Batman #660 Review

The Revolution was less than impressed with Ostrander and Mandrake’s work on the last issue of Batman. I find this current story arc to be a bit too generic and not particularly engaging. I fear that this current story arc is going to be nothing more than pure filler. Let’s see if Batman #660 can get me to change my opinion.

Creative Team
Writer: John Ostrander
Artist: Tom Mandrake

Art Rating: 4 Night Girls out of 10
Story Rating: 5 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 4.5 Night Girls out of 10

Synopsis: We begin with Batman sneaking into Omnimed’s office building and questions Dr. Myles Strane. Batman asks Dr. Strane if Jaqui Tremayne stole Mimic from Wayne Franklin’s I-Gore. Dr. Strane said yes she did. But, that Franklin’s I-Gore doesn’t work. Franklin’s notes show that he never got the prototype to function properly. Batman tells Dr. Strane to give him Franklin’s notes on the I-Gore.

Suddenly, a Japanese crooner named Johnny Karaoke along with his four “Geisha Grrls” named Beyonce, Mariah, J. Lo and Brittany appear outside of Omnimed’s office building. Johnny’s Grrls machine gun down the guards in the lobby of the building.

Batman hears the machine gun fire and tells Dr. Strane to say put while he goes to investigate. Batman runs across Johnny Karaoke and proceeds to lay a beat down on him. Johnny’s Geisha Grrls then attack Batman. Batman kicks ass on the Geisha Grrls.

We then cut to Dr. Strane getting Franklin’s notes. Suddenly, Grotesk appears and tells the doctor to give him the notes. We shift back to Batman taking down the rest of the Grrls and then chasing down Johnny. Batman takes down Johnny and asks him why he is breaking into this building. Johnny says that he is here for the Mimic. That Johnny underwrote the development of the I-Gore device. Suddenly, the fire sprinkler system goes off. Batman knows this means Grotesk must have gotten into the building. Batman raced back to Dr. Strane’s office, but Dr. Strane has been killed and his face sliced off. The office has been burned.

We shift to Batman in the Batmobile talking with Commissioner Gordon. Batman tells Gordon that Johnny Karaoke is a member of the Yakuza and financed part of the I-Gore project. Batman tells Gordon to exhume Wayne Franklin’s body. That the body isn’t going to be Franklin’s and the question is whose body is it.

Batman says that there is no doubt that Grotesk is Wayne Franklin. Batman says that the Russian mobster Perun also must have given Wayne Franklin money. That Franklin was crazy to borrow money from the Russian mob and the Yakuza. That Franklin must have faked his own death, but that something went wrong. That Grotesk is talking about justice because someone tired to kill him.

Batman then decides to go visit Wayne Franklin’s sister, Dr. Amina Franklin. We cut to Amina at her hospital. Suddenly, Perun’s men walk into the hospital and kill the guard in the lobby. Perun then tells Amina that he wants the money her brother owed him. Perun says that he believes her brother faked his death. Suddenly, the Batman arrives on the scene and tells Perun to “prepare to bleed.” End of issue.

Comments
The Good: Batman #660 was an extremely average read. We did get treated to plenty of action. And this was certainly not a slowly paced issue. I liked Johnny Karaoke. This is probably because I love anything Yakuza related. Yakuza movies are cool; therefore, I liked seeing a Yakuza villain appear in this story arc.

Sure, his name and gimmick are terribly stereotypical. But. Ostrander poked fun at Johnny’s gimmick by having Johnny admit to Batman that he is actually an American and graduated from UCLA with a business major. Johnny knows his gimmick is outrageously goofy and since we are all in on the joke Johnny’s gimmick becomes more acceptable and enjoyable. I actually think that Johnny Karaoke is a nice change of pace from the usual style villains that we get in Batman.

The Geisha Grrls were the icing on the cake that really boosted Johnny’s delightfully over the top character. Just like any self-respecting pro wrestler needs a hot valet, Johnny Karaoke just wouldn’t be the same or nearly as entertaining without his own team of female assassins.

Ostrander certainly is delivering a bad-ass Batman who isn’t shy about his desire to cause massive amounts of pain on any bad guy he goes up against. Ostrander’s Batman has the requisite terse and to the point dialogue and a fighting style that is equally as blunt and no-nonsense.

The Bad: It isn’t that Batman #660 is poorly written. Ostrander is a technically sound writer who knows how to plot a story and a little mystery. It is just that this story is rather uninteresting and generic. Batman #660 did nothing to change my opinion that this story arc is pure filler.

The entire “mystery” isn’t much of a mystery. The reader pretty much knows all the players and the majority of the motivation involved in these attacks. And what little that we don’t know doesn’t really interest me. Grotesk and his background and motivation is completely uninteresting. I could care less about Grotesk or his story. Nothing in the past two issues has raised a single question that I’m interested in seeing get answered.

And this entire mystery around the Mimi and the I-Gore is so incredibly mind numbing boring. This story arc lacks an interesting foundation and without that nothing that Ostrander builds is going to hold my interest. It just seems that this story arc has a “paint by numbers” feel to it and that we are just going through the motions until this story arc is done.

I continue to be completely unimpressed with Mandrake’s artwork. The art looks rushed and it lacks detail. Mandrake’s art also comes across rather flat and dull looking. The characters lack any type of facial expressions and they all seem to posses the same generic looking face.

Overall: Batman #660 is more filler. We are just wasting time until Morrison and Kubert return to this title. This issue is a combination of a boring story and drab artwork. That is hardly a recipe for success. Hold off buying Batman until the regular creative team makes their return. Trust me, you aren’t missing anything.