Batman: Creature of the Night #2 Review

Writer: Kurt Busiek / Artist: John Paul Leon / DC Comics The creative team of Kurt Busiek and John Paul Leon graces us with the second part of their Creature of the Night Batman miniseries. The first book ends with young Bruce Wainwright, a child obsessed with Batman comics, whose childlike wonder grabs onto parallels between his life and the comics he loves. He even calls his uncle, Alton Frederick, Uncle Alfred. The parallels get tragically similar and more apparent as he loses his parents in a home invasion turned violent. In an otherworldly marriage between Bruce’s trauma and imagination, he unwittingly manifests a Batman-like entity dedicated to protecting him and his desire for justice in the world. Creature of the Night #2 flashes forward about a decade with Bruce in college. If the first book is about tragedy then this one is about privilege. Bruce has worked through his past trauma and is leading a successful life. He excels academically, socially, professionally and even heroically. All the while something uncomfortable, intangible lurks in the air. Bruce is Loving College Life Creature of the Night weaves a beautifully complex tale of many threads for the reader to connect and attach with their own life. One of these threads is that of the life of the slightly older comic book reader. The comic opens with a classmate inquiring about Bruce’s own comic habit. These questions ring in the ear of anyone who has read comics through high school, college and even further …