Writers: Alan Grant and Norm BreyfoglePlot: The Kook returns, joining forces with Batman and a murdered scientist's daughter to discover the truth about Area 51.
This story is worlds better than its progenitor, Batman: The Abduction, and I suspect that might have something to do with the fact that Breyfogle helped Grant with the writing. They teach us a few more conspiracy theories, and it's also some of Breyfogle's best work, as he produces the inks and pencils to make the story come to extraterrestrial life.
Okay, so the aliens hinted at in The Abduction aren't really present here, and Dreamland easily operates on its own, but the one element that really scared me going into this book was when I came upon the return of the Kook, Franklin Selly. Thankfully, he's not annoying anymore. We're finally told that his abilities don't result from any drug, they're inherent psionic powers that were amplified by the cosmosis concoction he previously came up with. And I know it sounds like a miracle, but Jeremiah Arkham's work in the asylum actually paid off for once, since Franklin Selly is cured of his alien psychosis.
The neatest part of the story was Batman's infiltration of Area 51. From his heat-masking cape, to the five-storey gymnastic jumping, and the precisely-timed fan-blade freefall, he makes James Bond look like a pansy. A portable electromagnetic pulse generator is always a handy item for any vigilante to have, too.
On page 37, the writing duo extends Arthur C. Clarke's 2001 mention by providing Batman with mentally taxing images similar to those experienced by Dave Bowman.
At the end of the story, we're left just as puzzled as Batman is, not knowing whether aliens truly exist, and wondering what the point of The Abduction storyline was. Grant closes it off with captions reminiscent of his political slant, previously utilized through a certain activist he created - Bruce seems frustrated. I think it's because he realized he just sounded like Anarky.
