Review by Ian Keogh

After the connected stories of Doug Moench and Kelley Jones occupying the entirety of Volume Two, this selection doesn’t quite return to the template of Volume One as it’s alternate Batmen features by assorted creators, but in a combination of shorter and longer outings.

To open the book. Moench and a variety of artists supply a world in which 89% of the population has died after a virus, to which a resurrected Ra’s Al Ghul returns. Recognising Batman’s efficiency, he uses Bruce Wayne’s designs to create an army of Batmen to restore order and leave him in control. However, in the city one young man is trained for perfect athleticism and believes in the ideals of the real Batman. It’s going through the motions, with the most interesting aspects the assorted new costume designs, given a thirty page spotlight afterwards complete with design notes.

Far more interesting is ‘Scar of the Bat’ by Max Allan Collins and Eduardo Barreto in which Eliot Ness and his personally selected team are having trouble bringing down 1930s gangster Al Capone. However, his job becomes a little easier when a mysterious bat-costumed vigilante begins roughing up gangsters. The big reveal won’t be a surprise, but Collins supplies a clever game of cat and mouse in evoking the lawlessness, Barreto’s sumptuous illustrative skills bring both period and characters to life, and seeing Batman using guns is a novelty.

Mike Grell really pours on the gothic melodrama for his reworking of Two-Face’s origin in mid-1800s Gotham in ‘Masques’, illustrating much of the story in spreads. Ballet dancer Harvey Dent is assaulted, enabling Grell’s re-run of The Phantom of the Opera, which has moments of tension, but ultimately leads to an abrupt and unconvincing finale showdown.

‘Dark Knight of the Round Table’ completes the collection, written by Bob Layton who also inks Dick Giordano’s pencils. Concerned about a prophecy that the then infant Mordred will sit on the English throne, and without Merlin to help and advise him, King Arthur takes the extreme step of exiling all young boys from England. Thomas Waynesmoor is among the outraged nobles to lose faith in the king, and there’s hardly any surprise when Bruce Waynesmoor grows to adulthood with a burning mission. It’s pulp adventure, where the plot inconsistencies take second place to the delights of seeing an armoured Batman on a unicorn. Layton has Bruce acquire equivalents of the trappings he’d have in the modern era, as Giordano delivers the necessary pages of battling knights in what’s a surprisingly gory tale, but one that’s enjoyable overall with some unpredictable elements.

This is a patchy collection, but overall the good outweighs the bad for anyone who enjoys an alternative Batman and is prepared to suspend disbelief.