Review: Batman: Nightwalker (M. Lu)
I would have love, love, loved this book had it not been for the main character. Which is kind of depressing when you think about it, since if there is one thing that you really want to like it a book... it's the main character. The entire time I was reading this, I kept going "if only they would take more about the other characters, and less about Bruce..." That's not something that I want to be thinking when reading a book that I was super excited for (Wonder Woman: Warbringer was amazing!)
Bruce Wayne is the orphaned son of two very wealthy parents, and currently is in charge of not only the family fortune, but the technology created under the umbrella of Wayne Enterprises. When he decides to interfere with the law, however, he is sentenced to perform community service at Arkham Asylum, home to Gotham City's most dangerous criminals. There he meets Madeline, a mysterious girl with extremely detailed knowledge of the movements and happenings of the Nightwalkers, an organization that is hunting down the city's elite, killing them, and draining their fortunes. Bruce might reconcile his conflicting feelings and desires in this Batman origin story in order to save Gotham City--and himself.
I don't know a ton about Batman as originally portrayed in the comics and/or movies (I'm a Marvel person...), but I'm always interested in any superhero story, especially if it is an origin story. And the premise of this story was pretty interesting, since there was hacking (I love the idea of hacking... but I stink at programming and it's slightly illegal so...) and criminal organizations and just all of the good stuff. I blew through the book pretty quickly, and it wasn't like I had to talk myself into picking it up. In fact, I had to tell myself to put it down a couple of times to do other things.
However.
Each of the characters only had one defining characteristic, which really rubbed me the wrong way. Bruce was extremely selfish, Madeline was manipulative, Alfred was the father figure, Dianne is the kind one, and you get the point. No one seemed to have any depth, which made it hard to get involved with the characters and feel connected.
The pacing of the story also seemed a little off, with too much emphasis put on cleaning the floors of Arkham Asylum and less on the actual action.
Overall it was still and interesting and quick read, but my standards were much higher for this after reading Wonder Woman: Warbringer, and unfortunately this book fell a little short.
3/5 Stars