Written by John Ridley(of 12 Years a Slave fame) this first chapter in a four part mini strives to set up a new world(though not too different than our own) and a new Batman, which is no easy feat. And while the concept of a new, though decidedly lower tech, Batman going after a fascist, private security firm is definitely a tantalizing setting ripe with storytelling potential as introductory issues go this was more miss than hit. There were definitely parts that were incredibly strong, the character work between Luke Fox(the new Batman) and his mother was fantastic and the subplot about two brothers joining a Bane-themed gang in order to survive only to be saved by Batman was incredibly engaging...but the exposition heavy bits between those scenes makes for really uneven reading. Charged with not only fully explaining the Magistrate, the new maskless Gotham, and the daily lives of our main characters, Ridley's story quickly finds itself bogged down heavily by the trappings of his herculean undertaking of introducing such a new world in a single issue. He has a lot going on here, which while exciting makes the good parts of the issue somewhat hard to enjoy as the issue seems to get to a start, only then to abruptly stop dead in its tracks to explain some other arm of the narrative. All in all, though certainly an interesting world its exposition heavy introduction ultimately makes for a frustrating read.

Anyone else pick this up?