The Culture

This book collects Batman Confidential 31 to 35 and was written by Peter Milligan with art by Andy Clarke. Peter Milligan is a veteran writer that I first came across in 2000AD where my favourite series he wrote was probably Bad Company but he has moved on to write for both DC and Marvel. Andy Clarke is a name new to me but he is also an alumni of 2000AD, of a later generation of creators, who has moved on to work on a number of titles for DC.

The story concerns a nuclear threat to Gotham from a Russian crime lord called the Tsar. Batman travels to Moscow to tackle the problem at its source only to find that the criminals do not fear him as they are much more afraid of the Tsar and his genetically modified muscle, the Bear. Batman must battle against the underworld in Moscow as well as a corrupt police force if he is to save Gotham from the predatory gaze of the Tsar.

This is a perfectly acceptable tale of Batman without being in any way extraordinary – as it is part of an ongoing series I am not sure if there was further context for the story in earlier issues but I doubt if it would make it any more compelling. I was expecting more from Milligan as he is usually a writer whose work I enjoy but I suppose that the things I like by him are more self created or esoteric – such as the aforementioned Bad Company and Shade, the Changing Man for DC . The art by Clarke was very nice and clean and reminded me of Frank Quitely’s work with maybe a dash of Dave Gibbons and helped to make up for the weak story.