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Jan 11, 2017 Issue # 59 - 15th Anniversary By Ryan E.C. Hamm

Picking up the reins on a comic title is never easy. But doing so after a groundbreaking run on a legendary icon of comics? That’s a near-impossible task.

Unless you’re Tom King and David Finch. They’re the writer/artist (respectively) team DC has tapped to take over their main Batman book after the team of Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo left the title earlier in 2016. Snyder and Capullo’s run on the title was DC’s most successful (and one of their best) for several years. It was a tall ask for King, who wrote the sublime Vision series for Marvel, and for Finch, who has pencilled for all sorts of heroes over the years (including Batman).

But fortunately for fans of Gotham’s Dark Knight, King and Finch are more than up for the challenge. As with the best Bat-stories, this first collected trade of the new run makes Gotham a featured character, this time more overtly than ever. King’s dialogue crackles and packs an emotional wallop, which won’t surprise fans of his run on Vision. Finch’s kinetic art makes sense of plenty of action-packed set pieces, and the new characters and gadgets look as cool as you’d hope.

The relationships are the key to the storytelling—Batman and Alfred have always been the real dynamic duo, and some of the new characters bring interesting wrinkles to existing characters. Plus, the involvement of Batman in the broader DC universe carries some interesting possibilities. King and Finch have big shoes to fill, but this first arc shows DC’s most beloved franchise is in capable hands. (www.dccomics.com)

Author rating: 8/10