Batman: War Games - Act 03 End Game

First of all, you will notice that the other reviews for this book are all for  Batman Year One: Ra's Al Ghul  and NOT for Batman:War Crimes!This is the final part of the whole War Games saga, and should be read in the following order...1/  Batman: War Drums (Batman (DC Comics Paperback)) 2/  Batman: War Games - ACT 01 - Outbreak 3/  Batman War Games: ACT 2: Tides (Batman) 4/  Batman: War Games Act 3 5/  Batman: War Crimes  ----THIS VOLUME!I really enjoyed all the four preceding books to this and thought it has been one of the best Batman series for a while. This book, however is not up to the standard of the others i am afraid.Spoiler Alert! Only Read on if you have read the previous volumes.....The problem with this book is that it feels tacked on to the rest of the series, almost like DC knew they had a great idea and wanted to make the most of it. At the end of the main series, Stephanie Brown dies after igniting an all out chaos in Gotham, resulting in all the major gangs turning against each other - and not caring about the innocents caught up in the crossfire. Stephanie Brown had given up her vigilante career as the Spoiler, and taken up training with Batman to become the new Robin (as Tim Drake had stepped down at the insistence of his father). But when she disobeys an order from Batman she is sacked from her position and returns to her former vigilante persona. Without giving a long re-run of the rest of the plot, Stephanie dies in hospital after being tortured by the Black Mask.This book picks up with Gotham still recovering from the events in War Games, and the media blaming Batman for everything that transpired. Meanwhile, the Black Mask is trying to rule Gotham's underworld, and that brings the Joker back to try and reclaim his position as Batmans number one enemy. Whilst this is going on, Batman is investigating Stephanie's death - he is not convinced that he is to blame for her death. He believes that he got her to the hospital in time and sets about trying to prove this.There is a major plot twist at the end of the book which i will not spoil for you here, you will have to read this book for yourself to discover it for yourself.That twist just doesn't sit right with me, and feels completely tacked on to me. The character who actually killed Stephanie just seems to step totally out of character to me and it is like DC have thought they will try and shock the reader. It works - it does shock you, but more because it is so badly handled. Yes, there were clues to the identity of this person throughout all the books, and their feelings on vigilantes and their methods, but even taking this into account i just didn't accept what the writers have dumped on us. What doesn't help is that this only comes out in the last few pages, and the rest is of the book is dealing with media manipulation (which is really well done) and the whole Black Mask versus Joker scenario. It would have been to have cut the Joker out of this book , even though he is a great character, and focus more on the morality of Stephanie's murder and the thinking behind the act of taking her life. As it stands this book is really quite disjointed, and none of the interesting sub plots from the main series carry over - Tim had donned the Robin mantle again but in this book he gets no mention at all, and Nightwing gets no mention either despite him being involved in the murder of Blockbuster - this in itself is a plot line that has a huge impact on his relationship with Batman. We don't get enough of the new commissioner either!I don't hate this book at all, but it adds nothing really to the series - it is the weakest book of them all. I am glad i read it and got some more of the excellent series, but i found it a frustrating read. With a bit more thought and care behind it this could have been excellent, but is more of a damp squib!If you loved the rest of the books in the series then you will want to buy this and catch up on the plot. If you were non-plussed by the others, then don't bother with this book.It is an average book, whereas the other four volumes were top notch, and that makes this a disappointing read.....

For some reason, I had assumed this book was meant to show the first meeting between Ra's al Ghul and Batman, but instead it was current with continuity as it was released and shows some of Ra's' early life in flashbacks. It's short and interesting but a little messy.

Well this isn't a bad Graphic novel, just not the best by a long shot. The bonuses are a bit more of Ra's History, it's well drawn and all but the story is basically a one trick pony, With all of the Lazarus Pits destroyed people stop dying in Gotham.Death is being slowly reversed and people are re-composing. All of the Bad guys come after Batman and we are asked the question - how much worse off would the world be if people didn't die. Sort of forcing Batman to agree that sometimes death is a good thing.it ends predictably - i won't spoil that bit but we are left with no resolution of the guys up and walking around as zombies. you see absolutely nothing about that after Batman solves he problem.Ok for the collection but again i'd say low on the priority list.

This comic gives a very clear insight into what Ra's al ghuls about and is a very good introduction for those who aren't big comic book readers.

Got this as a nostalgic gift for my older brother, went down great, anyone who liked batman/comics will like this. Tells the story behind parts of the film Batman Begins.

Great as described

Months after Gotham was almost torn apart by a massive gang war, Batman must once again look into the events of this tumultuous time as people begin to ask questions about the death of Stephanie Brown, aka the Spoiler and the fourth Robin. Meanwhile Black Mask, the head of Gotham’s underworld, has plans in motion to discredit the Batman.'War Crimes' sees Batman is something of an epilogue to the 'War Games' trilogy dealing with the aftermath of the massive gang war that Spoiler unintentionally started. Although relatively short compared to the 'War Games' trilogy, 'War Crimes' has some nice moments throughout with some good action and an interesting plot. Some fans dislike this storyline however due to the reveal of some out of character actions for Dr Leslie Thompkins (something so unpopular that later stories retconned it).The artwork for the book is as good as you would expect from DC with a few nicely dynamic action scenes (the fight between Batman and Black Mask being very nice if short). The book has some interesting humour as well as some nice emotional moments as various characters deal with Spoiler’s death with the addition of ‘Aaron Black’ making things very interesting.Overall, despite the Dr Thompkins issue, 'War Crimes' was a very enjoyable read that is well worth a full five stars.

A terrible postscript to a ghastly run. War Games manages to take a story which had already assassinated one female character.. make her death even more meaningless and assassinate another in the process.DC's nadir.For completists only.