Book: Batman: Streets of Gotham volume #2: Leviathan (issues #5-11) by Chris Yost (issues #5-6), Paul Dini (issues #7, 10-11) and Mike Benson (issues #8-9)
Illustrations by Dustin Nguyen, ink by Derek Fridolfs, color by John Kalisz and letters by Sal Cipriano (issues #5 and #8), Steve Wands (issues #6, #9-11) and John J. Hill (issue #7)
Edition: Trade Paperback
Description:
GOTHAM CITY CAN BE A BEAST.
Batman's home town is a monster, and its veins flow with crime -- including a rampaging Man-Bat, the murderous Mr. Zsasz and a twisted "Santa Claus", among many others.
But the world's most dangerous city is not without hope, thanks to the Dark Knight Detective and his network of operatives -- Robin, Huntress, Oracle and Abuse, the new vigilante with a startling secret identity -- whose tireless work keeps the population safe.
But when Robin and Abuse get caught up in the web of Mr. Zsaz's attack on Gotham's children, will Batman be able to save them -- or will they end up being swallowed whole by the concrete and steel monster he has sworn to protect?
Rating: 5 stars
Review:
Streets of Gotham was a wonderful yet short lived series and this second volume features four excellent stories. The first story Leviathan (issues #5 and #6) follows Huntress (Helena Bertinelli) as she tries to stop an out of control Man-Bat (Dr. Kirk Langstrom) rampaging through the city. But as the story unfolds she learns that there was so much more to his actions and that in her haste to stop him she could have made a terrible decision. Because there was something else terrorizing the city that only Man-Bat could see.
In the second story, In The Bleak Midwinter (issue #7) Batman (Dick Grayson) and Robin (Damian Wayne) are on the search for a crook who not only ran into a police car but stole a bag of donated toys they were carrying. They weren't the only ones on the crook's trail, new hero Abuse (Colin Wilkes) was looking into matters. But once the dynamic duo caught the crook they stumbled upon something truly devastating that had something to do with the missing runaway children (see volume #1).
The third story Hardcore Nights (issues #8 and #9) has Batman looking into several brutal murders. His investigation led him to an escort at a sex club. Someone seems to be targeting the men (or customers) the woman had contact with. There are several suspects leading Batman to set a deadly trap to catch the killer.
In this last story The Heroes and Final Cut (issues #10 and #11) Damian decided to conduct his own investigation into the missing children (without informing Batman of his decision) and wound up meeting a new friend Colin Wilkes. Too bad the duo's introduction was ruined by the appearance of the kidnappers but that was just the lead Damian was looking for. They had been "captured" and taken to Zsasz's lair where he had been forcing all the captured runaway children into death matches. Damian was unaware that Colin was the hero Abuse but the unlikely duo were able to shut down Zsasz's operation before Batman even arrived.
Even with three different writers, there was a consistency among the seven issues and it read like one really good continuous story. Despite the often times grim and gritty stories, there was humor as well as the writers have a way of humanizing the characters and every story seemed to bring out the best or worst in them. There were times when I thought Dick was letting his new role of Batman affect him. He seemed to be taking on a darker personality and it even surprised Commissioner Gordon a few times.
This was a good read and since there is only one volume left, I'm going to try to read it soon so I will be caught up.
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