Batman: The Drowned #1

Writer: Dan Abnett

Artists: Philip Tan and Tyler Kirkham

Colourists: Dean White and Arif Prianto

Letterer: Tom Napolitano

With each issue of METAL, we have a better understanding of this Dark Knights. Only a few of them have been focused on, so these tie-ins are great for those interested in learning more about these characters. This particular character, the Drowned, has a fresher reason to be the person she is. This issue contains the most narration of all the tie-ins, and this narration comes from the Drowned herself. Her motivations and the reasons she differs from Batman are completely new and very interesting to me, thereby creating a character that I genuinely want to see more of.

One of my hesitations going into this issue was Philip Tan's art. I personally don't connect to his work like others have, mostly because of the anime or manga style visible in his character work. I'm not a fan of anime or manga so it's not really Tan's fault. However, I think his work really fit the strange tone this issue was trying to invoke and I'll give Tan props for changing up his style a bit. His art is clearer than I've ever seen it.

Tyler Kirkham is also credited as an artist and I'm a huge fan of Kirkham's work. His pages were wonderful and a particular gruesome page in the middle of the book looked incredible. The transition between Tan and Kirkham didn't feel jarring at all, mostly because I was enjoying the art so much, but it works on a story level since there is a flashback element to the story that Kirkham handled.

I like what Abnett did with this character; I felt more of a connection to her than I did with other Dark Knights, probably because of her perspective being the focus of this issue. Tan and Kirkham's artwork impressed me, particularly Kirkham's. Despite my enjoyment of the issue, I wouldn't rank it high on the list of these one-shots.