Reviews

Batman: City of Crime by David Lapham

jekutree's review

3.0

Started strong and petered off towards the end but overall a solid story. Worth reading for any Lapham fan that wants his take on a Batman story and any Batman fan looking for some of the darkest Batman material put into panels.

alimarvels83's review

dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

library_brandy's review

3.0

I always believed that, if a non-superhero writer could write a good Batman story, it would be David Lapham of Stray Bullets fame. His dark, gritty noir style, everyday-meets-crime-fiction kind of stories--I really thought he'd be a good choice.

This book proved me wrong. It's not awful, but the story is convoluted and complicated (and I'm not just whining it's too harrrrrrrrrrd! I'm a girl!!)--there are too many red herrings and dead ends, too many twists and turns, to really keep track of in a story. I'm left with the impression that Lapham was trying too hard to write episodes that would become a full story, once his 12 issues of Detective Comics were done. It just didn't work.

The art was pretty good, though, so it gets 3 stars instead of 2.

nightwyrm's review against another edition

5.0

I'm at a loss to understand a lot of the previous reviews on this book. It's dark and gritty, very well-written, and loaded with some serious brooding art. This may seriously be one of the best Batman stories I've read.