The Gotham War comes to an end this issue, bringing to a close an event that seems to have disappointed Batman and Catwoman fans alike, raising the question of who this was even for to begin with. Both series have been doing good things, Catwoman getting by in prison whilst her friend filled in for her was a decent plot until it came to a close because the character got bored of being locked up. And Chip Zdarsky's Batman run has been an enjoyable roller coaster of the weird and fantastical. Sadly, the combining of the two titles into this event seems to have resulted in something kind of bad.
The event has felt a bit like a character assassination for Bruce, making him fight or abandon his family and generally turning into a horrible person. It's resulted in a lot of people really disliking the event, especially as it's going against other depictions of Bruce elsewhere. Batman and Robin is going on at the same time, and he and Damian are doing great together there, but here he's turned on Damian and abandoned him; so which is it?
It also doesn't help that during the simple Catwoman vs Batman premise things have taken a sharp turn as Vandal Savage has arrived in town and taken over everything. Savage has bought Wayne Manor, and he's taken over Selina's gang thanks to his daughter, Scandal, being undercover with her. His powers of immortality have slipped, and he's trying to bring the pieces of the meteor that made him what he is back together to boost him. He's also promised everyone who steals the pieces for him immortality. So now the final part sees Bruce and Selina working together to stop the real villain of the piece, Vandal. It's all a bit odd.
The issue jumps around a bit, as the two leads deal with Savage, with the rest of the Bat Family taking on a group of villains like Two Face and Scarecrow, who've been given a load of Batman's gear. These segments of the book are fine, at best, and seeing Black Mask wear a Bat suit, or Professor Pyg pumped up on venom at least makes the events visually stand out, even if they're not that engaging. One thing that I did like about it, however, is that Tim ends up making quick work of things as he tells everyone exactly how to take down each villain; showing how he's the most Batman-like of the group.
Well, Bruce is an absolute bastard now and has nothing to do with the rest of the family. Selina is....something. Maybe we'll find out in her own title. Jason is effectively broken and can't be a hero, or even ride a roller coaster ever again. Gotham now has a Lazarus Pit of some kind that I'm sure is going to be used to tease us with as a way of resurrecting Alfred for like the tenth time. And some random thief discovers Bruce is Batman at the end. All in all, it's just not the best.
The art on this issue is provided by Mike Hawthorne, with colours by Romulo Fajardo Jr., and like the writing, it's not the best. It's not bad by any stretch, but it just doesn't look particularly great. Characters sometimes look a bit off, with odd fascial expressions, and there's a stiffness to some of the panels too. Compared to art we've had elsewhere in the event in both Batman and Catwoman, and even Red Hood tie ins looked very unique compared to everything else. Whilst the work here isn't terrible, the blandness of art and story come together to make a book that is easily forgetable, and hard to really enjoy.
If you're super invested in the Zdarsky story, and the emergence of Zur En Arrh this event does seem to be tying into that, and so might be worth a bit of your time. But other than that it ends up being not wholly enjoyable. Characters are written very out of character, nothing much happens, and it's just kind of a downer. But her, Scandal Savage is cool (big fan of Secret Six) and it's always fun whenever a character like Lady Clayface turns up, so this event has that I guess.
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