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Man…there just isn’t much going on in the Bat-Universe this week. On one hand, you do have Batman #706, the third installment of Tony Daniel’s first story arc as the entire creative team on the book. On the other, the only other book shipping is Batman: Streets of Gotham #19. So…yeah. Not much to work with here.

Batman #706
The previous two issues of the flagship title have been a pretty solid debut for Tony Daniel as a one-man creative team. With the new Batman status quo up and running (Bruce Wayne going international, Dick Grayson as the homebody), the former Boy Wonder is settling into his role as the official Dark Knight of Gotham…which is, of course, disrupted by a sudden influx of kung fu fighting bad guys on his turf. Ain’t that the way it always goes?

Last month, we got some degree of revelation about what exactly is going on here: I-Ching and new ally Peacock are pursuing Luki, Peacock’s mute-but-prescient brother who has gone missing in Gotham. In turn, their efforts to find him are being thwarted by the Sensei, the Ra’s al Ghul-connected villain who holds Luki captive. The end result, we learned, of all of this cloak-and-dagger business is that Sensei is seeking the Beholder, an ancient mask of great power that appears to drive its possessor insane. What exactly the Beholder does or how Luki factors into its mystery were left unresolved in last month’s issue.

However, what was resolved was a more substantive connection to the Batman rogues’ gallery, as the Riddler and his daughter, Enigma, threw their two cents into the equation at the close of the issue, ambushing Batman and leaving him deaf and blind from question mark-branded concussion grenades.

The plot of this month’s issue is, appropriately, something of a mystery. DC’s site itself has some of the vaguest solicitation text ever (seriously, go look at it). Having said all that, let’s just go ahead and make the safe bet: Batman will escape the clutches of Riddler in time to regroup with his allies and concoct a daring plan to wrap this whole caper up next month. Equally safe is the assumption that this issue will continue the trend from the previous two: Daniel’s art will be polished and convey nicely the high energy martial arts action of the story and the dialogue will be snappy and fun with a cool B-grade kung fu flick vibe. Read More...