Writer/Artist: Mike W. Barr, Michael Golden, Tony Bedard, Rags Morales

Publisher: DC, $17.99

Rags Morales is one of my favorite artists, so I was going to pick this up and probably like it regardless of the story. Reprinting the original ‘The Player On The Other Side’ story from Batman Special #1 as well as the sequel from Batman Confidential, the story focuses on the villain the Wrath who is essentially a proto-Prometheus. Having seen his parents gunned down by a young Jim Gordon, the Wrath vowed to turn himself into the ultimate killer and waged a war on all law enforcement. The first story written by Mike Barr and illustrated by Michael Golden is a great self contained adventure that developed the idea very well but didn’t really have much time to really flesh out the character of the Wrath to any great extent. The sequel by Tony Bedard and Rags Morales features a new Wrath and takes place roughly towards the beginning of Dick Grayson’s Nightwing career.

The first story by Barr and Golden is fun if just a little quick. Barr’s plotting quickly establishes why the Wrath is the flip side of Batman, but unfortunately the story really doesn’t drive home the point that he is Batman’s equal in skill. The focus of their conflict is mostly in strategy and mental games as the Wrath utilizes Alfred and Leslie Thompkins in his fight against Batman. There’s only really a page of an actual fight between them, so it’s a little anti-climatic. The writing is still great though, and the Golden art is fluid and well paced.

The second story by Bedard and Morales focuses on a newer Wrath out for revenge against everyone involved with his predecessor’s death. Bedard actually does spend more time focusing on this new Wrath’s skills set and his overall character and derangement is fleshed out to a greater extent. There’s much more of an actual physical conflict between Batman and the Wrath and the stakes are much higher it seems. I’ve always liked Morales’ art since his run on Hourman, and while I know it doesn’t necessarily stand out to some readers his ability to create great scenes and really bring out the emotions in characters is fantastic. My only really complaint about this story is that the ending just kind of gave up. While you could have assumed what the ending would have been, it would have been nice to see the follow through. In certain cases it’s unnecessary such as with Grant Morrison’s assumption in Final Crisis that we don’t need to see Batman escape his prison because it’s Batman and we know he will always escape a trap. Here though the assumption that we know how the fight will end and the following page of summaries was kind of weak.

The one thing that do really like is that Bedard and Morales do add more details to the footnote that was the Wrath in the overall career of Batman, so much to the point that they or other creators can always return to it now. While another Anti-Batman isn’t really necessary in the DCU right now, I would think there could be some interesting interplay and development between characters like Prometheus and the Wrath.

If you like this then try: JLA Strength in Numbers, Hourman, Batman: Son of the Demon

Related Links: Rags Morales

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