Streets of Gotham is taking a break from it’s Dini awesomeness and brought on Chris Yost to write in a 2 part fill in story. Not a bad issue last time but still just decent for a filler story. Though with part 2 out we hope to find if Yost can finally live up to the powerful reputation Streets of Gotham has been building itself.
Creative Team
Writer: Chris Yost
Art: Dustin Nguyen
Story Rating: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 7.5 Night Girls out of 10
Synopsis: We see a nervous man showing Black Mask a suit in a case. When he asks what will Black Mask do with it he’s shot and Black Mask says he’s going to kill people with it.
Robin is ranting about how he should have been sent after Manbat. Batman tries to ignore him as he talks to Oracle. When Batman mentions he was expecting Bloody Murder Oracle says Manbat has changed, Batman says he was talking about Huntress (well that’s a sick burn. I hope she doesn’t hear that or she’s not going to give you any more random kisses)
Huntress finally wakes up. She’s thinking to herself how she wants to kill Mnabat then realizes she cant’ see him. She turns her head and sees him tied to a statue of Jesus as she’s tied to a chair (it must have been hard for the priest to get him up there like that) she starts talking to the priest and he says how he has to kill her and Manbat.When she starts thinking he’s crazy she hears the voice that has been talking to him. She thinks maybe he’s not crazy and then Manbat wakes up. The priest begs the voice for more time as Huntress tries to calm Manbat down.
We flash back to seeing Black Mask give a man the suit that turns him invisible. He tells the man to punish the sinners and anyone else he sees fit.
Manbat is absolutely freaking out and trying to break free. Finally Huntress realizes that the voice is someone in the church and that Manbat can see him.
Cutting back 6 hours ago we see Kirk Langstrom talking to his wife and apologizing for being gone. He says he’s on his way home when the invisible man starts killing random people. Kirk goes all Manbat and had started chasing him.
Huntress thinks how she was wrong to try and kill Manbat though we hear the Priest asking for the strength to kill him. Just as the priest aims to kill Manbat, Manbat breaks free and lunges at the priest only for Huntress to stop him in time before he kills the priest.
Huntress struggles to hold down Manbat. As they struggle and the Priest takes aim at them Manbat mumbles out that the invisible man is behind the priest. The invisible man shoots at them but Manbat and Huntress evade him.
Batman shows up and soon injects Manbat with tranquilizers. Batman is able to use his cowl to scan for the invisible man just in time to warn Huntress to get out of the way. Just as the priest holds Batman and Huntress at gunpoint and the voice tells him to kill them, the priest hits the invisible man with his rifle and knocks him out, leaving Batman and Huntress stunned.
When Huntress asks him what happened the Father tells her that he was just stalling to try and find the voice. Manbat apologizes if he hurt Huntress but Huntress apologizes for not believing that he’s reformed. The priest ends with saying how in Gotham you have to have more then faith you have to fight for it.
Commentary
The Good: For a filler arc, this was actually good. Not great by any means but still for filler it was a good read with lots of solid moments and character work. Only really held down by the fact that this story easily could have been a one-shot and the narration from Huntress is half the time the same boring stuff.
Now this issue was for the most part a good read. Yost’s handling of the characters was mostly well done. I liked his reference to Robin having experience with Man-Bat before and I did like seeing Man-Bat used properly.
We get a nice explanation as to why Man-Bat was going berserk, that he was after an invisible man powered by Black Mask and trying to stop him from killing people. Yost luckily didn’t ruin the great character that Man-Bat has become and I’m glad for it.
Also it was nice seeing Man-Bat acknowledge that the beast is getting stronger and how he’s been struggling with that.
Huntress half the time had good interesting dialogue, like when she admitted she was wrong to try and kill Man-Bat, and the other half is still annoying. Her first line is about her wanting to kill Man-Bat. UGH. I get it, Yost, she’s more violent then other heroes.
You don’t have to bombard me with useless narration about how she hates this or likes that. It’s not interesting. It’s boring.
Now for the most part the plot was actually pretty good here. I did like how Yost tied this in to Black Mask and his tirades on Gotham. Black Mask isn’t a character I’m fond of but I do appreciate all these writers at the very least utilizing him as a good explanation behind all these rising threats in Gotham.
It was nice to see Huntress apologize to Man-Bat and admit she was wrong. Usually one would think she’d be too stubborn to admit she was.
Despite the annoying dialogue, Yost does usually handle Huntress well enough and he never makes her as annoying as she was last issue. Last issue I could have sworn Huntress was swapped with a bratty 12 year old girl who couldn’t see the latest Twilight movie so she was whining to her father about it.
Here she’s much more like the smart and interesting heroine that sets her apart nicely from other bat-characters like Batgirl or Catwoman. She’s used better here and fans of the character will probably enjoy this issue more for it.
I absolutely loved that ending though, with the priest. A really well developed and interesting character. I hope he’s not a one time character. I’m calling for a spin off of some kind, maybe Gotham Priests?
Anyway he was awesome with our little twist ending. I didn’t see that coming really and it was a nice way for Yost to wrap up the issue and also tie it all into the theme of faith and one holding his faith even in a place like Gotham city which nicely tied into the larger theme of Streets of Gotham, which is about the city and its inhabitants then just Batman and his adventures.
I haven’t mentioned the Manhunter back ups but I figure I should mention this one as it really used the developments well and I especially like the scene between Dick and Kate. I’m really interested in seeing more from this back up now.
Dustin Nguyen turns in some great stuff here, but not his best. I do like his Man-Bat a lot and his Huntress is pretty good. For the most part this was a great looking issue. He did a great job with what characters he had and it was all very visually appealing.
Overall this story wasn’t perfect, it is still a filler arc that doesn’t really accomplish much. But for the most part Yost did a decent job entertaining and if this story was just one issue it would have been much better.
The Bad: You don’t have to bombard me with useless narration about how she hates this or likes that. It’s not interesting. It’s boring. Honestly it just felt like flooding the pages with some extra reading material and as I said half of it is useless and uninteresting.
Another thing that confused me was Batman in this issue. He was very hostile about Huntress but in the Batman ongoing series, they’ve developed a bit of a love triangle. Here though he was really rude about her, calling her a threat and it just really confused me.
Overall: Fans of Huntress should definitely pick up this issue. Skip last issue as it’s pretty much useless except for the Priest’s little story. Fans of Batman who where disappointed by Batman and Robin #6 should pick up this series to get your Batman fill.
3 thoughts on “Streets of Gotham #6 Review”
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Great review as always.
I agree this was a pretty good filler, but I am really looking forward to Dini's return next month.
Quite frankly, in the whole "Batman Reborn" relaunch, Dini's stories are really the only ones worth reading. (Rucka's Batwoman and Tomasi's BN: Batman not counted.)
Considering that Winnick was crap, Daniel's is an ameteur writer at best, Yost's whole run on "Red Robin" was one-uped by Johns in one issue of Adventure comics,
the "great" Morrison's "Batman and Robin" has been an inconsistant story that tries to one-up Alan Moore, and (to me atleast,) has come off as filler arcs until Morrison is allowed to begin his return of Bruce Wayne story. Sometimes I get the feeling that Morrison really doesn't care that much about Dick and Damien as Batman and Robin.
Dini wins hands down
If you find yourself jonesing for some Dini greatness during this filler, definatley check out the most recent issue of Gotham City Sirens.
Not only did it rock, but it also showed that Dini is a capable enough writer to take Morrison's revision's to the Joker and spin them to his advantage.
Loved the review and the story
I am waiting for Huntress to go back to her pre-Crisis or her Cry for Blood costume.
– Seafire