Something to Fear Original Review by Johnkmccubbin91 at Comic Vine
I have never been overly keen on this series, and in fact dropped the series after issue 9, but after hearing good things about the series since Gregg Hurwitz joined the creative team I decided to give the series another chance. So far this story has been a lot better than what the series was like before Hurwitz joined, but it's not been anything special, and I hope the next story involving the Mad Hatter is better.
Plot
This issue sees Batman finally escaping from Scarecrow. Once outside Batman is then rescued by Robin who takes him home. Meanwhile Scarecrow isn't done and decides to bring out the super toxin.
Review
This was a good issue but the story is still nowhere near from perfect. I like how Hurwitz has given this series some new life, and made it a decent series. I still however think there is still more needed to make this series match some of the other Batman series, and with Detective Comics getting better since John Layman took over writing, this series has once again dropped to the worst of the solo Batman series. I did however like how Hurwiz put a bit more action in this issue, a most of the story so far has been Scarecrow experimenting on Batman, whilst the story showing Scarecrows past. Although this has been interesting, it was starting to get a bit boring, and I wouldn't have been surprised if the whole story was just that one big sequence, spliced with flashbacks.
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The Twilight Kingdom Original Review by Batwatch at Comic Vine
Scared Stupid
The last few months of the Dark Knight, except for the Zero Issue, have been a rather mediocre affair featuring the Scarecrow. Gregg Hurwitz spent an entire two issues doing the classic (and by classic, I mean tired) trick of Scarecrow capturing Batman and then using fear toxin to bring to light Batman's darkest fears. At the end of the last issue, we finally saw Batman freed and ready to kick some burlap butt. Does the Dark Knight finally bring this story to a good conclusion, or do the painful cliches linger?
In this issue, Scarecrow gets beaten up and rescues his own victim, and Batman is rescued by Robin.
The last few issues of The Dark Knight have been less than stellar, but this issue is downright bad. It does not make it to Catwoman #14's level of incompetence, but it makes a valiant effort. It is on par with the rather abysmal opening DCNU story arc for the series, Knight Terrors.
The stupidity of this issue is difficult to quantify. Batman's first move with the Scarecrow is to throw himself on Crane's scythe impaling himself in the chest. Batman then uses his grappling tool to shoot through Scarecrow's head. That's right, Batman shot a ten inch batarang through Crane's jaw, out the bottom of his mouth, through his teeth, and into the ceiling thereby causing Crane to hang from his mouth. How the ten inch batarang fit through Scarecrow's jaw defies reason, and even if he were shooting a tinier grapple, the shot would still be extremely difficult. If Bats had the wherewithal to make that shot, perhaps he should not have jumped on Scarecrow's scythe.
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What I Thought
Cover - 3/5
Art - 5/5
Colors/Ink/Lettering - 5/5
Layout/Flow - 4/5
Story - 4/5
Verdict - 4.1
The cover to the issue is kinda confusing Batman and Scarecrow were locked in his house now they are what looks like falling through the sky. Otherwise the art and inking gave this issue a dark and edgy feel which fits with The Dark Knight and Scarecrow. I liked the story and found it nice to learn about the New 52 Scarecrow. My only beef with the Batman shooting his grappling hook thru Scarecrow's head. While I'm not going to get into the logistics of this, I always thought Batman tried not to kill, and this was definitely meant to be a kill-shot Otherwise a great issue and I definitely recommend reading it.
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