Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Batman Annual #1
DC Comics
Snyder, Tynion IV & Fabok
The first annual for the Batman reboot reintroduces the familiar villain: Mr. Freeze. All you can ask from a comic is that you be entertained and you get value for you money. This book is a great read. It's paced, it's exciting, it's a good showcase for a villain and for Batman. The book is nearly forty pages for five dollars. However, the characterizations seem to be too much of a departure to completely ignore. If you were a new reader to Mr Freeze or Batman then you probably will walk away loving this book and I can relate to that. But, there are components in this book that just don't stack up with what I feel I know about Bruce Wayne, Mr. Freeze or Batman.
Basically, this is origin of Mr Freeze. He is a creepy character that is literally and figuratively cold. He seems completely unfeeling in some of his actions and he is obviously a heartless killer. Mr Freeze has the unfortunate accident that puts him in his state while verbally sparring with Bruce Wayne (and in Wayne's employment). However, it seems obvious the character was interested in death and killing long before that.
Mr. Freeze wants to revive what he calls his wife. She is in a state of being frozen, owned by Wayne Enterprises. Wayne doesn't want Freeze to get this woman saying he has no right to revive the woman without her consent. The problem here is that we are never told what the woman's wishes are and with Wayne as the custodian of her frozen body it wouldn't be a stretch for him to reveal the information. It comes across as Freeze being wrong for wanting to revive the woman potentially against her wishes and Wayne being right for not wanting to revive the woman, which may also be against her wishes. It's frustrating.
Another aspect I didn't really enjoy was the tongue-lashing that Batman gives to Freeze. Sure, he's a killer but he really hammers home a few points that seemed to be out of Batman's character a little bit. It should be noted that Freeze is clearly a delusional character, so why is Batman trying to reason with him?
The artwork provides a very good mood throughout the book. Freeze is creepy and the book is dark and very graphic in the darkest parts. It's a visual fright to read through and it really brings out Freeze's odd personality well.
This story is a good one. However, it doesn't rise to great because of the strange lecturing that Batman and Bruce Wayne do in a couple of spots in the issue. Freeze is also not a sympathetic character anymore which makes the effectiveness of the heart-string pulling a little tougher to pull off. This is a very entertaining read with a couple of characterization flaws.
4 out of 5 Geek Goggles
