There Are Two Wolves Inside: Reviewing ‘Batman: Full Moon’ #2

Sometimes we want stories to go really fast to get to the end. Other times, a slow build is preferred. When the slow build reaches a point of creeping toward an epic image you’ve been waiting for, that’s the good stuff.

Batman’s adventures with lycanthropy continues as Batman: Full Moon #2 kicks things up another notch. Supernatural rules the night in the next chapter from Rodney Barnes, Stevan Subic, and Rus Wooton.

Everything about this moody story just works.

Subic’s artwork is almost supernatural in its own respects. Plenty of roughness permeates everything as atmosphere and feeling are aimed for more than detail or depth in many cases. Muddy and chaotic backdrops are filled with washed out yet striking colors. Shadows dip in and out of the picture to add even more tonal energy to the whole affair.

Many of the panels are full of silhouettes rather than actual full detailed images, conveying everything they need to in that form. Being a talk-ier and set-up issue, a lot of the panels are centered on the various characters as they debate things back and forth. This shows off the various faces and different appearances, their emotions still clear as day even with the more exaggerated or abstract imagery.

Hot damn, that slow build to Batman changing into a werewolf and bursting out of the Batmobile…giant chef kiss. Never did I think I would want to see that particular image, but now I would pay to have that framed to look at as often as possible.

Barnes does a great job at mixing levity with seriousness in this issue, as various characters jest and swipe at one another, betraying their insecurities, angers, worries, and more with every tense exchange. Even with this being an alternate universe, the gist of these characters remains the same. Barnes writes them  authentically and keeps them grounded, even with the out of this world affairs they are dealing with.

Oh, to have more of the Alfred and Bruce back and forth. It’s truly an art. I don’t care what it takes, DC needs to hurry up and resurrect Alfred in the main universe at some point. It’s been too damn long, and the father/son dynamic of the two is sorely missed. Make it happen DC Comics!

As noted, there is a lot of exchanges happening here and Wooton makes them all smooth and strong.

Wooton’s work infuses them all with the right personality, tone, and emotion at any given moment, letting bubbles and font shift and morph to really let various letters stand out even more. Even those letters have the same sort of worn out effect as the rest of the artwork. Lending themselves to the overall horror atmosphere of the story.

Batman: Full Moon #2 is now available from DC Comics.