The appearance of Batman in Gotham challenging the stranglehold of the Falcone family on the underworld, police and politicians. In the wake of Batman arise highly disturbed individuals such as Catwoman who disfigured Carmine Falcone, Joker seems driven by a killing spree without reason, Solomon Grundy (a force of nature), Scarecrow (a man who plays on fear) Riddler and (???). Amid these shifting alliances and account regulations made thereunder, a killer plaguing Gotham defeating a victim at EVERY vacation or holiday. For his part, Bruce Wayne still groping to perfect its working methods, which led him to ally with Harvey Dent and James Gordon. By cons, it does not decide what attitude to adopt with respect to Selina Kyle.
Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale had already collaborated on the character of Bataman for three short stories set on Halloween (Halloween Batman Batman Halloween 1 and 2) with a very convincing result. At the request of Archie Goodwin, they come back for this story to be followed by Bitter Victory, then the epilogue devoted to Catwoman in Catwoman in Rome (and many other Marvel). Jeph Loeb cleverly interweaves the legacy of Frank Miller, with a gangster story, with the weaving of the first relationships between the main characters from the Batman universe, with a real investigation to find out who the murderer, with reflections on the appearance of costumed characters to half (or completely) crazy in a corrupt city. And he designed his story keeping in mind the strengths of Sale.
The latter uses a style that relies on large boxes (so little boxes per page), large flat areas of black, faces that caricature to draw them to the symbolism, physical exaggerations that highlight the aspect of icons heroes and criminals. However his sense of composition allows it to capture movement and enroll in a truly sequential art, even at 3 boxes per page. Jeph Loeb and leaves him many pages to showcase his illustrations.
It is to the credit of Loeb and Sale they get to amalgamate the various components of their history to achieve a coherent whole (a bit long for my taste, I prefer Dark Victory whose rhythm is better controlled ) which intelligently renews the stories of cops and thugs harmoniously with the costumed characters not that easy to make credible. Best of Bruce Wayne sparkles in scenes involving the light as Batman, as a member of high society, as a detective ... without making a violent psychopath.
