Somebody claiming to be Harvey Dent is funnelling firearms into the Gotham underworld for a violent uprising - but Harvey’s dead… isn’t he? Meanwhile, Bruce Wayne discovers his long-lost grandfather, Adrian Arkham, is still alive… or is he? Prepare to be underwhelmed by the obvious answers to these contrived questions in Batman: Earth One, Volume 3!
Like the last book, this third volume of an alternate Batman origin story didn’t do much for me. Neither of the two storylines were particularly interesting. “Two-Face” running guns for some nebulous shenanigans with a vague goal was as pointless and basic as it sounded while the mystery of whether Harvey had somehow risen from the dead or it was someone else impersonating him - I honestly called that the moment I saw the character was introduced but I dismissed it thinking Geoff Johns wouldn’t be that stupid. But he went there in the end! Always bet on dumb.
As for the Adrian Arkham storyline (in this timeline Bruce Wayne is related to the Arkham family), I couldn’t have cared less. Whenever a character with the surname of Arkham is introduced, the ensuing story is always full of melodramatic curses, madness and tragedy and Johns follows that tedious formula here. It felt like padding for the most part until it dovetailed absurdly into the Dent storyline, so it just turned out to be an overlong, meandering and uninteresting subplot to introduce a well-known Batman villain. I’ll give Johns this: it was an unpredictable introduction.
The continuing setup of the Batman origin should be done at this point - three books in and they’re just now establishing the Batcave and Batmobile? Sheesh. It’s handled so drearily too. Here’s this thing - done. Here’s that thing - done. Great… Catwoman’s design is awful - she looks like she’s wearing a bad Halloween costume from some cheap popup - and the new Arkham Asylum looks even worse, like it belongs in Disneyland or something.
Killer Croc is recast as a member of Batman’s team and he works surprisingly well in the role. Gary Frank’s art is excellent for the most part, even if some of his designs are questionable (Catwoman), but I loved that last page - see, that’s the book I wanted to read instead of this nothing Two-Face/Arkham nonsense. I already like the look of the character - almost like it’s a reaction to all the prettyboy versions of the character that’s appeared in so many recent books, Gary Frank deliberately making him gross - so I want to see what other changes Johns has given him on Earth One. Next book, eh? It’s an effective teaser - I’d’ve given up on this series without it.
Unfortunately, Batman: Earth One, Volume 3 continues the low quality of the previous book - don’t expect an even halfway-gripping read if you pick up this one.
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