Batman: The Dark Knight #5

So this series managed to go 5 issues before getting the reboot treatment... Ah DC... Only in DC do you count, 1,2,3,4,5,1...

Batman: The Dark Knight #5:

Summary: This issue opens with Batman(Bruce Wayne) being beaten unconscious by a horde of demons, who then proceed to kidnap Dawn Golden. Upon waking up, Bats realizes that Dawn was gone, but that Etrigan and Blaze had arrived to kill him... Wait a minute, Blaze, who, if I remember my DC history correctly, has the power of Neron(the Devil!), waits until Bats wakes up before siccing Etrigan on him?! Why? Anyway, Bats manages to get some distance between himself and Etrigan before explaining to Etrigan that Blaze had been using Etrigan and that she hadn't returned Etrigan to full power as promised. That pisses Etrigan off, which leads to Etrigan turning on Blaze. As for Dawn, she is tied to an alter where her father(who has stolen Ragman's body) was planning on sacrificing her in order to get immortality(I think). Before Dawn's father can stab her, Bats and Etrigan arrive on the scene and plow into Dawn's father's army of demons. Before Bats can reach Dawn however, her father stabs and kills her with a knife. Dawn's father taunts for a while, before Etrigan uses his powers to blow up Dawn's father's head, apparently killing him... I guess that spell didn't exactly work then? Anyway, Bats is bummed that he failed Dawn, but Etrigan gives him a pep talk(what a helpful demon!), and Bats realizes that all he could do now was let Dawn go. From there we get an epilogue with the uber-transparent female Jason Todd rip-off, but since DC is being rebooted, I don't see the sense of talking about it.

Thoughts: Meh. Besides the little things, like Etrigan and Blaze waiting until AFTER Bats had regained consciousness before they attacked him, and Etrigan and Bats apparently defeating Blaze off panel, I was kind of upset/annoyed that Dawn got killed in the end... After building her relationship to young Bruce up for 5 issues, it bothered me a bit that she was killed in such a callous manner. I mean Bats saves her from Penguin, Killer Croc, goons and demons for 4 issues and she STILL winds up dying in the end?! Besides that, I hate the female Jason idea, and with the reboot coming, I don't get why she was even included here, unless David Fitch is still planning on using her after the reboot, which is a possibility, since I have NO idea what DC is doing with the Batman family of books post-reboot...

Score: 5 out of 10.Why did I scan this page? I have NO idea...