I wanted to read this issue because it features the return of Jerry Bingham, who did some great work in the eighties.
He does some good work here too, just not on the present action of the issue. There’s a flashback portion, with something approximating painted art, and it looks good. The modern stuff looks too unfinished. Bingham doesn’t do a good job inking himself..
But Bingham draws a decent enough Batman, so it’s not terrible.
What’s terrible is Guggenheim’s writing. He belongs to the All-Star Batman school, but he doesn’t even have any imaginative dialogue. It’s an absolutely awful reading experience; cringe-inducing.
The plot is undeveloped here (for some reason there’s an Identity Crisis tie-in).
The second half of the issue is a fake Silver Age Justice League story also tying in. Farmer inks Bingham to good effect and Guggenheim feigns the tone. It’s better than the Batman story.
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