(This review will contain spoilers. Be warned.)
I like Kevin Smith. I think he’s funny. (Not as funny as Scott Mosier, but that’s neither here nor there.) I listen to his podcasts weekly, and watch his movies. This is all to say that I would categorize myself as a fan of Kevin Smith.
Kevin also writes comics. My favorite comic work of his was his run on “Green Arrow“. It was a great read, and if you haven’t checked it out yet, I would recommend it, as I find it has held up well over the last ten years. It’s a little bit silly, but it also so a great appreciation for the character of Oliver Queen and his place within the DC Universe.
I heard that Smith had done a Batman book. I had heard that it was critically panned, and Kevin mentioned it himself in a podcast, defending his work against the critics. And there were critics. John Barringer from A Comic Book Blog said:
“Kevin Smith, at least for me, has pushed Batman’s character past his envelope.”
Chris Simms at Comics Alliance was less charitable:
“Kevin Smith‘s Batman stories are the worst Batman comics I’ve ever read, and while I haven’t actually read them all, I’ve read enough that I’m pretty comfortable in declaring them the worst Batman comics ever.”
Now, I like to think I march to the beat of my own drum, and I can get behind some projects that maybe are not the most popular. That, and since I generally enjoy the work that Smith has done, in and out of comics, meant that I would happily give “The Widening Gyre” a shot, and I ordered the hard cover and read the book.
I came to my conclusions about this book almost immediately, and I put off writing this review for almost a month after having put it down, hoping to temper them with time.
That didn’t really happen.
“The Widening Gyre” is the worst Batman comic I’ve read. ↓ Read the rest of this entry…
