Since the last issue wasn't anything worth writing home about, I was glad it was remedied by this one, my most favorite installment of the Mythology arc mainly of two things, which I will discuss henceforth below. But first, let me try and tackle the art first since I don't think I've dwelt on Doug Mahnke's work that much.
I don't want to make unfair comparisons between him and Patrick Gleason, who was Tomasi's partner during the Batman and Robin run for New 52. The styles were so inherently different anyway. Also, what I noticed more for this fourth installment was the great detail in the art , credited to Mahnke and co. And oh boy, were there great scenes that occurred here, and they've been made visually striking, which is a credit to the main artist for delivering.
To recap: After Batsy's run-in with former mentor Herny Ducard, he began to notice a pattern, which was the fact that someone (or something) had been targeting men and women who acted as his teachers or even surrogate parents much like Leslie and Alfred. Naturally, my mind went to Ra's Al Ghul, so imagine my pleasant surprise when they brought in THADDEUS BROWN instead, also known as MISTER MIRACLE. This is a very obscure piece of fanlore that I only recalled because I'm still in the middle of reading the awesome Mister Miracle (2018) graphic novel which was, coincidentally, written by Tom King himself (Rebirth's writer for the flagship Batman title). I was already eating it up!
When you're a Batman writer, you need to take bigger risks like the Dark Knight, including the misses more than the hits. This, to me, was one of the most awesome hits!
When you're a Batman writer, you need to take bigger risks like the Dark Knight, including the misses more than the hits. This, to me, was one of the most awesome hits!
Anyway, his Prime Earth version was said to have "educated a young Bruce Wayne in the art of escape". Hence that glaring cover! To keep up with the parallelism, Tomasi had Batsy and Thads chained underwater and surrounded by sharks. If it wasn't for the serious tone of the entire ordeal, this could have easily been featured in Adam West's Batman 66 show or comic! It was pretty funny as it is gruesome!
All I could think about during this scene was, 'Am I really just reading Batman surrounded by piranhas feasting on sharks and he uses a chunk of the shark meat to slide down the chain fastened around his ankle so that the carnivorous fish can chew around the leather strap? Right before Mister Miracle chewed on that strap too?' which was followed by a bemused, 'Why, yes, I am.'
The second thing that made this issue my favorite was the appearance of that morphing monstrosity (I'm just gonna call him MoMo as my personal shorthand from now on). Unlike in the last issue, it didn't just try to kick Batman's ass, MoMo decided to get even further metaphorical by shapeshifting into the Waynes and the rest of the Bat-family. Because, again, it's fuck-you-Bruce all the day, all night for this particular arc, and I guess that's why it's called Mythology. It revisits what makes Batman himself through a nightmare.
I am rating the highest because it's my favorite of all, so there's nothing objective about that!
RECOMMENDED: 9/10
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