The Doom That Came to Gotham Book Three

Batman:The Doom That Came to Gotham #3

2001

What ultimately limits The Doom that Came to Gotham to mediocrity is the fact that it is written to be a comic book. Comics conventions win out over the Lovecraftian elements. The horribly mutated Ludvig Prinn dies exactly seven pages after we are told he cannot. The final confrontation is a very un-Lovecraftian fistfight between Bruce Wayne and the resurrected Ra’s Al Ghul, culminating in a very Derlethian conclusion. Ra’s Al Ghul’s beautiful and dutiful daughter Talia, who resurrects him, falls in love with Bruce Wayne, thus providing him with two convenient escapes. This is all conventional, acceptably trite comic book plotting, but it’s jarringly out of place in a Mythos tale. Admittedly, the stories of Lovecraft and his legions of imitators have their own well-worn grooves, but I was hoping the coming together of these two different traditions would lead to some hybrid vigor in the plot. Sadly, it’s not so.
The most unfortunate thing about The Doom that Came to Gotham is that it’s an astounding $7.95 an issue! That’s the price of a novel, which will last me much longer! All three issues sum up to the price of a hardcover, which really diminished my taste for the series. Although ambitious, Doom that Came to Gotham ultimately trips over the conventions of its own medium. Which is a pity, because it has a nicely mysterious back story, moody art, and some very good moments.