Batman #45
DC Comics

Written by: Tom King
Art by: Tony S. Daniel
Ink assist by: John Livesay
Colors by: Tomeu Morey
Letters by: Clayton Cowles
Release date: 4/18/18

Booster Gold wants to give Batman a wedding gift, so he searches for him in what appears to be a disturbing timeline.

Gotham City is a place that is terrorized by murderous Jokers and where heroes are just as deadly. What makes the bulk of this issue so crazy is watch Booster Gold go about his business completely unfazed by the much different world around him. Despite many horrible things occurring, like a Jokerized Hal Jordan, writer Tom King’s storytelling and comedic dialogue for Booster and Skeets make it such an enjoyable read. A recent King interview revealed that we should expect multiple timelines to be involved in future issues, so it’s great that an explanation for what happened is given right away on the last few pages. This is already shaping up to be an intense and hectic story arc.

I’m not giving anything away that wasn’t already said during the promotion for this storyline, but Dick Grayson isn’t the same person we are used to. As a Nightwing fan, I’m used to future and alternate versions of Dick to be evil or misguided, even though it’s been stated that he is probably the most mentally healthy superhero in the universe. But this is a tad different, it makes sense why he might have lost it.

Tony Daniel has always been one of the best artists to draw the main Batman title. He has a very versatile style that can work with almost any character, but his work on Gotham characters was always a standout. Some of my favorite panels featured a Gotham City burning in the background. Colorist Tomeu Morey made great use of the smoke clouds. It looked like water coloring, though I’m not sure it actually was. (If you want to see the Batfamily done in watercolors then look up Dustin Nguyen’s DC work.)

This was an incredible start to a story arc that kept you riveted with every turn of the page. Tom King’s Booster Gold may be my all-time favorite version of the character, and I was already a fan of him. I kid you not, I’d read a funny line that tickled me so much I’d go back right away just to reread it. The stuff with Skeets was truly gold. This was an amazing issue of Batman, done by an amazingly talented group of creators. I could not be more excited to see what comes next.