I've been trying to check out some of the Rebirth titles - but as usual with such things, with me it's three strikes and you're out.
The "new" Batman comic had one strike against it last issue, with the casual use of vulgar language (which is fine in a comic for mature readers - but surely Batman should be accessible to all ages).
This issue features a lot of casual, unnecessary death - but that doesn't earn a strike (though it probably should). What earns it the second strike is the gruesome and in-your-face death later in the comic. A needlessly graphic visual in a book that kids might pick up.
The story itself is rooting deep into the "grim and gritty" style of story - which Batman's adventures can accommodate, but it seems just too unrelentingly dark.
It follows the fall of Gotham and Gotham Girl, two Superman-style heroes trying to defend the city - but who may be overwhelmed by its dark side.
But the third strike happened on the last page of this comic - it's an ad for an upcoming story, "Rise of the Monster Men," a six-part series that jumps around through Batman, Detective Comics and Nightwing.
Designed to bring more readers to the other titles, it instead convinces me that it's time to drop them all.
Maybe I'll come back when the Dark Knight is "reborn" in more upbeat, heroic stories.
Grade: B-
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