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justabookholic's review against another edition
3.0
Batman and Robin (Tim Drake) must race against the clock to stop a deadly plague with connections to the dangerous Order of St. Dumas that makes its way into Gotham. The Ebola Gulf-A virus as known as "the Clench", an air-borne virus that begins with flu-like symptoms then causes agonizing pain, desiccating the muscles and the bones to break. Also the victim weeps blood. With only a 10 percent survival rate, the fate of Gotham hangs in the balance as the dynamic duo must quickly find the cure.
Perhaps I would be great impacted if I read this before living through an actual pandemic but I didn't bat an eye at "the Clench". Aside from the bleeding eyes and the underworld man-hunt/bidding war, I think Gotham made it out easy as their corrupt government officials were actually ousted and replaced with effective leadership. My favorite issues of the book were actually the post-Contagion subplots that it included such as issues 50-52 of Batman: Shadow of the Bat so my rating may be a bit generous if one is strictly wondering about the Contagion storyline.
Perhaps I would be great impacted if I read this before living through an actual pandemic but I didn't bat an eye at "the Clench". Aside from the bleeding eyes and the underworld man-hunt/bidding war, I think Gotham made it out easy as their corrupt government officials were actually ousted and replaced with effective leadership. My favorite issues of the book were actually the post-Contagion subplots that it included such as issues 50-52 of Batman: Shadow of the Bat so my rating may be a bit generous if one is strictly wondering about the Contagion storyline.
zoidberg684's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
khezri's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
cjordahl's review against another edition
3.0
It was a coincidence that I pulled this book from the library at the same time that Coronavirus COVID-19 got big in the US and we went on "shelter in place". Really! I'd had it on my 'read next' list for several weeks, and when it 'naturally' floated to the top of that list I requested from the library, and then *bang* Coronavirus crazyness.
I liked the overall story -- just 'ok'. Sinister plot plus bungling wannabe over-achiever leads to mass infection. Setting aside the superhero comic embellishments, the base premise is scarily plausible. But this was one of those stories that crosses over several titles, using different writers and artists, bringing capricious and disorienting changes in tone, pacing, and visuals. Yuck! I wish they didn't do that! (Tangent: When people read these stories as they're published are they not lost and confused when the story leaps from title to title?)
I also dislike when writers throw in really dumb confounding details to prevent the good guys from solving the case too easily. In this book we have Batman and allies searching for virus survivors to collect samples of their blood to develop a treatment. But then we learn that the sample must be taken from a living person, which means, in the logic of the book, that a sample taken from a person who died 10 seconds earlier will not work. Which is obviously ridiculous. Stinks of metaphysical.
The other odd thing about this collection is that it has 3 stories (one Robin, two Batman) tacked on at the end with only silk-thread thin connections to the main "Contagion" story line. I found the Robin story, about "Maxie Zeus" (oh and also about Robin's gf changing her hair color!) to be meh. The two Batman stories I liked well enough. Especially, to my surprise because the description would not appeal to me, the story featuring "Deadman" Boston Brand. This story featured highly stylized art by Kelley Jones (pencils), John Beatty (inks), and Gregory Wright (colors) that I really liked despite it having features that I normally don't like. For example: Jones drew Batman's cowl with extremely long ears, longer than Batman's head, that changed shape almost as if they were a living part of him. And his cape displays very different styles and characteristics from panel to panel. But this all worked in context, it suited the style of the story.
I liked the overall story -- just 'ok'. Sinister plot plus bungling wannabe over-achiever leads to mass infection. Setting aside the superhero comic embellishments, the base premise is scarily plausible. But this was one of those stories that crosses over several titles, using different writers and artists, bringing capricious and disorienting changes in tone, pacing, and visuals. Yuck! I wish they didn't do that! (Tangent: When people read these stories as they're published are they not lost and confused when the story leaps from title to title?)
I also dislike when writers throw in really dumb confounding details to prevent the good guys from solving the case too easily. In this book we have Batman and allies searching for virus survivors to collect samples of their blood to develop a treatment. But then we learn that the sample must be taken from a living person, which means, in the logic of the book, that a sample taken from a person who died 10 seconds earlier will not work. Which is obviously ridiculous. Stinks of metaphysical.
The other odd thing about this collection is that it has 3 stories (one Robin, two Batman) tacked on at the end with only silk-thread thin connections to the main "Contagion" story line. I found the Robin story, about "Maxie Zeus" (oh and also about Robin's gf changing her hair color!) to be meh. The two Batman stories I liked well enough. Especially, to my surprise because the description would not appeal to me, the story featuring "Deadman" Boston Brand. This story featured highly stylized art by Kelley Jones (pencils), John Beatty (inks), and Gregory Wright (colors) that I really liked despite it having features that I normally don't like. For example: Jones drew Batman's cowl with extremely long ears, longer than Batman's head, that changed shape almost as if they were a living part of him. And his cape displays very different styles and characteristics from panel to panel. But this all worked in context, it suited the style of the story.
rlaferney's review against another edition
3.0
Contagion is the name of a story arc that ran through the various Batman comic book series. It concerns the outbreak of a lethal disease in Gotham City, and Batman's attempts to combat it. The events of this story led into Batman: Legacy and Batman: Cataclysm, which itself leads into Batman: No Man's Land.
birdmanseven's review against another edition
4.0
Good story. I always like a big Batman family team-up. I actually liked Azrael and particularly enjoyed the Robin/Catwoman team-up. The resolution felt a little rushed, but other than that it was solid.
kacey's review against another edition
2.0
A better story than I was expecting, given the less than stellar reviews on its page. Granted, I was predominately reading this story for Tim Drake and less for the apocalyptic-level plague taking place, so maybe my view is a little skewed. Still not the greatest Batman title I've ever read, but not as bad as I was expecting it to be.
I wasn't sold on how much of a crossover this story was; I get crossing it between Robin and the Batman titles, even Catwoman, but Azrael seems like overkill for a crossover. Still, now that it's possible to find all in one place, I probably shouldn't bother complaining about that aspect. The constant shifting of art styles was a little weird to get used to though.
I realize that I'll be applying real-world logic to a universe where a man's parents were gunned down in front of him as a child and he decided that the only reasonable response to dress like a bat to scare baddies for his adult life, but I just cannot get my head around the fact that all of the heroes decided to run around Gotham in the middle of a viral outbreak without anything to block the disease. It's a miracle that only Robin takes a hit. But even after that, most of the heroes don't even bother to put on a medical mask before getting back out there. I mean really. The set up emphasized how terrifyingly easy this virus is to catch, you'd expect that the heroes would have more sense than to just run amok in a bunch of dying people without taking any kind of precautions.
I mean Holy Black Plague, Batman! A little common sense should go a long way.
Also, the whole 'faxing the cure to Gotham while Azrael goes barricade jumping to hand deliver it' thing was probably a lot funnier to me than it should have been, probably because I didn't see it coming at all. But yeah, that was just funny.
I wasn't sold on how much of a crossover this story was; I get crossing it between Robin and the Batman titles, even Catwoman, but Azrael seems like overkill for a crossover. Still, now that it's possible to find all in one place, I probably shouldn't bother complaining about that aspect. The constant shifting of art styles was a little weird to get used to though.
I realize that I'll be applying real-world logic to a universe where a man's parents were gunned down in front of him as a child and he decided that the only reasonable response to dress like a bat to scare baddies for his adult life, but I just cannot get my head around the fact that all of the heroes decided to run around Gotham in the middle of a viral outbreak without anything to block the disease. It's a miracle that only Robin takes a hit. But even after that, most of the heroes don't even bother to put on a medical mask before getting back out there. I mean really. The set up emphasized how terrifyingly easy this virus is to catch, you'd expect that the heroes would have more sense than to just run amok in a bunch of dying people without taking any kind of precautions.
I mean Holy Black Plague, Batman! A little common sense should go a long way.
booknooknoggin's review against another edition
2.0
Only a third of this was the title story and the rest was filler. I do not understand why they would make this such a massive volume if so much of it was not the title story. In all this wasn't for me. I really couldn't get into this late '90's Batman.
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