THE DARK KNIGHT #0 REVIEW: UNHINGED

RATING: Enjoyable Issue, read while you’re waiting for someone/something

It is not an original story, but it sure does provide such emotions. Gregg Hurwitz (writer of Batman: The Dark Knight) sure does know how to pack in character’s raw emotions as well as detail their voice over thoughts into a comic book. In Pain & Prejudice, Hurwitz used a lot of voice over thoughts for The Penguin’s miniseries. You were able to feel his emotions and know his thoughts so clearly that you almost sympathized and empathized with every The Penguin did. Who knew you would be vouching for the villain in Pain & Prejudice?  As a Batman fan, that’s always tough unless it’s the Joker, then all bets are off.  In Batman: The Dark Knight #0, you were able to dig deeper into Bruce from the time of his parent’s murder to the moment he left Gotham City to train.

Issue #0 is best for those who have not been reading the comics or for those who have just become fans of Batman comic books. Truly, it is not for Batman fans who have been reading the comics. So, this issue might be just a quick page turner. It is great to see Hurwitz go a little deeper into retelling Bruce’s story. Hurwitz dwells on Bruce’s obsession to find his parents’ murderer. The funny thing is that this story connects so beautifully to Detective Comics’ #0 story on Bruce training aboard. It really peek my interest to see that Bruce in both Batman: The Dark Knight #0 and Detective Comics #0 using the watch as a relic for Bruce. In both issues, Bruce is holding and using the watch as a way of remembering his parents. It’s great to see such wonderful continuity among the Batman comics. Well, Hurwitz did write Detective Comics#0 so that explains a lot.

Even though, David Finch (artist for Batman: The Dark Knight) was not on Batman: The Dark Knight #0; the book held a lot of his influence throughout this issue. The two artists who did the issue were Batman: Arkham Unhinged guys, Mico Suayan and Juan Jose Ryp. Now, for a second I had forgotten that they were the artists for this issue. Instead, I thought I was seeing Finch’s work in Issue #0. They really adopted his approach in drawing Issue #0. The only thing that made me realize that it wasn’t Finch’s work was the fight scene. Bruce walks into a bar full of motorcycle goons and the action was too similar to Batman: Arkham Unhinged, then I remembered it wasn’t Finch’s work. Bravo, guys!  The inking was done by Vicente Cifuentes who was not bad at keeping the comic book dark. Bravo!

As I’ve said before, it is not an original story but you get the same rawness of emotions. I loved the close ups of young Bruce with so much hurt in his eyes. Hurwitz focused a lot on material objects and it made the impact of the comic book more alive and interesting for comic book fans to enjoy. There are so many elements throughout this book that you will immediately see such as Joker’s face being resembled on a wall. The panels are conventional making the book easy and enjoyable to read.

Check out some of the panels that I thought were cool.

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