Gotham Nocturne: Act Three – “An Elegy of Sand” – Part Three, “Gotham Forget Me Not” – Part Three, and “His Name Was Dr. Hurt” – Part Three
Artists: Riccardo Federici, Stefano Raffaele and Jorge Fornés
Color Artists: Lee Loughridge and Triona Farrell
Letterers: Ariana Maher and Steve Wands
Review by James Attias
Detective Comics #1083 is s jihe ouke id tinnodj… Didn’t understand that? Well, that perfectly sums up how much of a mess this issue is… in my view.
Nightmare Read
I’ll keep this brief as I don’t enjoy criticizing people’s creativity, but I really struggled reading this issue, as it jumps around quite a bit. This seemingly never-ending nightmare sequence of Batman venturing through a desert and being chased by the Azmher in his brain, whilst also being plagued by a ghost memory of Doctor Hurt, has just been too much for me.
I saw a synopsis for this issue, Batman may never be the same again. IT’S ALL A NIGHTMARE. What consequences are we meant to feel here? Is he going to wake up and be missing a leg?! No… it’s really hard to take this seriously.
If that wasn’t confusing enough, we keep jumping back and forth to a story with The Question investigating the murder of a cop. There are just too many problems here; we met the cop who seems to have been murdered 3 times, and now he’s the main focus of this story… aaand it’s the Police Commissioner investigating it dressed as the Question. Too much.
I think this issue felt like the end of the current threads hopefully leading to the next chapter, which can’t come soon enough. Sorry to the artists, who did a great job, but the writing is just not my cup of tea.
Most of the art in this issue is very, very good. However, it chops and changes mi-story and helps to even further the disjointed feel of the issue and, for me, really disrupts the reading experience. I know that this entire run’s meant to be an experiment, but it’s really not for me.
His Name Was Dr. Hurt – Part Three
So, after the big reveal that one of Dr. Hurt’s former victims is, in fact, a brainwashed young lady who now thinks that she is Dr. Hurt, this story follows the path of the main story in this issue, by trying very hard to be psychological and weird. Sadly, it was more like an episode of Dallas.
Come on! Do Better, DC.
Conclusion
Detective Comics #1083 is an issue that’s worth a miss…. just my opinion.
Images Courtesy of DC Entertainment