A long awaited miniseries is finally getting told as Batman and Joker must team up to stop a virus from killing them. Their location? Europe! Batman is a fish out of water and he’s even more perturbed due to his alliance with the Clown Prince of Crime. Is it good?
Batman: Europa #2 (DC Comics)
Batman rushed to Berlin to find Joker harassing a computer hacker who has details on who gave the two of them a killer virus. Armed with their wits and each other, the unlikely duo must crack this case before they die trying in Prague.
Why does this book matter?
You have to admit instilling some old world Europe into Batman is intriguing as it takes him out of his element in Gotham. Meanwhile seeing Joker and Batman team up is always fun, especially now that they’re practically doing the same in Scott Snyder’s written Batman series.
That is one fine looking page…save for the odd gum shot I’ll admit.
Fine, you have my attention. What’s good about it?
Right off the bat I can’t help but love Guiseppe Camuncoli’s artwork here; his style jumps out and is reminiscent of his work on Amazing Spider-Man and Superior Spider-Man respectively, but for the most part the coloring changes the look drastically in a very good way. Many of these panels a painted look, which give the pages an older, vivid feel. This helps set the tone for old world Europe, but also make the story feel much more epic and important. There are many fantastic panels that showcase the beauty of Prague, but also fantastic full page spreads that are highly dramatic and vividly real. Two of these spreads involve a giant robot so maybe my inner child was loving that too.
Camuncoli also uses an interesting panel to show the culprit of the robots in this issue using only red and black. It’s a great way to give the villain an even more evil feel but also an ominous one.
Nice layout.
The story by Matt Casali and Brian Azzarello is rather simple save for the historical bits added in that give the book a bit more weight and importance. Batman narrates over the entire issue and it works for the most part giving us a play by play of his fears and understanding of the surrounding people and place.
Those of you looking for Joker and Batman to team up should be pleased too. While they aren’t hashing out plans per se, they do compliment each other more than once in the issue and that’s fun to read.
It can’t be perfect can it?
Generally the premise of this issue is rather simple, not revealing much and really only giving Joker and Batman something to do as they get closer to the one who gave them the virus. That makes the read more of an action oriented issue even though there are deeper poetic bits about Prague thrown in the mix.
The only other major gripe I had was Batman freaking out about this whole virus thing. He keeps shouting at Joker that they’re going to die and it doesn’t suit the character at all. I thought Batman didn’t fear death, and if he did, he wouldn’t vociferate the fact in such a panic — it seems oddly emotional, especially for him.
Is It Good?
This issue will stupefy you with its fantastic art and fun action.
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