Batman: As the Crow Flies

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing Storyline Between "Hush" and "War Games"
Review: Judd Winnick scripts this storyline, which was pencilled by Dustin Nguyen and inked by Richard Friend. The five-part storyline was serialized in BATMAN #626-630. It followed "Broken City" (by Azzarello and Risso), which itself followed the very successful "Hush" storyline (by Loeb and Lee). "Hush" proved a disappointment to many, as did the ambiguous "Broken City" -- but at least they were interesting. The same can't really be said for "As the Crow Flies."

The story focuses on The Penguin, whose underbosses are being killed off. Penguin has the Scarecrow working for him, and a new foe -- called Scarebeast -- appears. Scarebeast ends up killing lots of The Penguin's people, but Crane (the Scarecrow's alter ego) doesn't seem responsible. Ultimately, Crane really was responsible -- and that character is changed "permanently," while a rather uninteresting new character is launched. But it hardly matters, as the rather conventional story fails to grab our attention: we don't get under the skin of any single character here.

This is true even despite an appearance of the evil Jason Todd from "Hush" -- who seems to simply be a hallucination here as well as in that storyline. Except that, at the end, Alfred finds Jason's mask -- a suggestion that Todd might really return, though he certainly doesn't here and he clearly WASN'T in the scenes wherein he supposedly might've left his mask. If that strikes you as weak, I wouldn't blame you.

The failure of this storyline is unfortunate, particularly because Winnick, Nguyen, and Friend have all proved themselves capable elsewhere.

"As the Crow Flies" was the last storyline in BATMAN prior to the "War Games" crossover, which itself is being collected in trade paperback.

-- Julian Darius, Sequart.com (for the sophisticated study of comic books and graphic novels)

Rating:
Summary: Dark, intelligent, creative. Worth a look.
Review: This story takes place after the two-part Hush story, after Batman had been haunted by the ghost of Jason Todd (the earlier Robin who was murdered by The Joker). When I first glanced at this at a Books-A-Million store, I really had no intention of buyong it because of previously reading the semi-negative reveiw here. But while I awaited the return of my mother and younger brother to return from Dick's Sporting Good's, I sat down in the store and began reading. I only read enough of it to get an idea of the basic plot: The Dark Knight and company are chasing a number of thug's and two-bit hoods who have been acting VERY strangely, some of them are as frightened as small children in lost in a hedge maze, and some are violent like rabid dogs. It's up to Batman and the gang to find out what is causing this behavior in these crooks. Across town, it is revealed that Dr. Jonathon Crane (aka The Scarecrow) has joined forces with The Penguin, and it is a special chemical of Dr. Crane's creation that absorbs through a victim's skin that causes them to behave in ways they normally wouldn't. While Batman is trying to worm some confessions out famed thugs, a horrendous creature so-named "Scarebeast" is causing murder and mayhem on The Penguin's best henchmen across town. It is up to Batman and Robin to find exactly what kind of beast they are dealing with.