Arkham City: The Order of the World #3

Arkham City The Order of the World #3

DC Comics 2021

Written by Dan Watters

Illustrated by Dani

Coloured by Dave Stewart

Lettered by Aditya Bidikar

Solomon Grundy has lived many lives over a great many years. Now, located by Ten-Eyed Man’s strange, but nonetheless effective, methods, he leads Dr. Joy and her many-eyed friend on a tour of the hidden history of Gotham City and the madness at its core.

Dan has been quietly writing one hell of a great story here. This issue more than any other has really hammered home that fact. I’ve said that Dr. Joy is just as looney tunes as her patients and by housing the Ten Eyed Man I think that is most definitely the case but this issue for the first time I think she’s beginning to see that her tenuous grasp on reality has been taken from her. I am all for this as well because no one who works at Arkham is not going to be affected in some way, shape or form for the worse as their time spent within those walls lengthens. I am also digging the parallels between Azrael and the patients as the story continues and we see his methodology making such a strong case that he too needs professional help with his mental acuity.

I am a huge fan of the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information are impeccably rendered. The character development that we see through the narration, the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does a magnificent job in continuing to flesh out their personalities. The pacing is amazing and as it takes us through the pages revealing more of the story the more we are drawn into the ever darkening madness that is the legend of Arkham.

I am very much enjoying the way that we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. I am also liking the way that these layers open up new avenues to be explored. The addition of Solomon Grundy to the issue is something unexpected and how it’s explained well it certainly adds more to the Ten Eyed Man than I thought we’d ever see. All this adds such great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward are exceptionally well handled.

The interiors may not be what I gravitate towards but they certainly do make one heck of an impact on how we see the story. The dark brooding atmosphere of Gotham City certainly feels palpable here. That we see some really great use of backgrounds, though I want to see more, as they enhance and expand the moments as well as how they work within the composition of the panels to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story are extremely nice to see. There is some beautiful innovation and creativity in how we see the page layouts, not to mention the angles and perspective in the panels all of which show such a tremendous eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work show a sensational eye for how colour works and seeing that green glow really leave an impact.

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I’m enamoured with this story. At first I thought it was simply going to be another Batman tale but lo and behold he’s far from the pages of this book. Instead it focuses on Dr. Joy and those inmates who survived the Joker gas attack and some members of the GCPD who are out there to recapture them. It is weird, warped and twisted and preys upon the memory of Amadeus Arkham and involves the man who founded Gotham. Twisted, brilliant, creepy and daring this is what the story evokes and thanks to the immaculate writing, brilliant characterisation and delightfully bespoke interiors we get all this and more.