Batman: War Games

(DC, 2005)
™ and © 2004 DC Comics, Inc.

A series of mysterious letters summons the big figures of Gotham City’s criminal underworld to a late night rendezvous outside a deserted factory. When the sender of the missives fails to show up, tensions build until somebody picks the wrong time to reach for the lighter in his jacket pocket. A massive shootout ensues, and the survivors and successors continue their battle throughout the city, plunging it into a maelstrom of gang warfare. Batman, Oracle and Batgirl fight the spreading violence directly, while Catwoman, Orpheus and Onyx protect their turf in their own manner. But even with Nightwing and Tarantula taking time away from Bludhaven to help, the violence expands past the normal bounds of conduct to engulf the innocent as well as the guilty.

— Joe Trela

From The Comics Buyer’s Guide:

Not only does “War Games” end badly, creatively and otherwise, it takes forever to get there. It’s a classic example of a branded “event” that got away from both its editors and some talented writers (plus guys who apparently have never read a Batman comic before) who were unfortunately caught up in this miserable mess.

The plot is simple enough: Blackmask (the man who has to polish his head, now looking as if he was separated at birth from The Red Skull) tries to take control of Gotham’s organized crime. The twists and turns keep coming but fail to engage, coming off as mere pretexts to keep this feeble excuse for a story going yet another month.

There’s gratuitous torture, failure is piled atop failure, the death of one regular character is followed by another (does anyone know either of them well enough to actually mourn their passing?), and the Gotham police, who really should know better, stupidly turn their backs on the vigilantes when they’ve never needed them more.

— S. A. Bennett

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