Overall an excellent issue with a pitch-perfect, oppressive atmosphere for a Batman mystery. The use of birds throughout as foreshadowing for the reveal at the end is fantastic. The only snags are the dissonance at the beginning between Bat-Dick’s childhood story and the children shown. It reads like a flashback at first. The crime lab scene is also an off note in an otherwise brilliant showing.

As a bridge issue, DC 874 is marvelous. The art complements the foreboding, nightmarish quality of the overall story and, through clever visual metaphor, makes the Gordon family opening chapter flow into the Bat family chapter that closes the issue, a visual metaphor that, along with Dick's hallucination, acts as foreshadowing to a future storyline.

Absolutely on key from start to finish. The art and story complement each other perfectly. The whole issue conjures the line from Melville, “bad thoughts and sad dreams,” and with its focus on Gordon & Bullock pulls off what Streets of Gotham tried but rarely managed to achieve.