Review Shooter: Batman Streets of Gotham #21

Writer: Paul Dini

Artist: Dustin Nguyen

   Well, this is a bitter sweet issue. As you may already know, DC has canceled this book, and this is the last issue. Dini does a good job wrapping it up, and I do like the ending, but I can’t help but feel he had more stories to tell in this title. Maybe he’ll get to do another stint on Detective Comics or one of the other bat-titles, but I wish this season had kept on and Dini was able to do everything he wanted to.

   Anyway, on to the issue itself. Paul Dini has been writing Batman since the early ‘90s on Batman: The Animated Series, so he clearly knows his way around the character, however Batman is actually not a huge part of the issue. Since Hush’s creation by Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee in 2003, not a whole lot had been done with the character, until Dini did “Heart of Hush” back in 2008, and he finally did the character some justice. Hush has since been popping up throughout Streets of Gotham. The style that Dini writes Hush is second to none, even Loeb, and since the issue is mostly from Hush’s perspective, the writing is really good.

   Dustin Nguyen has been working with Dini since Heart of Hush, and the two really work well together. His art really goes well with Dini’s writing style and the tone of the books. And it’s just plain beautiful. There’s something about the way he draws these characters that is very unique and can’t be seen in any one else’s artwork.

New reader accessibility scale: 2 This is not only a conclusion to the “House of Hush” story, but also to the entire Streets of Gotham Series, and it relies on you knowing Heart of Hush and the other Hush stories that have been written, so this is really not a good spot to jump in, not to mention that there won’t be any more issues after this so it really isn’t “jumping in”… but I digress. If you haven’t been following this story, pick up the Hush trades, especially the Dini ones.