DC/RWBY #7 // Review
Gotham City is a total nightmare, but at least it's art. It is a city of nightmares ruled over by a monster and guarded by an orphan prince. The prince must stay atop the beast, but if he were ever to defeat it, he would fall. It's a poetic, little way of framing the life of Bruce Wayne, but the stories are far too easy this close to the end in DC/RWBY #7. Writer Margueritte Bennett and artist Soo Lee continue their journey with colorist Marissa Louise. The big crossover fusion continues as the peril to the DC Universe reaches the big climax.
Batman attacks a nightmare on a dark horse. There's glowing green radiating from the eyes of horse and rider, both of which are the exact same color: a deep, demonic red. Batman is battling something a lot bigger than a single opponent, but he's got a few friends from out of town who are there to help him out. It's dangerous on more than one level, and there's going to be a great deal of sacrifice before everything is finally over, but at least it ends. The rest of the danger lurking around the corners of Gotham City and beyond can stretch their legs and wait for the right opportunity.
Bennett reaches the climax of a story with a very fast-paced action issue. So much of the real estate of the issue is over before the action really feels like it's starting. The type of pacing will work much better for the collective addition than it does for individual issues. The action sequence that opens the issue covers all but the last few pages. The poetic fairytale rendering of Batman and his life that opens the issue brings the action to something of a lofty plane that serves the ending of the series quite well.
Lee has a delightful fluidity in the way her action hits the page. It's very impressive. And under the right circumstances, I could really have a tremendous impact. However, there hasn't been enough drama in this series as a whole to really give the action sequence at the beginning of this chapter the kind of impact it needs. It's just not there. The overall feeling is just not there. That being said, the end of the series feels satisfying. The renters, the drama, at the end of the issue, with a very clever hand, the rings the proper emotional weight to the series.
DC/RWBY hasn't always hit the page with perfect pacing for human Motion, but overall, the rest of the action in the final installment brings it all to her clothes with a delicate sense of poise. Had Bennett been a little bit more conscientious about making sure that everybody had the right amount of time on the page throughout the DC universe, it would've been just a bit more well-modulated. As it is, though, it's a memorable ending to a strange dramatic fugue in a very strange summer for the DC Universe with all of its many, many crossovers.
