Risso delivers some fantastic art in this issue. The visual style perfectly captures the gritty, dark tone of the story and its flawed characters. Read Full Review

If the stories of this altered universe are going to be this solid, then I'll be sad to see it go when it inevitably does. Read Full Review

Azzarello and Risso have concocted a slick, superhero neo-noir that really plays on presuppositions of the Batman character and his legacy. The artwork is fiercely evocative of Risso's 100 Bullets grit and grime, and the scripting is pitch-perfect. I would have loved to see this as an Elseworlds book, but it's so good that I'm not too disgruntled by it being a Flashpoint tie-in. Obviously this is a character model that won't stick once Geoff Johns' epic has run its course, but it should be a compelling reverie while it lasts. Read Full Review

I would give the story a solid four and a half out of five for catching my imagination and allowing me to invest in some of the characters. The art I give a three because, while Risso's layouts and detail to Gotham are impeccable, the inconsistency with the already established Kubert version of Thomas Wayne pulled me out of the story entirely a few times. Overall I believe the comic deserves a four out of five stars; very much worth reading, plus you get a nifty pin! Read Full Review

It's a shame that "Flashpoint: Batman: Knight of Vengeance" is only three issues long. Already there seems enough depth in this Gotham and its protector that it could easily carry an ongoing series. Read Full Review

Brian Azzarello works with an interesting Gotham here and it's one that puts Wayne in a new light that actually is an interesting angle to work with. It takes some of the core ideas about the Batman mythos with him wanting to understand crime in order to defeat it in a direction that allows it to do something relatively new. By reworking the origin to make Thomas into Batman and however long that may have happened gives it a different flavor as well, rougher and born out of a different era. While I haven't read the core Batman series in several years now, this one left me interested in seeing where it will go for this short run and enjoying its alternate take on things. The rougher feel, the elimination of villains and the twist on the origin story all comes together well here as well as the whole privatization of the police force as well. Read Full Review

Don't get me wrong, Flashpoint: Batman #1 is a well written, well drawn comic, it just doesn't carry much weight. Hopefully the second issue of Flashpoint: Batman - Knight of Vengeance can turn things into high gear and make this companion mini-series worth the investment. Read Full Review