Booklist Review

This fourth volume in the new Detective Comics series is a stuffed grab bag of Dark Knight rogues. The collection tells many tales as it wraps up the Emperor Penguin story arc and completes Gotham's villainous cop-killing Wrath story line, but the thread that keeps it all together is the fan-favorite Man-Bat backstory. In one Gotham neighborhood, the infamous Man-Bat serum accidentally infects the block's citizens. The serum's creator, Dr. Kirk Langstrom, plays both savior and tortured soul throughout the collection, and Layman's offbeat storytelling style is pitch-perfect for this scientist turned werebat looking to find his way. Fabok pens the bulk of the illustrations, drawing a hefty Batman and an appropriately dark and brooding Gotham City. Clarke steps in for the Man-Bat stories, and he adds a refreshingly stark and sketch-based change of pace from Fabok's interesting yet homogenous style. There's an abundance of Batman available, and Layman's Detective Comics is a standout among the caped-and-cowled ranks: unique, faithful to the spirit of the character, and definitely worth it.--Spanner, Ben Copyright 2014 Booklist