Review: Batman: Nightwalker by Marie Lu (DC Icons #2)

After an excellent first instalment in the DC Icons series, I was a bit hesitant to pick up the second volume. After all, Bruce Wayne's personal history isn't well, quite as happy as some of the other DC superheroes. He was the classic poor rich kid, the one whose parents died and left him a fortune. What of his story then. Would I get one of a sulking teenager who is dragged into fighting crime kicking and screaming.

Hardly. Author Marie Lu knows what she's doing.

We meet Bruce Wayne as a newly minted adult, an eighteen-year-old who has just come into a fortune and who crashes the new car he's been gifted by Wayne Tech for his birthday by going after some dangerous criminals. It's an ill-advised move--the police are suspicious of his motives and he ends up getting sent to do community service at (where else) Arkham Asylum. There, he meets Madeline, a brilliant killer, but also the one person who may be able to help him save Gotham City from its latest threat ...

This was an enjoyable read, quick, fun and well-written. Lu portrays Bruce as everything a young Batman should be, a young man who mostly well-adjusted and focused on creating a fair and just society for all. Madeline is an intriguing anti-hero, though I have to admit that I hated her at times.

A fun read. Recommended.

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