Writer/Artist: Dean Motter, Michael Lark

Publisher: DC, $24.95 HC, $17.95 SC

Elseworlds was a fun concept DC played with that placed familiar characters in unfamiliar backgrounds, offering up some inventive and really fun stories. It felt like we used to get a bunch of Elseworld stories every other month a few years back, and I’ve missed it as a creative playground for creators.

Selina Kyle has been murdered, and Private Eye Richard Grayson gets pulled into a tangle of lies and criminal plots while attempting to find her killer. The usual criminal elements of Gotham are re-imagined as noir archetypes as Grayson has to deal with the police, the insane mob bosses, and the Bat himself who may or may not be working for a certain playboy tycoon.

If you’re a fan of Motter and Lark’s Terminal City, of Brubaker’s Criminal, or of crime noir in general you should check out Nine Lives. The volume is designed as a landscape hardcover to give it a cinematic wide screen feeling, and the pages are set against a black surround to create a darkened theater atmosphere. Lark’s art is perfect for the story and his sense of pacing and clean lines create a heavy noir tone and a claustrophobic sense of danger throughout the story. Motter deftly handles the adaptation of Batman’s world into an even darker and shadier reality than it already was, making this a fun and gritty Batman story.

I think the landscape format works best with a hardcover, but the $24.95 can be kind of steep. For me the story was well worth the price and the hardcover format just makes this a great looking package. There is a softcover option though for $17.95, which is a steal.

If you like this then try: Detective 27, Gotham Central, Terminal City, Mister X, Criminal, Incognito