Review by Frank Plowright

There’s an awful lot to admire about City of Madness, not least a brilliantly stylish painter bringing his personal vision to Gotham. That Christian Ward is an extremely capable artist is no longer a surprise, but that he’s also an extremely capable writer wasn’t previously known. Yet that’s not even half of it, as he’s also a clever one. City of Madness is a dark journey, more horror than the usual crime/superhero template for Batman, because there’s always horror to be found in Gotham.

Two-Face is introduced relatively early, Harvey Dent claiming he’s now in control, yet needing help. We also take a look at the Court of Owls, the ancient secret society within Gotham. They’ve been guarding and concealing something that has now escaped. Comparative innocence is represented by a young teenager heading toward Gotham with a gun. He heard his father’s last moments during a phone call, and wants revenge. Ward draws these three seemingly unconnected strands together around a third of the way through City of Madness, which hinges on a personification of Gotham, which for most would actually be Batman, yet here is a hunter of sorts, but something altogether more feral. The madness aspect comes through use of villains already touched with madness, as disturbed versions of Two-Face, the Ventriloquist and Clayface appear.

Ward’s art is a visual tour de force, and just as the story is never predictable, neither is the art. The most obvious touchstones in places are 1980s greats Bill Sienkiewicz and Dave McKean, whose work on Arkham Asylum was an era-defining look at Gotham’s relationship with sanity. However, while influences may be seen, Ward’s painting is original and constantly remarkable, the compositions prioritising what will startle, yet never compromising the storytelling.

Another touchstone is the more recent Dark Metal event, where the horrific seeped into a familiar world, and like that, by the time Batman eventually comes to deal with the darkness, a lot needs taken on faith because Ward plays fast and loose with convenience. It’s a shame, as the set-up showed a better writer than one who lazily plots Batman’s escape with the threat addressed. Perhaps there should also have been less space allocated to teasing a sequel, and more to a reckoning with the Court of Owls.

For many, though, that won’t matter as Ward’s astonishing art will prove more than enough to make this a book to flick through again and again.