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dozmuttz's review against another edition
4.0
Continuing the 'Legend of The Dark Knight's' reading we have a story that feels really important for the Batman. 'Batman: Prey' sees Batman in his early years (as all story's from this series do) facing Dr. Hugo Strange. It's a modern take on the character as he was actually introduced very early on in the original 'Detective Comics'. So it's kinda a reintroduction. He helps push a media narrative on the Batman causing more harm than good and even breaks down the psychology of the Batman. Pushing to figure out who he really is. Strange is a scary foe in this story. He's able to challenge Batman on a psychological level and even gets the police to do a manhunt for the Batman. Doug Moench does great with the pacing of the story and makes the plot engaging through and through. Paul Gulacy's artwork is great too, shining especially with his action shots. He has great choreography with his fight sequences and just in general has a good flow to his artwork. Terry Austin on inks also adds greatly to the finished work. AND FINALLY IN THIS SEREIS, WE HAVE GOOD COLOR! And by one of the best at the time, Steve Oliff! The colors in the previous volumes (Batman: Shaman & Batman: Gothic) were terrible in my opinion. This time around it really helped improve the story.
luana420's review against another edition
4.0
Prey is a solid take on the appearance of Hugo Strange onto the Gotham scene, utilizing a Year One aesthetic and themes wherein the good doctor takes advantage of police ambiguity toward the Batman.
This collection also adds "Terror", a Moench-penned sequel to Prey from about a decade later. Definitely a weaker work, with the mid-story upgrade Scarecrow receives never quite working as his original beef with Batman happens in flashbacks (to an earlier story? or a flashback to a vague "first encounter" as the Legends of the Dark Knight series has no more continuity than "in Batman's early days"??? man, comics), whereas Strange and Max Cort's mounting lunacy in the original all stemmed from in-book conflict.
Terry Autin also seems to be a far stronger inker than Palmiotti (to my taste at least) cuz oh boy Gulacy's art suffers in the second arc, going from "amazing" to "alright". Digital coloring maybe to blame as well?
This collection also adds "Terror", a Moench-penned sequel to Prey from about a decade later. Definitely a weaker work, with the mid-story upgrade Scarecrow receives never quite working as his original beef with Batman happens in flashbacks (to an earlier story? or a flashback to a vague "first encounter" as the Legends of the Dark Knight series has no more continuity than "in Batman's early days"??? man, comics), whereas Strange and Max Cort's mounting lunacy in the original all stemmed from in-book conflict.
Terry Autin also seems to be a far stronger inker than Palmiotti (to my taste at least) cuz oh boy Gulacy's art suffers in the second arc, going from "amazing" to "alright". Digital coloring maybe to blame as well?
ayaa's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
lindakat's review against another edition
5.0
I love most issues that delve into the psyche of Batman - is he crazy, is this fantastical world actually of his own delusion - and this issue was no different.
At its core Prey was about Bruce coming to the decision about being Batman or if he, to dress up as the Caped Wonder, was a sign of instability. My prognosis? Hell maybe it is but Gotham still needs him.
The cast of characters chosen to host Bruce/Batman's internal debate was genius: Dr. Hugo Strange a veritable madman himself and the warped reflection of Night Scourge - just fantastic - not to mention we had the first appearance of the very lovely Catwoman.
I really appreciated the lyrical writing style (really looking forward to more Doug Moench) not my favourite artwork but this graphic novel met all my criteria for Batman.
At its core Prey was about Bruce coming to the decision about being Batman or if he, to dress up as the Caped Wonder, was a sign of instability. My prognosis? Hell maybe it is but Gotham still needs him.
The cast of characters chosen to host Bruce/Batman's internal debate was genius: Dr. Hugo Strange a veritable madman himself and the warped reflection of Night Scourge - just fantastic - not to mention we had the first appearance of the very lovely Catwoman.
I really appreciated the lyrical writing style (really looking forward to more Doug Moench) not my favourite artwork but this graphic novel met all my criteria for Batman.
ladydewinter's review against another edition
4.0
A rather good story about Batman's early days and particularly his difficulty to work when the police are still against him (apart from Gordon).
allonsyalexa's review against another edition
4.0
Originally posted here!
I have been meaning to follow the Batman chronology for a while now, but I've only really come round to doing it fairly recently (this year, in fact). I love how, with every Batman story I read, I learn something new about him! Reading chronologically really helps, but I've been using this as my guide. As far as I know, there are no official DC listings for a Batman chronology, despite the wealth of comics about the Dark Knight that have been around for more than seventy years (Batman was first introducted in 1939). It suggested that after Batman: Year One (review here), I read Batman: Prey, so I dutifully obeyed.
Prey is estimated to occur shortly after Year One, so it is no surprise that we still see Batman as the dark, brooding hero coming to terms with his new mission as protector of Gotham City. Despite his best efforts to prove that he is actually one of the good guys, he is still a highly targeted vigilante for many of its citizens, particularly the Gotham City Police Department (GCPD). At the moment, his only friends (and the only ones who know his real identity as Bruce Wayne) are the ever-loyal butler, Alfred, and the detective-turned-captain James Gordon.
Prey begins with a police sting operation designed to catch a drug dealer who could reveal the syndicate behind it all. Before the GCPD could close in on the guy, though, Batman has shaken the guy and disrupted the whole operation. One of the officers, Max Cort, gets thoroughly infuriated by this and reports to an indifferent Gordon, who defends Batman by insisting that he is actually good for morale. In the next scene, Gordon is shown at a television show, being interviewed along with Gotham City Mayor Kauss and Dr. Hugo Strange, a well-known psychiatrist. Dr. Strange offers some insight against Batman, analyzing why he wears a costume, etc. The Mayor is very much impressed with him that he hires the man for his services in a newly-enforced "Task Force Vigilante" against Batman, unbeknownst to anyone in GCPD prior to Kauss's announcement on-air. Against Gordon's wishes, the Mayor assigns him as the head of said task force. As the story unravels, we get to see different sides of this Hugo Strange, as well as Max Cort, and even glimpses of Catwoman in between.
Even though I did not finish Prey in a day as planned, it stuck with me long enough for me to really get a kick out of it. I especially liked the latter parts, where the climax of the story is. The characters seemed very real, and were very convincing in their roles. Dr. Strange was, well, really strange, but more than that, he was downright creepy with his obsession and, to say the least, he was insane in the worst sense of the word. Max Cort proved to be as idiotic as Gordon thought he would be, all brawn with little brain, believing he could actually beat Batman! Tsk. As if. A thing that I would have liked to see more of was Catherine, the Mayor's daughter. She was established at the beginning to be a very opinionated woman, but later on she just served as a pawn in the power play between Dr. Strange and Batman. Her faith in the Dark Knight was pleasantly unexpected, which naturally made me want to see more of her in a setting that gave her freedom to do whatever she liked.
On the other hand, the art was, for me, exquisite. The illustrations by Paul Gulacy and Terry Austin and the coloring by Steve Oliff were brilliantly done, and the fact that it was made in the 90's made it even more impressive. I was rereading some parts of Prey for this review earlier and I thought, 'This is what comics should look like'. Probably part of what made me gush about the art was how I really love vintage style comics, especially from genuinely vintage comics. They just look so fine! Anyway, I really loved Prey. I was already dead set on loving Batman anyway, but reading stories like this made me remember why I love him so much. Really.
I have been meaning to follow the Batman chronology for a while now, but I've only really come round to doing it fairly recently (this year, in fact). I love how, with every Batman story I read, I learn something new about him! Reading chronologically really helps, but I've been using this as my guide. As far as I know, there are no official DC listings for a Batman chronology, despite the wealth of comics about the Dark Knight that have been around for more than seventy years (Batman was first introducted in 1939). It suggested that after Batman: Year One (review here), I read Batman: Prey, so I dutifully obeyed.
Prey is estimated to occur shortly after Year One, so it is no surprise that we still see Batman as the dark, brooding hero coming to terms with his new mission as protector of Gotham City. Despite his best efforts to prove that he is actually one of the good guys, he is still a highly targeted vigilante for many of its citizens, particularly the Gotham City Police Department (GCPD). At the moment, his only friends (and the only ones who know his real identity as Bruce Wayne) are the ever-loyal butler, Alfred, and the detective-turned-captain James Gordon.
Prey begins with a police sting operation designed to catch a drug dealer who could reveal the syndicate behind it all. Before the GCPD could close in on the guy, though, Batman has shaken the guy and disrupted the whole operation. One of the officers, Max Cort, gets thoroughly infuriated by this and reports to an indifferent Gordon, who defends Batman by insisting that he is actually good for morale. In the next scene, Gordon is shown at a television show, being interviewed along with Gotham City Mayor Kauss and Dr. Hugo Strange, a well-known psychiatrist. Dr. Strange offers some insight against Batman, analyzing why he wears a costume, etc. The Mayor is very much impressed with him that he hires the man for his services in a newly-enforced "Task Force Vigilante" against Batman, unbeknownst to anyone in GCPD prior to Kauss's announcement on-air. Against Gordon's wishes, the Mayor assigns him as the head of said task force. As the story unravels, we get to see different sides of this Hugo Strange, as well as Max Cort, and even glimpses of Catwoman in between.
Even though I did not finish Prey in a day as planned, it stuck with me long enough for me to really get a kick out of it. I especially liked the latter parts, where the climax of the story is. The characters seemed very real, and were very convincing in their roles. Dr. Strange was, well, really strange, but more than that, he was downright creepy with his obsession and, to say the least, he was insane in the worst sense of the word. Max Cort proved to be as idiotic as Gordon thought he would be, all brawn with little brain, believing he could actually beat Batman! Tsk. As if. A thing that I would have liked to see more of was Catherine, the Mayor's daughter. She was established at the beginning to be a very opinionated woman, but later on she just served as a pawn in the power play between Dr. Strange and Batman. Her faith in the Dark Knight was pleasantly unexpected, which naturally made me want to see more of her in a setting that gave her freedom to do whatever she liked.
On the other hand, the art was, for me, exquisite. The illustrations by Paul Gulacy and Terry Austin and the coloring by Steve Oliff were brilliantly done, and the fact that it was made in the 90's made it even more impressive. I was rereading some parts of Prey for this review earlier and I thought, 'This is what comics should look like'. Probably part of what made me gush about the art was how I really love vintage style comics, especially from genuinely vintage comics. They just look so fine! Anyway, I really loved Prey. I was already dead set on loving Batman anyway, but reading stories like this made me remember why I love him so much. Really.
pipelonco's review against another edition
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
skolastic's review against another edition
4.0
I first became aware of this during the early run up to The Dark Knight Rises when Anne Hathaway was in as Catwoman and Tom Hardy was rumored to be Hugo Strange -- there were quite a few people who were convinced that Rises was going to be an adaptation of Prey. It's a pretty good story, with Batman facing down Hugo Strange and Catwoman for the first time. It's clearly something that came out of the wake of Year One, down to the cursive Batman narration/printed Gordon narration. I think it has a strong start, but sort of loses its way towards the end -- I would have liked to see more of the early Catwoman, but she seems really underused here. The art is a nice build on Mazzuchelli's work in Year zone in a few different ways and has some nicely staged fight scenes. Overall pretty solid, but not quite classic.
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