Product Description

A chilling story that unites all the Batman heroes for a crisis of epidemic proportions - prepare for an edge-of- your-seat, white-knuckle storyline with more than a few shocks to send readers reeling. Rogue members of the Order of St Dumas - the centuries-old secret society that created Azrael - have stolen a horrifying biological weapon. Using a village in Greenland as ground zero for a test-to-destruction, the Order secretly releases a lethal virus upn the unknowing inhabitabnts. Upon contact with human tissue, the virus begins a relentless dehydration of the host, causing an agonising constriction of muscle tissue over brittle, breaking bones, forcoing the infected body to "clench up" in excrucuating pain. Within 48 hours, the entire village is dead...save three...

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #312191 in Books
• Published on: 1996-06-21
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 264 pages

Customer Reviews

A Must-Have For Batman Fans
This is one of the major events in the Batman universe, and is handled in a suitably epic fashion. The plague ravages Gotham, forcing Robin and Azrael to travel the world looking for a cure. Meanwhile, Catwoman is also after the cure - so that she can make a fortune out of it. Back in Gotham, Batman tries to cope with an insane world of plague and death.

With great (if sometimes sickening...) artwork, this is an outstanding read. It also provides a look at the human psyche, so see how people would react when plunged into this kind of apocalyptic nightmare.

extrordinary
This is a collection, not a graphic novel. However, even with this flaw I keep coming back to re-read this edition, one of my favourites and most read from my extensive collection. While it is disconcerting to have the style of the artwork changing chapter by chapter put that aside and what you have is a brilliantly crafted tale. At times heart-wrenching at times gut-churning the only time this is not a compelling page-turner is when Catwoman features - rarely has she been drawn more alluring.

Hmm. Collected, disparate issues, and it shows.
Well. If you put a "book" like this next to something like "year one" or "Top Ten" then it just doesn't stand up. personally, I don't like the highly coloured, flashy style. The super-muscled, ubermench style of drawing which makes the likes of Nightwing look impossibly inhuman is just a turnoff. Also, what is going on with catwoman's bizzare Pammi Anderson style bazoomas? So strange. There has always been something so human about the Batman comic and this kind of bursting physicality is just absurd.

The story is good but the fact that it is culled from different comix (Azrael, Batman, Nightwing etc) means that the consistency is patchy and the drawing of actual characters inconsistent. I don't mind two artists having a different take on Poison Ivy - but not in the same book. That's annoying.

If you are someone who follows all these stories every month in the single issues, I'm sure the criss-crossing of narrative post-modernly from thread to thread was very exciting. However it does not, does not add up to an acceptable whole. After reading something like The Dark Knight Returns or Year One, this doesn't cut the mustard. Read Year One instead is my advice. Or No man's land. Or the Hush.