Review: Batwing Vol. 5- Into the Dark

Quick Summary

Pros: The majority of the book’s narrative is interesting. The book has a great mix of action and emotion. In most places, the artwork is positive.

Cons: The book’s conclusion feels very rushed and leaves a few plotlines unfinished. The artwork is lacking in a few places.

Overall: This is a pretty good book that is held back by a few unfortunate problems. The positives come from Batwing’s personal story. This features some great action scenes while still taking time to explore his unique relationship with his family. Unfortunately, the book’s conclusion feels very rushed and there are places where the art is lacking. Ultimately, this book is for fans who really want to see more from Luke Fox and who don’t mind a few problems along the way.

Story

Batwing Vol. 5: Into the Dark, by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, is a mostly positive continuation of Batwing’s already engaging narrative. The vast majority of this collection hits all of the positives that were present in the previous volume. This means that the action is exciting, the characters are compelling, and the drama surrounding Luke’s life is consistently interesting. Unfortunately, this otherwise solid narrative comes to a halt when the book reaches its rapid conclusion. This leaves several interesting plotlines unfinished and ultimately leaves the series feeling wanting. Overall, this is still a pretty good book but the conclusion is disappointing to see.

(spoilers start here)

Into the Dark gets off to a slightly rough start. The opening chapter is a pretty lackluster tie-in to a Bat-family event that is mostly unrelated to what is taking place in this series. It feels like a distraction more than it feels like a worthwhile continuation of Luke Fox’s story.

However, from here, Into the Dark improves dramatically. The majority of this collection maintains the quality of the previous book. It has intense action, specifically in Luke’s adventure into the underground. It also has tense family drama, as Luke continues to battle with his dad, reveals his secret identity to his sister, and the entire family is forced to react to Luke’s other sister’s kidnapping. Whether his struggles are with villains or with his family, Luke’s story is interesting to see play out.

Unfortunately, the volume ends way too quickly. The final few chapters set up villains for Luke to fight yet never actually finds time for these fights to take place. Even the family drama feels underdeveloped, as we’re still unclear how many aspects of the family dynamic stand. These final few chapters are especially upsetting because they brought up plenty of great plotlines yet never had time to finish them.

(spoilers end here)

Art

The artwork in Into the Dark is positive, with a few minor exceptions. The majority of the book does a fine job handling the action and emotion found in Batwing’s life. The action scenes are intense and have a good level of energy to them while the family-focused scenes highlight emotion. On top of all of this, the book’s structures are well done throughout and, in a few places, provide unique ways of looking at this comic’s events. The only real problem is that the first chapter is pretty lackluster. Overall though, this is a good looking book.

Continuity

Batwing Vol. 5: Into the Dark continues the story from Batwing Vol. 4: Welcome to the Family (Review).

The Batwing series ends with this volume and, currently, does not continue anywhere.

This volume also references another comic book, detailed below:

• This volume’s opening issue is a tie-in to the Gothtopia (Review) (Reading Order) event.
• This volume’s closing issue is a tie-in to the Future End (Review) (Reading Order) event.