batman story than you could get it if you have most of all the other modern day Batman stories already. If you don't you'd rather get something like 'Prey','Faces','Knightfall (collected in two trades)','Joker: Devil's Advocate' or one of the more obvious choices like 'Long Halloween', 'Year One' or 'Return of the Dark Knight' which are all superior to this.