rainydayswithbooks 's review for:

Batman: Nightwalker by Marie Lu

3.0

adventurous dark fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

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"Bruce could not have said whether the figure was meant to symbolise justice or death. Maybe this was one and the same." 🦇

The Batman story as a book and with some changes. Basic things are the same (names, the mansion, the setting and the principle of fighting injustice and inequality). Still, it's not the Batman story you know from the movies. The story takes place in Bruce's teenage years, before his big appearance as Batman. So it makes sense that there are differences between the film. Bruce Wayne does become an indirect hero for Gotham City, but bats don't play a role yet ;)
The relationship with Madeleine, the high-ranking woman of the Nightwalker group, is very much at the center. Although I really like many facets, there was a lack of depth and I could almost understand the emotions of secondary characters better than Bruce. Especially the complicated relationship with Madeleine develops in my opinion too suddenly and towards the end too fast. The core themes and the plot itself are great and the author is great at describing fight scenes and generally depicting the locations well. Still, for me it's rather an average read that doesn't deserve any special recognition. Maybe I would like it better as a comic, which is supposed to be very well done.