Batman: Death and the Maidens

Rating:
Summary: Stale
Review: I was disappointed in this story. It did have some potential, especially with Bruce Wayne being given the chance to meet his parents. Unfortunately, that part was the biggest letdown - most of the meeting is spent with Bruce's mother going on about all of the changes Gotham has undergone since her death. If she was able to see everything Bruce was doing while she was dead, surely she would have seen Gotham in that time too. Bruce's parents get accross the fact that they are disappointed with his chosen life but that's it. There is nothing more to the meeting. There is no insight, no wisdom imparted, just "We're not happy with you, Bruce," and that's it - Bruce wakes up wondering whether or not it actually happened.

Ra's Al Ghul's character is fleshed out pretty well in this story, but the fact that the story is more about him and his problems than about Batman does take from my interest in the piece.

Another problem is that Batman is never really in any danger throughout the whole book. There is no impending doom, no serious detective work to be done. There is just the one moral dilemma as to whether or not it is right to disturb the dead. This is done pretty well in that Alfred is the moralist and Bruce disregards his advice, but in the end, after Bruce has met his parents, the decision seems not to have mattered one way or the other.

There are one or two dodgy pictures, but mostly the artwork is good. There is never a misplaced line in the whole thing, so I can have no complaints about the quality of the writing, except that the whole story lacked something that would make me want to read it again.