Batman: Streets of Gotham #12
By Dan Horn
May 22, 2010 - 10:06
DC Comics
Writer(s): Paul Dini, Dustin Nguyen, and Derek Fridolfs
Penciller(s): Dustin Nguyen
Inker(s): Derek Fridolfs
Colourist(s): John Kalisz
Letterer(s): Steve Wands
Cover Artist(s): Dustin Nguyen
$3.99 US
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Now, with Zsasz down for the count after last month's climactic showdown between the sadistic serial killer and Robin and Abuse, Dini hands the scripting reigns of his latest two-parter over to his capable artistic collaborators, penciller and cover artist Dustin Nguyen and inker Derek Fridolfs. Fresh off his very short but demonstratively adaptive stint on Batman and Robin, Nguyen proves that he can provide not only seamless transitions from one artist to another, but that he and Fridolfs can also fill Paul Dini's shoes just as adequately.
Jenna Duffy, the Carpenter from Mad Hatter's storybook gang which has made cameo appearances in many of Dini's plots, is back to hustling pool tables in seedy gang dives when she receives a proposition from the notorious Broker, a sort of villain-friendly real estate agent. He enlists her aid in customizing criminal hide-outs. Her first job: renovating the Monarch Theater, destroyed long ago by the Gotham earthquake. The work seems easy enough, even if it is for a movie-phile whack job like the Director, and new villain bent on producing snuff films of superhero deaths. But, after finishing the rebuild of the Monarch, Duffy finds that this job could be her last.
Once again, leave it to the creative team of BSOG to bring such goofy D-list characters to sterling clarity right before our eyes. Streets of Gotham's plots always find a road less travelled to take readers down. Whether it's Hush trying to frivolously spend the Wayne family fortune away with charitable donations, Firefly's spontaneous combustion poison killing Gothamites all over the city, or a story starring a nonessential character like the Carpenter and a psychopath film director who is turning his new hide-out into a maze of deathtraps, every arc in this title's run has been fun and innovative.
Rating: 9/10
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