From Booklist Hardcovers and a relatively high price bespeak a graphic novel starring DC golden goose Batman, whom Azzarello renders as obsessive as a refrain--or a serial killer. Narrating the slam-bang sleuther, Batman recurrently conjures the unsolved double homicide that motivates him--that of his parents before his little-boy eyes--and falls into repetitive rhetoric as unconsciously as a tongue seeking the socket of a missing tooth. At first, he's hunting the brother of a woman found dead in some landfill. Already rough enough on his "informants" to merit a brutality rap if he were a cop, he gets really mean after an incident just like the one that haunts him interrupts his pursuit. By the time he corners his quarry, he knows the guy isn't guilty, and who is, of the double killing rather than the original homicide, isn't really clear. Only a mug would whine about that, though, for Risso's dazzling, dynamic artwork, ideally augmented by colorist Patricia Mulvihill, makes all loose ends negligible. Ray OlsonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Read more
