All Star Batman #2

Quick Summary

Pros: This issue does not just continue with the excitement from the previous issue, it adds more on top of it. Throw in some stunning visuals of the beautiful countryside and this makes for a wonderful issue to read.

Cons: Harvey Bullock and the Penguin are drawn rather oddly and people who do not like Duke will have more to be upset with here.

Overall: This issue proves that this series is one to watch as it continues to deliver another round of solid story and art. Fans of Batman will appreciate the characters who appear and how they are characterized while everyone will appreciate the suspense and mystery that this story weaves throughout the issue.

Story

Once again, this story feels like you are reading a big budget action movie made for in depth Batman fans. This issue continues to give a lot of the same things the first one did but throws a little extra in as well. We do not get a resolution to any of the first issue’s questions and are also given some new ones to digest as well. This makes for a comic who’s next issue I cannot wait for.

(spoilers start here)

It is hard not to get excited for the next issue of this comic. It keeps throwing mystery after mystery at the reader yet does not dangle them over your head the entire time. Instead it work in a way where the reading process turns into a mystery that you want to solve. I had to go back and re-read the issue a few times to see if I could guess what Two Face’s ultimate plan is or to see if I could figure out what is going on with Commissioner Gordon.

This issue also begins an extremely interesting dissection of Two Face as a character. In particular I enjoyed the explanation of there being two different form of Two Face, one known by children and one by their parents. This is a lovely, in universe, explanation of the modern day gritty Two Face compared to the campy Two Face of yesteryear. Explaining comic book trends in a comic is a meta technique that I almost always end up enjoying.

This issue’s backup story is almost entirely just Duke character building and development. If you are not a fan of Duke then you will not like this. I did not really care for this story, mostly because there was very little new information, besides Duke’s backstory, that was actually interesting. Hopefully, there will be more dedicated to the “cursed wheel” and Zsasz in the next issue.

(spoilers end here)

Art

The art in this issue has the same problem as the last did, people’s faces look weird. However, this issue skirts around the problem by giving most minor characters a mask or something similar to cover their face. This then chops the problem down to Harvey Bullock and Penguin, who’s faces both just look nearly deformed.

There are a few scenes captured in this issue which I though were simply amazing and almost make the issue worth buying just for them. Once again, these scenes are mostly of the outdoors and landscapes, the highlight of the previous issue. The picturesque mountains behind the train, Batman and Two Face wrestling in the water, and Bruce’s flashback all look breathtaking. This issue has some really high highs to make up for any lows present.

Continuity

Being so close to the first issue and not really making any additional connections, I have included the continuity list from All Star Batman #1 (Review). In this issue there is really only one reference to the current continuity.

• Duke asks if Two Face is different because of “the gunshot”. This gunshot happens in Batman and Robin Vol. 5: The Big Burn.

Since this is a new series meant to be cut off from the rest of the Batman Universe in Rebirth, there are not many connections to be made here. However, parts of this do involve Snyder going back to some characters and unfinished stories from his work on Batman. This means you may be a tiny bit confused if you have not read any of Scott Snyder’s Batman.

• Duke Thomas is a character first appearing in Scott Snyder’s run on Batman. However the only thing about his character that directly relates to this work happens in Batman: Rebirth #1, which is collected in either Batman Vol. 10: Epilogue or Batman Vol. 1: I am Gotham.
• The larger plot points from the rest of Duke’s short history can be found in:
  • Batman Vol. 4: Zero Year- Secret City
  • Batman Vol. 5: Zero Year- Dark City
  • We Are Robin Vol. 1: The Vigilante Business
  • We Are Robin Vol. 2: Joker
  • Batman Vol. 7: Endgame