Batman/The Maxx: Arkham Dreams by Sam KiethMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Comic books shouldn't be art forward. There, I said it. Without compelling writing, the art serves more like a gallery than as a form of media. To be fair, comics shouldn't be writing forward either. The writing not being much if you don't have the art to direct it. Everything needs to work together in order to make a great graphic novel.
My point? This Maxx/Batman crossover has a great deal of awesome art, but little in way of a convincing story. The wording is surprisingly dense while not really saying that much. The structure is all over the damn place. Ranging from repetitive to confusing. And I would even say it's unintentionally funny. An example on the last point, when Batman meets Maxx, he describes him as a homeless person. While I'm not sure if the ludicrous nature of it was on purpose, I couldn't help but chuckle at the idea this huge purple monster with a severe overbite was supposed to be mistaken as a regular homeless person. Greatest detective my ass.
The art is great though. While the flow in the paneling could use a great deal of work, how the characters are drawn and framed are damn near perfect. I'd probably prefer a book without wording and just the art. If there's one thing I'd have to judge against it, is that the amount of work and detail seem to hinder on the distance. The further the character(s) are away, the less amount of detail goes into the page. There is a slight, but noticeable, change from up close of a characters' face that looks degraded if the page shows the same character from the waist up. Then if you get far enough away that the characters are in the distance, they look only slightly better than stick figures. I don't mean to take away from the insane talent on display, but I also couldn't help but mention it.
I'll admit that I wasn't familiar with the Maxx character before diving into this book. But I don't think knowing more would have helped my opinion. Characterization and plot dynamics aren't the huge problems here. Especially when you consider how the book goes out of its way to explain everything to you. The whole writing side of things just feels clunky. I was glad I was exposed to such great art but reading it felt like driving over grassy hills in a 2WD sedan.
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