From his early steps as the Caped Crusader, a retrospective about his different incarnations over the eras, an insight about his motivations and visions from alternate futures, Batman will continue fighting against criminals no matter what.
Let's start by talking about the first story written by Brad Meltzer. The plot is as basic Batman as you can get, unfortunately Meltzer doesn't concentrate in developing new aspects of the Batman's mythos and pretty much tell the same story we have been reading since his creation. There are a few nice aspects here and there but again, they're not exactly unique, not to mention that all those "I do it" got annoying in the early pages and Meltzer kept repeating them over the entire story. Bryan Hitch's art is consistent but not as strong as it used to be on his prime unfortunately.
Now Gregg Hurwitz' story works much better at representating Batman over his different times and interpretations, the ending is a bit underwhelming but the rest was just wonderful. Plus, this is the best art I have seen from Neal Adams in a while, it's good to know that he still has the skills to keep working on the industry.
Peter Tomasi's vision of the future was a quite interesting and charming tale about the pre-Flashpoint Batman by revesiting the lost continuity. Ian Bertram's work was wonderful and I wish I could see him on future DC projects.
Francesco Francavilla's play a bit more with the current continuity by focusing on the James Gordon Jr.. The story is not that long nor special but that art! My God, Francavilla just does it fantastically.
Mike W. Barr investigates a bit more about Bruce Wayne's motivations and despite that the narration is a bit dated, the story is still pretty solid. Guillem March on art certainly helps at creating a creepy atmosphere for it.
Here we come to the real meat of this issue, the beginning John Layman's upcoming Gothtopia storyline and as far as alternate plots go this seems to have a nice premise and an unique setting. Jason Fabok provides the pencils and he's simply outstanding, like a more refined and flexible David Finch.
Finally we receive another story about the future, this time told by Scott Snyder, where we behold a quite different vision in which a Batman will always exist to combat crime. It was a pretty good tale with a quite nice set of characters. Sean Murphy also brings his A+ game with his distinctive artwork.
In summary, I must say that this is a worthy anniversary issue, the stories rank from solid to pretty good and if I had to pick my favorite I would mention that I enjoyed Layman's Gothtopia the most which says good things about the following crossover.
Satisfying issue and it also serves as a good set-up for stories to come.
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