Monster Men!

Night of the Monster Men

So instead of a regular review where I go over the books I've read this week I wanted to finally go over DC's first multi book even, Night of the Monster Men. Gotham City is under threat of a flood and Batman along with Nightwing, Batwoman, Spoiler, Orphan, and Clayface help with evacuating the lower parts of the city. All of this changes when a monster attacks the city, and then another, and then another. Slowly they find out more and more clues to the identity of these Monster Men, can Batman and company stop the Monster Men or will Gotham City finally fall at the hands of what looks like a low key Attack on Titan?

Night of the Monster Men is a really good story for DC, for Halloween, and for Batman and writer Tom King shows us how a multi-book event is supposed to work. Spanning Batman, Nightwing, and Detective Comics and it feels natural, as I think we all kind of have problems when a book is interrupted to facilitate a crossover event. It keeps its focus on four primary characters for the most part, Batman, Nightwing, Batwoman, and Spoiler. Each of these characters plays a role in the story whether it's Batman leading, or Spoiler serving as the tech strategist and helping with the evacuation to the caves. Batman is still the primary character and the death of Tim Drake weigh heavy on him as he resolves not to let anyone else die tonight, demanding more from not just himself but others with him. I think that ultimately is what makes the choice of villain, Hugo Strange a great choice. While he was set up in previous issues of Batman along with this story itself, Strange was a perfect choice for this story, especially as we find out that the Monster Men are dead patients of Strange who all had issues that Batman himself has. Strange wants to be Batman, and sees himself as the better one because he lacks the psychological flaws that Batman has; Strange is attacking Batman with his own psychosis, the very thing that defines and according to Strange, weakens him.

The Monster Men themselves are unique because they vary in appearance, size, and threat level. The first one being a small child and the others varying from humans to even birdlike monstrosities when they infect Nightwing. In a lot of ways it feels like a possible resolution to Attack on Titan. The idea that the monsters are all being created by one monster that when it dies can infect others is a great idea and that the monsters themselves take on appearances similar to who they infect is also an idea to vary the designs. As threats, because Batman and company are able to evacuate most of the city, the task is not only figuring out how to defeat them but to keep them from getting to the citizens in the caves while keeping the people in cave calm and alive so they are a great threat in their entirety.

What really makes this book is the scale of the event and the tension. The tension comes from how the monsters attack Gotham City and Batman and company tries to contain them without anyone dying. Everything keeps getting worse as it goes from just one monster, to two, to people in the cave possibly turning into monsters, to Nightwing and Gotham Girl turning into monsters, and then an even bigger monster at the end. These events flow so well that I don't feel overwhelmed but am always interested in as each hurdle either gives a clue or makes use of the characters. The scale is awesome because the threat never feels too big for Batman or Gotham and that the monsters while threatening and gross, they are more of a mystery than a flat out threat. It's all big enough so every member of the Bat Family can be used, though I was a bit down to see neither Barbara nor Damian there, especially with Tim's death still fresh.

Ultimately this story was great and I would honestly love to see it animated. It's not such a big event that it overshadows the books it takes place in but it also helps to get you into other any issues you weren't reading. For DC Comic's first multi book event, I give it a 9/10

Tune in next week where I'll be giving a regular review of books read this and next week. Feel free to like, comment, and subscribe. Keep it Cool readers!