Writers: Scott Lobdell and Jeph LoebPlot: Don Franchetti orders Jackie Estacado to put the hit on Batman, but after one of his old friends appears, Jackie learns that when you're in Gotham, the darkness belongs to the Dark Knight.
One of the footnotes, supplied by Denny probably, states that the story takes place before No Man's Land. That's true, but it definitely takes place before Cataclysm, too, since all of Gotham's buildings are intact and everything seems to be running fine.
Oracle's made mention of in this Prestige Format issue, but she's never on panel. I wouldn't have minded seeing how Silvestri handled Babs, but I'm sure glad he returned for this Darkness story. His successors on that title have done quite well for themselves, but I've always preferred Silvestri's pencils for Jackie.
I recall reading somewhere that this story would have major ramifications for the Darkness monthly, and though I haven't read the last five or six issues of it yet, I'm just wondering if that's true, because Jackie's uncle reaches a major plot point in this one.
So that's where Jenny's been all this time! Seems kinda odd that they'd put her in Gotham, since you'd think she'd be trying to escape from the wacky city life, though it fit perfectly for the story itself.
I thought it was inane that Frankie would even consider to turn on Jackie like that, only because Jackie didn't off Batman. He's failed Frankie before, and this is hardly something for his uncle to go crazy over. Certainly not crazy enough to want to kill his star assassin, the person he's most wanted to protect and keep as part of the family for the past 25 issues of The Darkness. That whole scene in the precinct defeated their relationship without good reason.
Jackie didn't seem to reach his potential in this book. It's like he had reservations the whole time, and never had any intention of beating Batman. Normally, he'd kill without thinking. But maybe those five or six Darkness issues I haven't read yet show a different Jackie evolving.
The only annoying thing about it was Top Cow's insistence with two-page splashes. In Prestige Format, those really bite. A couple of lines of dialogue between Jenny and Jackie were caught in the binding, and three or four otherwise awesome shots of Batman and the Darkness fell to the same affliction.
