By Gregg Hurwitz and Alberto Ponticelli
Issues without dialogue pop up from time to time and they are always a bit more challenging to get through than a regular comic that will spell things out for you. Batman the Dark Knight isn’t the first bat book to do this either, as the requiem issue of Batman and Robin did it as well.
A mother who lives in poverty loses her job, and then she loses her baby to illness. As the Penguins goons take her mother and only remaining child away, she all but gives up hope. Surely there will be a savior to help her out in her time of need.
This is kind of an odd book to review writing wise, since the pictures told the story, Hurwitz makes it easy enough for us to follow plot wise, and that’s how silent books have to be, otherwise readers would be lost. Batman the Dark knight is a book that is not afraid to take chances, and Hurwitz has certainly done that this issue, focusing almost entirely on unknown characters and having Batman appear in few panels. There may not be any words, but Hurwitz does a good job of getting his point across.
The art duties fall to Alberto Ponticelli for this issue. His art resembles Alex Maleev’s, who had been on the book for the last couple of months. Ponticelli is extremely important this issue, since his pictures have to convey both words and actions. He does a great job of making it easy on the reader to figure out what is going on. His characters are easily distinguishable from one another, and there isn’t any confusion as to who is who. The art is gritty, much like the story itself and works well with Hurwitz’ vision.
Silent issues can be a fun break every now and then and Hurwitz and Ponticelli have done a very good one. That being said, some dialogue would be welcome next issue, as a confrontation between Batman and the Penguin is going to happen, and a fight isn’t as much fun without the banter.
