Review: Batman The Dark Knight: Golden Dawn

Batman The Dark Knight: Golden Dawn(2012)

Written and Penciled by, David Finch

While strolling through the Batman titles at bn.com, I came across Golden Dawn. The description seemed decent and the illustrations looked godlike. So I picked it up and WHOOOA; pretty disappointing. This is a book by David Finch, who also penciled Ultimatum(penciled, not wrote), as well as plenty of various Ultimate Marvel comics. I don't believe I've read anything he has written. But after this, I think he should stick to drawing. Here we go; Golden Dawn.

We open our graphic novel with a Bruce Wayne flash back. He remembers playing with a childhood friend named Dawn Golden – STOP. ANOTHER friend from Bruce's childhood? -sigh- Not very original. I get the feeling sometimes that Wayne's childhood lasted, I don't know, 100 FUCKING YEARS! Dawn Golden was quiet and Bruce didn't really like her. The two run outside where Bruce plays with a treasured kite. Dawn steals the kite from Bruce and lets it fly away making her happy. Psst! Over here....METAPHOR! Because of this act, Bruce then changes his views on the young girl.

I always hated box kites any way

We cut back to the present and we are with Commissioner Gordon at the GCPD. Apparently, Dawn Golden has been missing and everyone is wondering if she was kidnapped or murdered. Segway to Batman on a rooftop witnessing a mysterious figure purchase the drug “Titan.” It is revealed that the figure is Killer Croc and Batman jumps into attack mode as he bares down on the unsuspecting villain. The two scuffle until Batman manages to force an electric sign to drop on his foe's head. Once Croc is downed, Batman begins his interrogation on the location of Dawn. Croc tells him that he sold her to someone that owned a club named Lars Beck.

Um, FUCKIN' OW!

We cut to....hobos around a hobo fire. Oooook? Where's this going? One of them wonder away to find a murdered body. Then we cut to the Batcave – WAIT! That's it? Oh, it is an ongoing subplot that will tie in with the ending. Sorry, just some random scene of a hobo gathering, then corpse, then to the Batcave in the span of one page is a little hard to digest. Thank god I have the graphic novel otherwise I would have really been confused. At the Batcave, Batman finds where the club is located and makes his way there. He discovers the building abandoned and begins to snoop around and discovers Dawn's amulet. Suddenly, he is surprised by the new owner of the club, the Penguin.

Penguin's goons attack but are unsuccessful. Batman easily dodges their gunfire and counters with a weird Bat-tool I have not seen. Basically, it is a flexible piece of steel that bounces around the room and binds the henchmen. If that wasn't enough, it shortly then electrocutes them rendering the pack of degenerates useless. Penguin tries to escape and Batman follows. A quick cut to Gordon once again, to show that Killer Croc has escaped. Back to Batman's hunt for Penguin, he finds him and demands information....VERY VIOLENTLY. Batman starts breaking Penguin's arms and legs and just before we're wondering why Bats has gone off the deep end, Croc appears and shoves the caped crusader's head into a wall.

Reminds me of "The God Damn Batman"

We then see a small scene of a young girl breaking into the Batmobile and taking off. Then we segway to....fuck, back to the hobos. The homeless crew walks around Gotham in the rain, terrified at their previous discovery. They feel that they must stick together and they should be ok. A flash of lightning then reveals their hunter following close by. Then a cut to the residence of Jason Blood. Jason Blood? Hmm, one moment while I use my handy-dandy Batman Encyclopedia. - flip,flip- Apparently, he's a guy that holds a mystic bond with a demon known as Etrigan. Ok then, thank you, Robert Greenberger. We then see Jason Blood turn into the demon, Etrigan. Then we cut to Batman strapped to a pillar covered in explosives. His monologue reveals that the Amulet he found made him cripple the Penguin and that it must have some force of rage. It is revealed that Croc has been working with Penguin as the birdlike foe plans to view his destruction from a TV set. Cut to, god damn fuckin' hobos, what appears to be the Ragman leaping in for a kill on one of our unsuspecting homeless.

Tonight I dine on hobo soup

The Ragman prepares to feast on his prey when he interrupted and stopped by Etrigan. The Ragman flees claiming that Etrigan no longer has the power to stop him...how, I don't know, but because this guy said so, it must be true. The hobo begins to show his thanks when Etrigan proclaims that he cares not for him and....needlessly kills the hobo...um, why did he do th – Oh, we're just going to cut to some other event, ok. Seriously, maybe some back story or monologue to explain what this prick does would help. The event I spoke of is a half page of Alfred trying to help the girl that stole the Batmobile. Then we cut to Gordon and some cops in a diner where a new detective named Forbes, has a shouting match with our beloved Commissioner. Which is yet ANOTHER SUBPLOT. Dear god, a lot is being shoved into this.

Forbes = Prick

Back to a constricted Batman where Penguin reveals that he is about to blow up which forces the double crossed Croc to flee. Batman busts through his binds like a big strong man and escapes. Another quick cut back to the girl in the Batmobile where Alfred convinces her to drop her agenda and return the car. She agrees. Batman starts a search of his surroundings and is lead to a door containing Dawn Golden. He retrieves her and makes his way back to the returned Batmobile. Over to Penguin in the hospital, he tells ANOTHER CLOAKED FIGURE that he did the best he did what was asked of him. We are then revealed to a devious grin of a green faced, red eyed...person, I guess, asking Penguin to help him open the gates of hell. FUUUUUUCK, another subplot.

I don't care who this person is

Shuffle back to the young Batmobile thief and we see her approach her home. We are shown that her father is being sweated by, I don't know, some gangster guys or something, wanted information from Wayne Industries. If he does not get them what they want, then they will hurt his family. Back to the Batmobile, where Dawn unveils her terrifying past. She tells Batman that her father led a cult and worshiped the devil, Hell, evil; all that good stuff. Dawn details that she was brought into this world to be sacrificed so that her father may live longer than a normal human and gain demonic powers. His plot failed and he was unable to kill her and then died of old age. She explains that she never feels free of him and that she is still chasing her. Now, this is good n' all, but when are we going to be shown a deeper relationship between her and Bruce?

Return to the GCPD, where this Frobes subplot is trying to gain my attention, we find that Forbes has planted drugs in the Commissioner's desk...am I to expect that someone would buy that? Oh shit, they do and Gordon is dragged out of his office and Forbes is to replace him. How ridiculously lame. You'd figure it would take more than that prick Forbes obviously planting drugs in his desk to Gordon removed. Very dull, very unimaginative. But the UNINTERESTING scene is short lived as we rejoin Etrigan following the Ragman in the sewers.

Etrigan finds the Ragman and engages only to be stopped by Blaze. What? Who the fuck is this now? Why does this book bring in so many fucking characters?! I don't know, fuck it. Apparently, Blaze can return Etrigan his full power if he decides to be her minion. He does and joins Ragman and his devil mistress, owner, chick. Whoever, she looks STUPID! Dawn finishes her story to Batman detailing her kidnapping which was done by Ragman. They head to Dawn's apartment to grab a few things but we are left with an image of fucking demons crawling all over the building. FUUUUUUUCK. Why are demons in Batman?!

Aren't you not supposed to feed these guys after a certain time?

The two are attacked and Batman is quickly overran by, fuckin' gremlins, whatever, I really stopped caring at this point. Dawn is taken and we are cut to a sacrificial gathering where Ragman intends to kill Dawn. Cut back to an awaking Batman who is engaged in combat by Etrigan. The two duke it out but Batman seems to have the upper hand. He then taunts Etrigan saying that he wasn't as powerful as he was when he had his “rhyme.” I'm assuming that this is his main source of power but there's no way in hell I'm even going to get into that. Etrigan then turns on Blaze since she refuses to give the demon all his power.

Sick burn?

Back to the sacrifice where Ragman reveals that he isn't Ragman but Dawn's father(oh my god, what a shock, blah, blah). This would be shocking if it wasn't so OBVIOUS and maybe if I had GAVE A SHIT about the characters! His attempt to sacrifice Dawn is interrupted by Etrigan and Batman and – WHAT THE FUCK?! No, it can't be. There's no fucking way. Etrigan announces he and Batman as “The Demonic Duo.” How fucking LAME is that? Seriously! This is fucked up on so many levels. What a piece of shit. I don't know if this a joke or just piss poor writing. Either way, it is terrible.

facepalm

The two battle their way to Dawn but are too late. She is dead and the sacrifice is over. Fuck it, I didn't give a flying donkey shit any way, I barely knew who she was. Dawn's father begins his laughter but not until Batman gives the signal to Etrigan to...blow up his head...Yep, Dawn is killed, her father restored and then her father killed in two pages. Wow. Way to make me care Finch.

We close the novel with the young thief confronting some, I don't know, dudes at a dock- FOR FUCK'S SAKE, WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?! She gives them a jamming device to save her father's life but we find out that Batman is the one that made her give it to them – and you know what, fuck it, it's over.

This comic was very poor. One million subplots that I didn't care about, one million characters that I didn't care about, pointless deaths, deaths of characters I didn't even get a chance to relate to; just a jumbled mess. I guess all the subplots are there to make me want to continue reading The Dark Knight series but I've had all I could take. On a positive note, the illustrations were awesome. Great job. David Finch needs to stick with that. But the plot of the heap of crap is just unbearable. I mean, hobo hunting subplots and demons from hell is not my kind of Batman. Take what you will from this but I will not be continuing this series. Fuckin' Demonic Duo.