Review by Frank Plowright
This final No Man’s Land compilation brings the story home, with Greg Rucka the equivalent of showrunner, his contributions here the most frequent after having been absent from Volume 3. As has been the case throughout these 21st century reissues, the quality of the additional material dilutes what in the five volumes released from 1999 had been a tight thriller.
If anything screams of the misguided 1990s excess DC would now prefer to forget, it’s Jim Balent’s once extraordinarily popular art on Catwoman. She’s ridiculously proportioned, fetishised in exploitative poses and shown in her underwear, and the original editors should be ashamed of letting Balent away with such poor taste. In comparison, Scott McDaniel’s questionable Batgirl is positively restrained. As Azrael’s story connects with Catwoman it’s one of the few during the entire series when events are repeated.
On the other end of the quality scale, Devin Grayson’s opening examination of medical ethics is first rate, but not best served by Dale Eaglesham’s inability to supply the full emotional spectrum. Rucka continues to progress the disturbing relationship between Two Face and Renee Montoya during a trial for James Gordon, and writes a brilliant reconciliation between Gordon and Batman with artist Rick Burchett bringing out every nuance.
Chuck Dixon’s contributions to earlier volumes dragged the quality down, but Nightwing recovering under Oracle’s care is sweet, and a subsequent attack and escape well plotted. It also sets up later events in Birds of Prey.
Rucka co-writes the final chapters with Grayson, and it brings to a head a plot about who’s involved in a furtive plan to rebuild Gotham. Their identity is concealed until halfway through here, but it’s a credible choice both in financial terms and in having the resources to see off Batman if required. Sergio Cariello turns in a fine Joker appearance, a character whose involvement has been restricted until this volume. It’s with the end run that No Man’s Land most suffers in comparison to the smoothness of the earlier trades, shoehorning in other characters, and that’s allowing for John Ostrander dropping a good surprise for Catwoman, and the conflicted spirituality of Dennis O’Neil’s Azrael. They interrupt what’s plotted as an escalating five chapter showdown leading to a tragic finale, with Azrael’s appearance actually pre-empting part of it.
Dixon’s Robin story precedes Rucka’s epilogue, with the final two chapters drawn by N. Steven Harris and Pablo Raimondi respectively, both new to the series, and both very good indeed. They close off separate aspects of the continuity touchingly and with very different moods.
Accept the jerkiness of the chapters and the repetition, and this is a far better collection than Volume 3, with which it’s combined as the second No Man’s Land Omnibus.
