Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Batman: Streets of Gotham #11

Batman: Streets of Gotham #11 Writer: Paul Dini. Pencils: Dustin Nguyen
Last Issue: 8 out of 10.

Review: This issue gets underway with Abuse breaking out of his cell and heading towards Zsasz's arena. Upon arriving, Abuse distracts Zsasz from slitting Damian's throat(damn it!), so Zsasz decides to attack Abuse instead, which turns out to be a big mistake, as Abuse bulks-up and easily trounces Zsasz. Upon seeing this, the scumbags watching Zsasz's fights begin to panic and run for the exits, so Abuse does what he can to stop them and make them pay for what they had been taking part in. Zsasz's hired goons go to attack Abuse, but he gets an assist from Damian, who had regained consciousness(and his sword as well). The two children pretty much trounce Zsasz's men, and wreck his underground fight club. By now, Batman arrives on the scene and after talking to some thugs who were fleeing from the carnage inside, he begins to make his way in to see if he could locate Damian. In the meantime, Zsasz wakes up, grabs his knife and makes a bee-line for Abuse, stabbing him in the side of the neck. Damian knocks Zsasz away, and decides that he's had enough of Zsasz's madness, so he goes to kill Zsasz. Abuse halts Damian and asks Damian to reconsider, since Batman(who happens to be Abuse's hero)wouldn't murder Zsasz, even after all of the horrific things he had done. While the two boys talk, Zsasz gets up again and stabs Abuse in the back! Jeez, you just can't keep this guy down! Zsasz, finally realizing that Damian had to be Robin, turns his attention to him, but proves unable to land a single hit on Damian, who had learned from his earlier encounter with Zsasz. After avoiding Zsasz best shots, Damian absolutely guts Zsasz with a swift sword stroke across the madman's stomach. Zsasz staggers around for a bit before falling into the trapdoor that was used to take the bodies of his victims out to sea. Abuse is stunned by Damian's actions, but Damian explains that he stopped short of killing Zsasz, instead leaving him with an egregious wound. By this time, Batman(FINALLY!)arrives on the scene and demands to know what happened to Zsasz. This issue ends with Abuse and Damian telling Bats that Zsasz had fallen into the trapdoor, and that they were simply defending themselves, nothing more.

What I Thought: Not bad at all. Whenever I can read a DC comic and grudgingly like Damian, I know that the writer a)is not Grant Morrison, and b)did a very good job. Paul definitely fit both criteria with this issue. I was happy with the way this comic ended(not overjoyed, just happy), mainly because it means that Zsasz can one day return to continue his utterly reprehensible actions. Paul really did a hell of a job turning Zsasz from a borderline joke to a really menacing character, so kudos for that. I can also accept that Damian was able to defeat Zsasz this time, seeing as that Zsasz had a broken hand and that Damian didn't go into the fight as overconfident this time as he did last time. While not perfect, there was still a lot to like here.

Score: 8 out of 10.You know, I don't like Damian and all, but this pic is now going to be my desktop picture!

12 comments:

  1. Nice review X, I gave this a 10 because I was extremely satisfied, especially because of your criteria's, which passed with me. I love that Zsasz is more than just some crazy guy and the character development has been crazy good, and I'm a fan of Abuse, I hope we see more of him.

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  2. Yeah, I can def see why you'd go all the way and give this one a 10. I'd have gone higher if not for Batman's weird(and I guess unnecessary)appearance and Zsasz's overly dramatic "death" scene. The guy was just gutted, and yet he made sure to stagger around for a while before finally falling into that hole! That made me laugh more then anything else..

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  3. Lol yeah, Dick had no purpose to show up, other than showing Abuse standing next to his idol, The Dark Knight. Lmao yeah that death scene was...wow, seemed like something right out of the movies. "ARRRGGGHHH, My stomach has been cut through like a hot chainsaw through butter...must, stumble to...open hatch so my body can't come back during Blackest Night 2 in 2025! *thud*"

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  4. Yeah, I guess it was nice for Dick to grace us with his presence and all, but he was kind of useless here...

    HA! That discription had me rolling, 'cause it's the damn truth!

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  5. Lol agreed, it's like he doesn't trust Damian or something, because if that'd been Tim I guarantee Bruce nor Dick would've showed up.

    Lol well thank ya, maybe I can write Blackest Night 2 when I'm 35...lol I'll bring you on as co-writer.

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  6. Well if you were Dick, would YOU trust Damian? I'll answer that for you, HELL NO!!! :P

    So long as you kill off Saint Barry, I'm in!

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  7. Lmao so why let the little bastard be your Robin? Send him home to Mommy dearest and call Tim or Stephanie, and none of that you're my equal crap. Two Batmen is better than one.

    If we gotta wait that long to get rid of Barry I'm pretty sure they'll have killed off Wally.

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  8. I guess handing Damian over to Talia prob wouldn't be the best move, since she'd prob turn Damian even more evil... Huh, if you really think about it, what else could Dick do with the little monster... You can't send him back to Talia, and all he wants to do is follow in his father's footsteps and become a hero. Dick was pretty much cornered into making Damian his Robin.

    Even better, that way we can bring Wally back to life to replace Saint Barry, thus thumbing our noses at all of the Saint Barry fans like Geoff is doing to all of the Wally fans!

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  9. Bleeeh. I just hate Damian so much. Hell couldn't they find a way to send him back in time with Bruce, then by the time 2010 rolls around he'll be well behaved and not such a little jerk. I guess Grayson has been helping him though, especially with him disobeying Talia now.

    Then everyone's gonna hate us for not making Bart The Flash by then. We just can't win X.

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  10. Personally I wish they would have sent Damian back in time and then just forgot about him! :P

    Meh, screw 'em! We'll write whatever we want in BN 2 and not care what anybody thinks! :P

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  11. Lol @ you. And then wouldn't we be no better than Geoff Johns? But then again we'll be rich so who cares!

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