By Cat Wyatt
Batman: Lost is a Dark Nights: Metal tie-in, and being that it is issue #1 it has the luxury of starting where it wants to. In this case that is showing us Bruce Wayne at the ripe old age of 78, settling down to read a story to his granddaughter. Seeing Bruce act so parental should probably set off some sort of alarm bells for any Batman fan, for surely something deeper is going on here.
Little Janet decides she wants to have Bruce read her one of Batman’s first tales; the Case of the Chemical Syndicate/The Death of Mr. Lambert. Now I’ll be the first to admit I’m having trouble wrapping my head around the idea that Batman’s adventures are now in leather-bound volumes, but then throw in that his grandchildren grew up reading those stories? That’s a bit mind-blowing for me.
The interesting part here isn’t the story itself, but rather the inconsistencies in the story Bruce is reading. They’re not as he remembers them, with events and small details changing all over the place. This sets off a chain of events as Bruce realizes each tale has a window he has to break through in order to find the truth. Or at least that is what he believes. Each ‘story’ increases his fear, as we delve deeper into the nightmares of Batman.
I love the ending of this issue; it’s open-ended for the reader. Is Bruce starting the real story over, or is he diving back into the labyrinth all over again? Is he still being tortured by Barbatos, or was the whole thing just a silly nightmare? I’m sure most readers will make an assumption for which one is correct, just like I did.
Snyder, Tynion, and Williamson did a wonderful job of setting this issue up so that it shows us Bruce’s confusion, without likewise losing the audience to said confusion. The concept of having every story have a window to another story is inspired by the tale they’re trying to tell us; that Batman can easily be caught and tortured within his own nightmares.
I find myself conflicted on how I feel about the art style. On the one hand, I love the implied movement that comes with the more sketchy quality that Mahnke, Paquette, and Jimenez are using, but on the other hand, it feels unfinished in places. The rougher quality is effective in adding psychological tension; you can really see the strain on Bruce Wayne’s face while he’s coming up against everything he fears the most.
Score: 3/5
Dark Nights: Batman Lost #1
Writers: Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Joshua Williamson
Pencils: Doug Mahnke, Yanick Paquette, Jorge Jimenez
Inks: Jaime Mendoza, Yanick Paquette, Jorge Jimenez
Colors: Wil Quintana, Nathan Fairbairn, Alejandro Sanchez
Letters: Tom Napolitano
Publisher: DC Comics