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justabookholic's review
3.0
Actual Rating: 3.5 stars
A decent collection of stories about Black Mask! The first issues that introduced Black Mask were surprisingly the best ones of the lot. Have to say Roman Sionis hands down has the funniest origin story I have ever read, dude was dropped on his head as a baby by the doc who delivered him and then subsequently attacked by a raccoon at age 12! BEST VILLAIN STORY EVER XD
Things kind of pattered out as you reached closer to the end, the more recent issues didn't have the same wow factor as the first ones that introduced the character. I will say the inclusion of the interlude of Batman: Under the Red Hood was a stand-out choice, phenomenal writing with a truly hilarious and crazy iteration of Black Mask.
A decent collection of stories about Black Mask! The first issues that introduced Black Mask were surprisingly the best ones of the lot. Have to say Roman Sionis hands down has the funniest origin story I have ever read, dude was dropped on his head as a baby by the doc who delivered him and then subsequently attacked by a raccoon at age 12! BEST VILLAIN STORY EVER XD
Things kind of pattered out as you reached closer to the end, the more recent issues didn't have the same wow factor as the first ones that introduced the character. I will say the inclusion of the interlude of Batman: Under the Red Hood was a stand-out choice, phenomenal writing with a truly hilarious and crazy iteration of Black Mask.
thecommonswings's review
3.0
Well Black Mask is a character I don’t know, and it’s an interesting introduction to him but one that’s fatally flawed. By starting with two engaging “introductory” stories that actually develop properly and are of the more urban, realist end of the Batman spectrum (the one I like considerably more), the book then really struggles because 1. it includes issues with absolutely no wider context of the plots around it and 2. has an absurd and awful looking caper issue which sticks out a mile because it’s all daft and ridiculous and has Black Mask as some kind of flying baddie for reasons the book doesn’t bother to explain
Still, the best is very good - the original stories are fantastic, Moench getting the tone perfectly, with lovely scratchy art that suits the story wonderfully. In fact almost all the art is fantastic apart from the Night and the City issue which has life airbrushed out of everything and just lies, static on the page. It’s probably intended to be a primer on the character but instead is just very revealing of the issues around long running comics like Batman: the tone weirdly varies from caper to hard boiled to gothic and never quite settles at all. And there’s very little consistency in how the character is portrayed either, which again is an unfortunate response to this being the first time I’ve heard of the character. Decidedly mixed
Still, the best is very good - the original stories are fantastic, Moench getting the tone perfectly, with lovely scratchy art that suits the story wonderfully. In fact almost all the art is fantastic apart from the Night and the City issue which has life airbrushed out of everything and just lies, static on the page. It’s probably intended to be a primer on the character but instead is just very revealing of the issues around long running comics like Batman: the tone weirdly varies from caper to hard boiled to gothic and never quite settles at all. And there’s very little consistency in how the character is portrayed either, which again is an unfortunate response to this being the first time I’ve heard of the character. Decidedly mixed
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