Batman: Prey (expanded edition)

This edition of Prey collects two stories; the first, "Prey" (duh), follows on pretty well from Matt Wagner's two Dark Moon Rising stories even though they were released later; Batman and the Monster Men ends with Hugo Strange becoming a television psychologist, and that's exactly what he's doing here, and even though nothing in "Prey" indicates they've battled before, nothing indicates they haven't, either. "Prey" is a solid early days of Batman story, capitalizing on Batman's early inexperience, and giving him an effective villain in the person of Strange, who actually in working psychologically here, unlike in The Monster Men. My favorite bit is something you could only pull off in the comics medium; Strange is frequently seen show more talking a blond woman in his apartment, but it's very late in the game that you learn she's only a mannequin. Only in comics would a mannequin be indistinguishable from an very complacent person.

The second story is "Terror," which is set about a year later, when Batman's rogues gallery was much more developed. (It takes place between Batman: Year Two: Fear the Reaper and Absolute Batman: Dark Victory, which are coming up later in this readthrough.) Both Scarecrow and Catwoman play key roles in the story. Unfortunately, it feels much less focused than its predecessor, and Strange is shockingly eliminated about halfway through. Effective as a "twist," and the repeated image of his corpse is haunting, but I kept on expecting him to come back to life somehow and set this story back on the path it seemed to begin on. A waste of a good villain if nothing else.

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A quintessential early Batman story. Batman is still trying to figure out how to coexist with the police force in Gotham so he won’t have to be up against both them and the criminals. He knows his greatest link is Gordon, but Gordon too must walk a tight rope within the force.

Amidst this, Dr. Hugo Strange is brought in as a specialist to assist the force in catching Batman once and for all. But the police have no idea how obsessed Strange is with Batman and he quickly takes the mission off the rails.

There was some more theming that questions how Batman is different than the criminals themselves and some great scenes between him and Catwoman in this volume.