And this short series finally...finally...grinds to a juddering end.

After declaring he was giving up at the end of the last issue, just to end on an artificial cliffhanger, of course Batman's changed his mind.

Starlin then proceeds to telegraph the entire end in advance by showing Batman and Robin pulling out all the stops to take back Gotham by force (so of course they're gonna win), and also revealing far too soon that Blackfire's ready to be a martyr (so of course he's gonna die). The monster truck Batmobile is ridiculous, as is a machine gun that fires 200 tranquilizers per minute. ...hopefully, the Batman's thought ahead and put a ridiculously low dose in each of those tranks, because even if that gun swings by you for only two seconds, you've got six or seven tranquilizer darts in you, and I'm guessing an overdose is fatal.

And even though I'd thought Starlin went overboard with the television newscaster scenes in the first three issues, he just pumped that crap up to maximum for this last issue.

Two great creators, both of which have done some of my favourite comics work, between Warlock and Swamp Thing, but they just didn't get it done this time. ( )

In the conclusion to this four-part graphic novel, Batman rediscovers his fortitude and tools up to return to Gotham and confront Shaman Blackfire. Fairly well-done, although the picture of Batman and Robin using rifles - even dart rifles - is pretty jarring and out of character. Shaman Blackfire himself is unfortunately even more cartoonish and one-dimensional here, and his desire for martyrdom is unexplained. ( )