Batman Reptilian #4

Batman Reptilian #4

DC Black Label 2021

Written by Garth Ennis

Illustrated by Liam Sharp

Lettered by Rob Steen

The monster-revealed! Trailing behind the mysterious reptilian menace savaging Gotham, Batman hits the streets hard searching for answers but finds only more questions. The Dark Knight takes his search beneath the streets and into the sewers to seek out Killer Croc. But when he finds the reptilian rogue, he quickly realizes that this may be the strangest case of his career.

I don’t know what is spiking the Kool-Aid here but I’m certainly enjoying the effects of it because as someone who isn’t a huge Batman fan it seems this is another current title that manages to change that opinion. This is just bizarre enough to be intriguing and interesting to anyone and everyone as it isn’t something you think of when it comes to Batman, the Swamp Thing or Constantine sure but not Bats. This is something that makes it even more exhilarating to see this issue play out as the explanation and our first actual look at what has been killing Gotham’s underground elite since the first issue. Nothing about this can be predicted or thought of as it simply is some of the most outside the box thinking that I have had the pleasure to be reading for quite some time.

I am absolutely loving 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 is presented exquisitely. The character development that we see through 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 phenomenal job in bringing us their personalities. The pacing is excellent and as it takes us through the pages revealing more of the story the twists & turns and surprises galore keep happening.

I’m thoroughly impressed with the way we see this being structured and how the layers within the story continue to emerge, grow, evolve and strengthen. The layers open up these avenues to be explored and in this issue there’s only one avenue to explore and I’ll be damned if this didn’t just go balls to the wall thanks to the depth, dimension and complexity that’s added to the story. The way we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward is immaculately achieved.

Liam’s work on this one is beyond reproach. The sheer amount of mood, tone and feel that emanates off the pages as these highlight the creativity and imagination of what we see is so bloody mindbogglingly brilliant. There’s no denying that the work we see elevates this into the realm of horror in a way that triggers the fight or flight response but makes you unable to turn away. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show such a bloody brilliantly masterful eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work are positively stunning.

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The level of engagement that we see with this story is hands down some of the most incredible things to experience. The way the mind goes off page and into what you may know through science, science fiction or just popular culture in ways of making sense of what we learn and see is something that at this level only a master storyteller is capable of creating. Page 22 is the one page that just puts this over the edge for me and it takes the reading experience to a place that you just never expect to go in a Batman tale. The storytelling here is utterly mindbogglingly brilliant and this encompasses the writing, characterisation and interior illustrations.