Batman: The Widening Gyre #5

I am all for letting us see well-established characters like Batman in new or unusal situations but thic comic had crossed the line from interesting to a little uncomfortable. I was fine with seeing Batman as a love-sick puppy falling head over heals for Silver St. Cloud, he's a hard working man and he should get a pretty lady to go home to. Where it got strange is the fact that he is cheating on her with Catwoman! I mean the guy has gone how many years without a lady in his life now he needs two? I've heard of making up for lost time but this is ridiculous!

The artwork for Catwoman is a little sketchy also. The first shot we see of her it looks like her legs are entirely too long for her body and her backside is oddly shaped. Also it looks like she went to the back of the closet and got a costume from the 60's. In fact it reminds me of the costume worn on the Adam West TV show. I know this mini-series is set in the past but I thought it was the recent past. Catwoman knows Batman is Bruce, that happened in the Hush arc, right?

That brings us to the new addition to the Batman family introduced in this story, Baphomet. An interesting character in that it appears he shows us what happens when crime kills someone important to an ordinary guy instead of the heir to a vast fortune. Baphomet doesn't have all the money and resources that Bruce had starting out but is just as driven and focused. I think it will be interesting to watch a guy fight crime then go home to the wife and kids. I wonder if they know what he's doing with his nights. Of course I've read enough comics to know that this will eventually end in disaster. The Joker or someone will track him back to his home and kill his family in front of him or something equally as horrible.

Regardless of what happens I have enjoyed the series so far and look forward to the last issue next month. It 's always fun to see Bruce lighten up and get the girl (or two) and see him rely on his "family" to hold down the fort while he is off getting some badly needed R&R.

Written by Kevin Smith

Art by Walter Flanagan and Art Thibert

Cover by Bill Sienkiewicz

Variant cover by Gene Ha