The Books of A. J. Lieberman

It's been nearly a decade since I kept up with current events in Gotham, so I was jumping in off the deep end with this book. However, Batman has always been my favourite 'superhero' (despite having been a Marvel fan in general), so I took the plunge. The story revolves around, surprisingly, the return of Hush (who, a brief summary in the front of the book explains, was a childhood friend of Bruce Wayne who turned out to be a nutter and was believed killed). This book is definitely not a complete story. Not only would some knowledge of what has come before be helpful, but also there is no proper conclusion to the events portrayed. The most irritating of this for me was learning that the Joker once had a pregnant wife and has just discovered her killer's name, only for that story thread to be dropped. One thing I did really like about this book was the scenes in which Hush kicks seven shades of crap out of the Riddler and the Joker. These two villains are such iconic bad guys that to see them beaten to a pulp really makes it hit home just how much of a maniac Hush is. Overall, not a good place for me to return to the stories of the Dark Knight, but probably good for those who do keep up with Batman's adventures.