Gotham City Monsters #2: Come Together, Right Now

The strength of this surprising series continues to be Steve Orlando’s understanding of the greater canon of the DC Universe. This dark underbelly of Gotham is a sandbox in which Orlando plays but this play is not that of reckless abandon but each move is carefully calculated, made according to the internal rules set by players before him. Often, complaints levied at Orlando’s writing are directly aimed at his dialogue but here, with the stiffness of Frankenstein, Andrew Bennett, et al Orlando is right at home, delivering a slightly exposition-heavy bevy of dialogue that is perfectly apt for the characters and settings in which they occur.

Amancay Nahuelpan compliments Orlando’s work here by delivering recognizable versions of some of Gotham’s darkest denizens without sacrificing the macabre elements that have endeared many of the cult favorites to fans over the years. This work is not the gritty realism of an Andrea Sorrentino yet it fits gorgeously in a horror book disguised as a superhero entry, or perhaps vice versa.

Even down to the lettering by Tom Napolitano, which manages to capture familiar fonts and styles of the various characters’ history in print, everything about this book just simply works. The overarching narrative of Melmoth’s goal to suture the crack in the Source Wall begins to come into focus as Gotham’s monsters organically begin to forge alliances against him– a feat I honestly was surprised by how well the execution was. Often in books like this one, the ties that bind feel forced or slightly too convenient but there is clear thought put into this story and I, for one, greatly appreciate it.