A police officer is handing Batman a gun. He’s pointing it at his temple. Only the police officer isn’t actually handing him the gun. But he really IS pointing the gun at his head. And something is very, very wrong. Strange darkness is at work in I Am Batman #15. Writer John Ridley orchestrates a turning point in the life of the latest Batman with the aid of artist Karl Mostert and colorist Romulo Fajardo Jr. There’s a stark brutality to the showdown between Batman, himself, and an ancient villain from another planet who uses the hero’s own uncertainty against him.

He’s killed someone. Beaten him to death. Only he hasn’t. The cop wants him to kill himself. Only she doesn’t. Batman’s confused. He hops on his cycle in the middle of a rainstorm in Queens. He’s got to clear his head if he’s going to make any sense of anything. He will have some difficulty doing so, though. Sinestro has been hired to kill Batman. Killing a young, inexperienced Batman would be a very tedious affair for someone of Sinestro’s immense power. So he’s going to play with his victim before he closes in for the kill. 

Ridley has set himself up for a hell of a challenge. He’s placing a fledgling street-level hero up against a cosmic-level supervillain. To make the conflict seem at all believable, he really needs to find a way of making it a fair fight. Early on, the real conflict lies between this particular Batman and himself, which serves as an engagingly gradual lead-up to a final conflict that hits the page with impressive brutality. It’s a strikingly dramatic progression from cover to cover. Probably the single most satisfying Batman-related story to come out this week.

Mostert hammers home the intensity of the action with highly kinetic art. Batman is slammed gracefully across the page time and again in a Queens that is drenched in rain. Fajardo Jr. gives the rain-soaked night a deeply immersive quality. There’s a palpable depth to the aggression. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the big, final showdown at issue’s end. The splatter of blood across the page hits with overwhelming percussion. Not all of it is perfect. The image of Batman holding a gun to his own temple should hit the page with a LOT more drama than Mostert manages. 

It’s not just the gun. There are a few other moments that don’t quite live up to their potential, but for the most part, this is an admirably powerful chapter in the life of a young Batman. This is particularly impressive given how totally over-done this sort of thing is. The “hero questions his or her value but is ultimately galvanized before beating the hell out of the villain” trope has been done to death. Ridley and company give the old cliche new life in an issue cleverly executed from beginning to end.

Grade: A