Bat-Man overboard.
The Dark Nights tie-ins are some of my favourite comics to read every week and call me a sucker but anything alternate history is a weakness of mine. I also enjoy gender-bending in content that I am well versed in and as it may not be innovation, I find it entertaining. The Drowned is a combination of both these narrative shake-ups and should be a dream comic. So, does this issue; sink or swim?
Again, these side stories are known for using the original comics’ (Aquaman) writing team and again I feel that whoever came with this idea deserves a raise as the more of these I read, there seems to be no other way that should’ve been done. Dan Abnett is known for a wide array of sci-fi content for Marvel and a heap of Judge Dredd. He also wrote the story for Alien: Isolation a next-gen first-person horror game, which I actually enjoyed and if that wasn’t enough, has written quite the collection of Warhammer expanded universe novels. Aside from that large resumé, his other credits include current Aquaman, recent Titans and resurrection man, and funnily enough, I’ve only read the latter personally but after this issue, ill be sure to read more of his work. The artists that work on the title are Philip Tan and Tyler Kirkham, and I haven’t seen much of their work, but this comic has a unique art style and tone and I love it. I don’t think they’ve done anything else together and it’s a shame because I would devour more of this content.
The story is the same as every other Dark Nights, with the Bad Batman coming to a certain location and causing hassles for whatever local life there is and then the parallel hero will appear and try and fight. This happens in every other tie-in and if I have to be honest, it’s getting old, but that’s not the part of the story I’m interested in, it’s the backstory. That’s why I read these issues and the main reason I enjoy them, it gives meaning to the horrible actions and sometime may even come close to justifying them. This issue does this very well and I find it hard to criticise the resulting actions Bryce Wayne takes in response to events that transpire within her deeply upsetting world, and this again leaves me with more evidence on the theory that nearly every “evil” Batman is only evil through actions that they felt necessary not just for evils sake.
As grandiose and seemingly ridiculous the actions The Drowned Batman makes, before and after becoming what she is, they are actions that I can see any incarnation of Batman and even myself making (if I was a billionaire playboy with martial arts training) which makes for a compelling read and with beautiful art to accompany the somehow touching story, I enjoyed this issue greatly.