GRAPHIC NOVEL
Batman
Broken City

Author: Brian Azzarello
Artist: Eduardo Risso
Titan Books
RRP £8.99
ISBN 1 84023 922 0
Available 26 August 2005


A girl is found dead in a Gotham landfill, and Batman delves into the case, he reflects on the dark city he has sworn to defend. He knows - or thinks he knows - who the killer is, but when the devastating truth is revealed, the Dark Knight might not even know himself anymore...

Broken City is a bit of an odd creature. It tries to show the Dark Knight in a new light but doesn't quite succeed the way I'd hoped.

I have to be honest and admit that I found my mind wandering whilst reading this collection - I really did feel that my time could be better spent on other things. It's not that this is dire, just that I wasn't particularly struck by the Batman that Azzarello created. This wasn't really Batman, but a violent crime lord protecting his turf - making sure no one messed up his patch.

I felt like this Batman would do anything to get the job done - even kill his enemy. And that, to me anyway, is not what Batman is about. He should have restrained himself more than he did and not have lost control. While I appreciate that Batman must grow with the times, and that to scare Gotham's underworld he must appear cold and calculating, but this went a little too far. Maybe, in the future, this is how Batman will be transformed. But at this present time, it just doesn't work.

Eduardo Risso's art is great, just a shame that it accompanies such a poor story.

Pete Boomer

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