Lemire was clearly having fun with this take on Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns, as we finally get the Black Hammer-verse's version of the caped crusader, sans the fortune. The story heavily focuses on Skeleton Boy, and plays some nice tricks in its remixing of Batman tropes, going to some dark places that wouldn't normally be allowed over at the Distinguished Competition. There's nothing revolutionary at play here but everything is well done and Lemire's writing left me wanting to read more.

Zonjic's character designs, based on Lemire's nearly finished sketch pages, are incredibly clean and well done. The masks on both of the title characters create some stark imagery and the outlines really pop against the dark colors. Zonjic does a solid job creating some really striking color contrasts at points but, in what's probably the book's biggest flaw, I kept finding myself struggling to see what was happening. The colors were too dark at points and there wasn't enough contrast created to get a full picture.

Even with a few minor flaws, this was an entertaining read and a worthy addition to the Black Hammer universe.