Originally Published: April 27, 2011, on Comicvine.com

Batman and Gaucho pair up with Batwoman and The Hood in order to stop an insane scheme by Dr. Dedalus that threatens to bring the civilized world to its knees.

The Good

Grant Morrison continues to weave a complicated and thrilling web over Batman lore as he introduces new villains and schemes while continuing to expand the Batman, Incorporated franchise. Dr. Dedalus is proving to be another major threat for Batman as it is revealed that he is a character who will play both sides of the fence in order to achieve his end goals.

In this one issue, we also saw several new candidates for the Batman, Inc. franchise with Gaucho all but being initiated for Argentina, The Hood possibly for England, and a new unknown Batman in Africa who will likely be expanded upon in future issues.

Couple all this with some great action highlighted with an awesome fight scene with Scorpiana against The Hood, Gaucho, and Batwoman and this book entertains from beginning to end.

The Bad

With all this world traveling and new characters being constantly introduced or re-introduced after long hiatuses, it’s sometimes hard to keep track of just which way the comic is going. Combine that with a lot of flashbacks to help flesh out the character of Dr. Dedalus and long speeches between characters we haven’t seen in a while to get us up to speed on who they are, and this Batman, Inc. arc is a little tough to follow at times.

Also, even though Dr. Dedalus has a lot of ties to Batman’s past according to his story, he feels a bit like a Ra’s al Ghul clone and hasn’t done anything to prove to be very memorable as of yet. He comes off as just another megalomaniac who wants to destroy the world.

The Verdict

Batman, Inc. is something you have to keep following because it is surely building up to something beyond huge for the Dark Knight. Although I prefer to see Batman work alone most times or just within the Bat Family, this comic does a good job of making sure that Batman doesn’t lose sight of his goal and see this devolve into a less campy Brave and the Bold series of team-ups every issue.

A little difficult to follow at times, the elaborate plot and great action are more than enough to keep your attention for the long haul as we’ll hopefully start to see just what Batman, Inc. can really evolve into in the coming issues.

4/5 Stars