Batman: Road to No Man's Land, Vol. 2

Batman: No Man's Land #3

by Dennis O'Neil

A devastating earthquake has left Gotham City in ruins, and the government is getting close to completely cutting it off from the rest of civilization. But there's one man who's vowed to save Gotham from whatever foe it comes up against, and now Bruce Wayne must put aside his life as Batman and put on his suit and tie as he takes his fight for the fate of Gotham to Washington, D.C.

In this, the final act before the beginning of the classic event, No Man's Land, Bruce Wayne, Robin, Nightwing and many others try to save their city from destruction once again—this time at the hands of the US government.

Collects: Batman #560-562, Detective Comics #727-729, Batman: The Shadow of the Bat #80-82, The Batman Chronicles #15, Azrael: Agent of the Bat #47-50, and Batman: No Man's Land Secret Files and Origins #1

Genres: Comics, Batman, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Superheroes, Comic Book, Fiction

200 pages, Paperback

First published May 10, 2016

About the author

Dennis "Denny" O'Neil was a comic book writer and editor best known for his work for Marvel Comics and DC Comics from the 1960s through the 1990s, and Group Editor for the Batman family of titles until his retirement.

His best-known works include Green Lantern/Green Arrow and Batman with Neal Adams, The Shadow with Michael Kaluta and The Question with Denys Cowan. As an editor, he is principally known for editing the various Batman titles. From 2013 unti his death, he sat on the board of directors of the charity The Hero Initiative and served on its Disbursement Committee.

Reviews

[Chris Browning · Rating 3 out of 5]

I mean surely a central concept like this should make you reevaluate the status quo in your fictional world. And a lot of this does - the story with Bruce Wayne going to the senate to beg for aid for Gotham feels like this sort of shift done properly. But then it’s tagged onto a plot line about some Marilyn Mansonesque pop star called Nick Scratch who is entirely what men in their late forties think the youths are listening to these days. And his plot doesn’t so much as end as just dissipate. So you get a real stylistic lurch from compelling vignettes to the worst excesses of the nineties with things like Azrael’s costume. I mean come on now. This sort of shit is all well and good when you’re ten and drawing your own characters called Ultra Kill Dude but publishing it from one of the big two with no sense of irony? Good Lord no

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oof, Nick Scratch is a terrible addition to this story. :-/

I know this volume had a few really important plot points to get us to No Man's Land (Bruce appealing to the U.S. Congress, the country cutting off Gotham, Arkham opening its doors & letting everyone loose, Wayne Manor getting destroyed/being suddenly gone, and the batkids stuck, not knowing where Batman is... but man, was this volume a drag. :(
It was my least favorite so far (I thought Batman: Cataclysm and Batman: Road to No Man's Land, Vol. 1 were much stronger volumes) & I'm so ready to get on to No Man's Land already...

What didn't work for me in this volume:
Firstly, the art was FUGLY. Azrael artist Roger Robinson was one of the main offenders. (Sorry! Nothing personal!)
Secondly, NICK SCRATCH. How is this ugly-looking vampire with a face tat the sexiest man in America??!! How does everyone want to get into his pants? I seriously don't get it. It made no logical sense... And since he pretty much sways public opinion to abandon Gotham, I think the suspension of disbelief is just too much.
Also Scratch talks like an actual crazy person, which confused me, since I think I generally liked Dennis O'Neil's writing before this.
Example of crazy person talk:
Nick Scratch is about to perform at his rock concert. He calls out to the stadium: "Thank you, everybody- Everybody except for Jabba the Hutt. I see you, Jabba, sitting in the back. Looking for Leia? Hey, bad news-- she's run off with the emperor-- she's got a thing for older guys. Anyway, here's a couple of chords and a few random notes from our latest CD."

I'm sorry, what the actual F, is that??

So, yeah. Between the writing and the art, the Azrael issues just sucked completely IMO.


Thirdly, The Batman Chronicles #15 was only OK, which also confused me since I love Kelly Puckett & Greg Rucka, but both of them wrote mediocre stories here.
The first story was Will to Power by Kelly Puckett. Green Lantern comes to Gotham in pursuit of a crime he witnessed. Batman is rude and takes his ring away from him. Shockingly, with little fuss, Kyle (Green Lantern, sans ring) continues to go after the bad guys... (Turns out the reason why Batman didn't want Green Lantern to get involved was because Batman was going undercover to infiltrate the baddies, but he didn't say anything, so Kyle shows up and gets in the way, anyway.)
Kyle gets the snot beat out of him, but he got what he came to Gotham for and Batman gives him his ring back with a compliment. The story is a fluff piece and totally awfully placed in the middle of Road to No Man's Land. We're in the middle of a crisis here. Green Lantern showing up begs the question, where is everybody? Where is the Justice League during Gotham's darkest hour? Why doesn't GL stay to help Batman? Does this even take place during No Man's Land?
Also, how in heck wasn't Kyle more pissed at Batman for taking his friggin ring?!
And, the art by Joe Staton (and colors) were sadly terrible. This whole story was another bust.
But the next story is even worse.

Between Stars Above and Below by Marco Palmieri, with dark and gothic art which I also hated, by James A. Hodgkins, was a weird little romance story between Barbra and Man-Bat. Yes, Man-Bat.
This actually does take place during Road to No Man's Land... Barbra is at the end of her rope and feeling super dejected and helpless and hopeless. Two men somehow easily break into her place, but luckily for her, Man-Bat comes crashing through her window to save her. Apparently, he's been watching her for a long time now. The Watchtower was emitting some sort of frequency that he was drawn to...or something like that.
(As an aside, Man-Bat is interestingly drawn to look like a horned devil here. Never seen him look like that before.)
Anyway, Man-Bat saves Barbra, and then he takes her flying around the city, which reinvigorates her and gives her a new perspective of the city she loves. It's supposed to be romantic(?!) & is just super weird.

An Answer in the Rubble by Greg Rucka, is the third story, and also falls victim to awful art and colors. This mysterious no-faced guy follows Huntress around asking ambiguously if "She can see" and if "She can be saved".. and I just was super disappointed in whatever this story was trying to do. Who is that faceless man? Why? What's his deal?
It read all mysterious and woo woo in a campy way.

I found Batman: Shadow of the Bat #80, 81 & 82 Wax Man and the Clown by Alan Grant to be fine. Not my favorite, but in no way was it my least favorite of the volume. The art by Mark Buckingham is scratchy and dark, but at least Nick Scratch isn't in it. These issues take place in Arkham Asylum behind locked windows and doors, post-quake. They are running out of food, medication, and staff. Every day, more orderlies and guards leave. Doctor Arkham doesn't know what to do; stuck between keeping everyone shut-in and slowly starving everyone to death, or letting everyone out to wreak havoc (and murder) on the streets of Gotham. Sadly (and kinda understandably?), Arkham lets everyone free. Which means, we're ready for Batman: No Man's Land, Vol. 1!

What did work for me in this volume: Batman and Dective Comics issues.
Firstly, the best issues of this volume were Batman #560, 561 & 562 Bruce Wayne Goes to Washington & The Devil and his Due by Chuk Dixon. I loved seeing Bruce Wayne fight for Gotham for a change. <3 (Even though it was totally hopeless and grim.)
I also liked the art by Jim Aparo much better than everything else we got here.
There's one page in #561 where Bruce is speaking on the TV, fighting for Gotham in front of Congress in one frame, and then you see him being listened to by Alfred, Gordon, and Tim in the following frames. It was really well done.

(Sadly we also got some weird/crazy person talk Nick Scratch dialogue from Dixon too. :(
In Scratch's TV appearances, he kept referring to the average American as "Mr. and Mrs. Six-Pack", which was beyond weird, and also feels kinda insulting? Why does everyone love him?!)

Secondly, I loved the team-up of Robin and Nightwing in Detective Comics #727, 728 & 729. The art by William Rosado is also a lot cleaner and easier on the eyes.
In issues #727-729 we see Nightwing and Robin take down The Firefly, Dynamiteer, Tumult, and Gearhead (3 new guys for me). I love seeing them work together. <3
I could have done without the continued Nick Scratch perspectives, but I did love watching James Gordon try to go for a job interview outside Gotham. Poor, Gordon. Stuck in Gotham with the most thankless job in the universe.

[Wing Kee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly solid but Nick Scratch makes everything worse.

World: The art is solid 2000s. The world building is a mixed bag. It does lead us into No Man's Land which is great but the world building pieces to lead us there are not. The driving forces which is tied to the story make no sense and DC pretty much just wanted it to happen but didn't think too hard...plus they gave us Nick Scratch which is one of my most loathed DC creations.

Story: I like the small individual pieces that we get here, the emotions and the variety is strong. Yes its an Aftermath book but there are enough little tiny moments of humanity and variety to savor that it's worth the read. There's the Arkham stuff, the Jim Gordon stuff, the Bruce Wayne stuff these pieces are good and builds character. The biggest issue with Road to No Man's Land is the contrived nature of getting Gotham where it needs to be. Chris Nolan did it better in 'Dark Knight Rises' with Bane blowing the bridges. Here we get fucking Nicholas Scratch, a dumb stupid character in every facet: design, origin, personality, plan and just personal voice. This is not even a poor man's Eclipto, he just sucks.

Characters: I like all the small moments here, Jim's decision, Sarah Essen, Bruce in Washington. What I don't like is Jean Paul Valley...zzz. And Nick Scratch...He's just a stupid character.

Solid if not for fucking Nick stupid fucking Scratch.

Onward to the next book!

[Daria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Better than the first volume, still nothing great though. There was one issue with Batman and Dick where there was a lot of introspection into their relationship and their characters and the way they evolved as characters which made me cry. There was also another issue where Batman gave the speech of why the Congress should save Gotham which was super cool with parallels of the speech and his life as Batman which also made me shed a tear. Something about parallel story telling. This one was more enjoyable to read because it had more put together story-telling and less "every single issue is just Batman moping around", although honestly, Nick Scartch didn't make it very enjoyable to read. Where did he come from. What is his deal. Why is he so upset about Gotham just existing. Also, one thing that was very upsetting was the fact that Jean-Paul seems to have had his mind wiped from the Knightfall arc because there were so many questions that Jean-Paul asks himself that have fully been tackled there so like. Idk. Maybe I was the only person subjected to reading Knightfall.
Jean-Paul is a bit much.

[Dr Rashmit Mishra · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a significantly better result than the previous volume . However even this hasn't aged well , and along with the 90s artstyle and cheesy dialogues , this book also has an additional burden of delivering a lot of monologue.

Nick Scratch retains his spot as the useless , unattractive villain , with absolutely no allure but his contribution mainly centred on him debating with billionaire Bruce Wayne in favor of declaring Gotham No-man's-land. This whole volume is about said debate , and if you aren't a big fan of long monologues in comics , this will piss you off .

There are other side stories involving various Batman universe characters ,including Jim Gorden , and I'd say they are interesting but really not all that appealing

[Jadyn❀ · Rating 3 out of 5]

More direction than volume 1 but not that much better and all because of one reason: Nick Scratch is uninteresting, unbelievable, unlikable, and unconvincing. A twentysomething rock star with a ridiculous backstory who dresses like THAT was more successful in convincing the government of ANYTHING than All-American white billionaire Bruce Wayne? Come on.

[Liz.Loki · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars.

This had some good moments, like Bruce at Washington representing Gotham during the trial, trying to save his city from being abandoned by the U.S. government.

But apart from that I found the rest really boring, I skipped all the monologues the villain Scratch had bc they're so lame. I also didn't care about Azrael at all.

[Gloria Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I liked Cataclysm fine, Road to No Man's Land was actually really good (both volumes). I guess there's something resonant about a story of a government giving up on its people in the middle of a horrible disaster and leaving the most vulnerable members of society to fend for themselves. In particular, there's a subplot in this volume about Jeremiah Arkham trying to figure out what to do with the inmates of Arkham Asylum as they run out of food and staff which is really fantastic and barely features any Batman.
Less fantastic is this TPB itself which I found to be strangely ordered. I haven't done research into why they structured the orders in the way they did but usually with an event like this you wouldn't present each series on its own, you'd put them in chronological order as they were published and as the story takes place, which they mostly did here. I'm assuming the issues are in order of publication but some issues from the same month aren't in order which ends up with a strange progression where we still jump back and forth between plot lines but major events will be referenced in one plot line that don't happen for several more issues in another title. If they were ordered more chronologically, it would flow better anyway and avoid a lackluster final issue and just makes more sense. Weird choice. For those that follow, instead of the listed order read it as follows:
1 The Batman Chronicles #15 (skippable) (originally 3)
2 Azrael #47 (originally 1)
3 Azrael #48 (originally 2)
4 Shadow of the Bat #80 (originally 8)
5 Batman #560 (originally 4)
6 Detective Comics #727 (originally 6)
7 Batman #561 (originally 5)
8 Shadow of the Bat #81 (originally 9)
9 Detective Comics #728 (originally 7)
10 Azrael #49 (originally 13)
11 Azrael #50 (originally 14)
12 Shadows of the Bat #82 (originally 10)
13 Batman #562 (originally 11)
14 Detective Comics #729 (originally 12)
15 No Man's Land: Secret Files and Origins #1 (originally 15)

[Brad · Rating 1 out of 5]

Imagine if Poochy was your bad guy. Not far from the reality here: a super-rich, tattooed rock star-turned-religious-leader-and-political-figure by the name of Nick Scratch is the villain. That, plus more Azrael--gag--makes for a volume that falls flat. It could've been good; the political "road to no man's land" could have made for interesting theatre (Bruce Wayne speaking before Congress, the ultimate decision on the fate of Gotham City), but instead we get henchmen whose faces are genetically transformed to look like devil faces. Bleh.

Also, the last section in this volume with character profiles and a No Man's Land Timeline inexplicably contains spoilers for the rest of the No Man's Land series. Avoid that.

[John Yelverton · Rating 2 out of 5]

With every book you read, there is an element in which the suspension of disbelief is necessary. This was one of those books which makes that impossible, as we're forced to believe that the United States would actually write off one of its cities and force relocate the entire population sans the lunatics from Arkham Asylum, conveniently for plot purposes.

[MrColdStreamComics · Rating 2 out of 5]

🙏🏼53% 👍9 👎8 = YOU SHOULD SKIP IT!
_________________________

"ROAD TO NO MAN'S LAND 2" FROM BEST TO WORST:

✅THREE:

Bruce's plea for help, the Batfamily fighting back and Gotham's isolation are the three key things in this collection that are the only notable narrative content.

✅TWO:

Interestingly, the narrative shifts slightly here, to focus more on Bruce fighting to save the last strip left of Gotham from various vultures attempting to shred it to pieces. You get the impression that he is desperate to save his city when everybody else has given up on it.

The middle Detective Comics issues (Fight of Flight) are fun, as they allow Nightwing, Robin and Oracle to fend off a wave of attacks from smaller Batman foes.

✅ONE:

The Batman issues are a nice mix of good storytelling and fine art. #561, in particular, is this long hearing process, which shows the strengths and weaknesses of Gotham and its citizens.

The final issue of the collection is a Batman Secret Files and Origins one-shot, with two short comic strips (skippable) and a bunch of informative character files on the key people appearing in the No Man's Land storyline. It's just a little extra for those interested to learn more.

⛔ONE:

The two Azrael issues at the beginning are okay, but I fail to see how they are relevant to the No Man's Land arc.

There are also the two closing Azrael issues, which are much like the opening ones but seem to be more interested to rethink the Azrael character and give him a new suit rather than proceeding with the narrative.

The Batman Chronicles issue features three very different and very generic stories, each of them only marginally tied into the ongoing arc. It's completely skippable.

The art is a light improvement overall, but still mostly a miss.

⛔TWO:

I couldn't get into the Waxman and the Clown arc, which feels so detached from the rest of the stuff and is very slow, so I ended up skipping it.

Nicholas Scratch is a nuisance who shouldn't have been created.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

No Man's Land was a monumental moment in the Batman mythos. In preparation for it, DC had an extensive build up across the various Batman comics at the time. After reading the second half of the Road to No Man's Land I am reminded why I had given up on collecting comics in the 90s - for all the audacious story lines they came up with, they were all too often mired down by ridiculous excuses for the those stories to take place, frequently paired with subpar storytelling and mediocre artwork. This whole idea of the new evil character "Scratch," some out-of-nowhere real devil-like guy who became a ridiculously famous and popular uber-intelligent, rich and popular musician who orchestrated assassinations and the government's decision to abandon Gotham after a devastating earthquake....well, it's just nuts. I could have bought the story more if it were just some corrupt or indifferent politicians deciding it themselves, even though the country abandoning one of it's largest cities in time of crisis is crazily unrealistic. I will say, however, that parts of that story line are frighteningly prescient of our political climate and situation today.
As for the titles included in this collection, the Azrael books are actually some of the better and more interesting ones. The saga of Arkham Asylum in The Shadow of the Bat was also pretty solid, and a mixture of the darker stories that began to pop up in the 90s mixed with the old fashioned style of stories one would expect in Batman. The Batman Chronicles is a title I mercifully had never heard of before, as it contained stupid storytelling and abysmal artwork. The main titles - Batman and Detective Comics - were up and down. Not the best writing or artwork, but not the worst. Knowing that there are several volumes of No Man's Land to read now, I just wonder how much they'll be like the ridiculous Road to, or if they'll prove to be better.

[Simeon Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

A pretty marked step down from the first volume, which mostly felt like a pretty grounded take on the concept of "What if an earthquake leveled Batman's city?", this feels more like traditional comic book story telling with a main villain introduced to challenge our heroes, who I've never heard of before and comes off like a grab bag of ideas stitched together with a pretty bad character design, with a ticking clock while acting as the face for the rest of the general public that wants Gotham to be shut down and cut off while the tone takes a more somber and desperate turn as we march towards the actual No Man's Land event. I did enjoy some of the stuff in here, namely the "Mr. Wayne Goes to Washington" issues, which was another really good showing of how Batman isn't just a crazy rich asshole who beats up poor people but is actually a smart man who loves his home and tries to use his power and influence to help people whenever possible, and the issue of Detective where Gordon briefly flirts with the idea of taking a cushy job with another department and leaving Gotham before learning that's actually not in the cards for him and is forced to realize the city needs him more then ever. Though the moldy bread that is four issues of Azrael they used to sandwich this does still make it hard to stomach. Art's about the same as the first volume really, since it is largely the same creative teams. I do want to come back and read the rest of No Man's Land sometime, but for now reading this all in one day has made me feel I need to do other things first.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

“No Man’s Land” Volume 2 continues the struggles of crime-ridden Gotham city to restore law and order after a devastating earthquake. Washington politicians don’t want to give any federal aid to the doomed city, seeing as how bad their crime is, and this leads Bruce Wayne to give a speech before a Congressional subcommittee. This particular story is great, and includes several pages of Batman’s history as illustrated by Jim Aparo.

There's an excellent story about Arkham Asylum and the sad-faced psychiatrist who's the last link in the chain between the people of Gotham and a Joker-led mob of supervillains who've recently had their medications changed.

Wayne is undermined in his efforts to help Gotham by Nick Scratch, who is a pure 1990s villaim. A metalhead rocker who, inexplicably, becomes America’s sweetheart. Imagine Ozzy Osbourne being the voice of reason for rural America and you’ll see how jarring this becomes during the course of the story. Scratch plans on establishing a criminal empire in Gotham because…that’s apparently how things work there (see also the Penguin, Joker, et al).

[Nate]

Nick Scratch… yeah, not a fan of this guy. As with Cataclysm, DC felt the need to have an overarching villain for “Road to No Man’s Land.” And like Cataclysm, it doesn’t really work. Maybe if they chose someone else (or, I don’t know, focused on politicians more) this book could’ve been more tolerable. But the pop star/celebrity supervillain is never a good idea and Scratch is a dumb character. Also, what’s his motivation? Why does he want to see Gotham destroyed? It’s not quite clear. While I’m complaining, I have no clue why DC put the Secret Files and Origins issue in the book. It was published a year after these issues and contains spoilers for No Man’s Land! Baffling.

The good stuff: everything with Bruce. His speech is fantastic, and there are some powerful moments with him and Alfred here, as well as Dick. You can feel Bruce’s hopelessness. Gordon and the GCPD, too, are compelling, and Gordon's decision (and the cops' reaction) is a great moment.

The lead up to No Man’s Land is generally good, with a few poor decisions and the usually clunkiness that comes with crossovers. I anticipate the main event being better.

[Justin Partridge · Rating 2 out of 5]

“Gotham City Must Die!”

I gotta say, this volume being basically one long set up to Jean-Paul Valley getting a new costume that I don’t remember at all is a huge bummer.

BUUUUTTTT still some diamonds in the rough here. Stuff like “Bruce Wayne Goes to Washington”, more Greg Rucka singles, the Shadow of the Bat three-parter “Wax Man and the Clown” from Alan Grant and Mark Buckingham, plus the timely inclusion of the Secret Files and Origins one-shot that preceded No Man’s Land proper. Like GREAT stuff there. Undeniably great stuff.

PLUS we get a lot of Tim and Dick just hanging out and having team ups, that’s been a really awesome thing for me personally as I’ve always loved that dynamic anyway and I was happy to see so much real estate dedicated to the two in the lead up issues to NML proper.

But whoooooo boyyyyyyyy do I not care about Nick Scratch. Just like…don’t care about his whole deal, I don’t think he’s menacing, and he’s got a really stupid design. Having to slog through soooooo many pages about this doofus just was not, not fun. Generally just really happy to be at the end of the Road To and actually getting to THEE event.

[Jordan Anderson · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s a lot of good in the second installment of Road to No Man’s Land. The tension is good. The set prices are all in place for the 5 part No Man’s Land. The stakes are the highest they’ve been, and, overall the story is well told. Of course Alan Grant and Chuck Dixon are no strangers to this epic arc so that was to be expected and Grant’s 4 part “Clayman and the Clown” arc was easily the best of this entire collection.

There’s also some bad. Nick Scratch is a lame villain and even though Azrael is back and Batman has started trusting him again, his storyline is very so-so. I kept expecting some huge reveal or something major to happen. Aside from a new suit, there’s nothing really to write home about. His quest to destroy Scratch isnt all that great either. The artwork for his character arc also leads something to be desired.

Overall though, as a precursor to what’s to come back in No Man’s Land, Road does its job well as a set up piece and has gotten me excited for the rest of this truly epic spread of stories.

[Chaitra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Second volume of the Road to No Man's Land is pretty much the same as the first. Bruce Wayne tries, but fails to convince the United States government that Gotham is worth saving. Nick Scratch does everything he can to light a big bad fire in Gotham, but kind of fails, in that the lackeys he uses are hopeless. Arkham Asylum is a mess, again, because no one shows up and Joker gets up to some mischief. Jeremiah Arkham is forced to make a moral choice - to keep the bad guys inside and let them starve? Or to put them out into an unsuspecting Gotham? He times it so that the residents arrive in time for the bridges to be blown, and they wouldn't menace the rest of the US, but honestly that was just bad thinking, because several innocent people still are in Gotham at the stroke of midnight. But what's Gotham without its crazies?

Mediocre artwork. The stories aren't too good either. It's a book for completists, really.

[ShaniGrim · Rating 2 out of 5]

This comic suffers big time from trying to stay as politically shallow as possible.

You see, the thing is, saying the government is bad for not offering financial aid to it's people in time of need might be interpreted as a socialist or even left leaning message- but the writer is a conservative who seems to try really very hard not to delve into the depths of this concept and it's meanings. So instead of tackling that conversation head on, we get an antagonist out of the mind of a 13 year old boy. A half head shaved, face tattooed Rockstar that's basically the devil. And of course it's HIM who's to blame. You see, he's the one who hates Gotham personally. He's the one who's making the government do all of that. Every interesting political discussion that could give this book substance is swept under the rug in favor of trying to throw in as many references to the devil/hell as possible.

Sure I guess. Whatever.

The Kyle Rayner story was fun. I love that dude.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Much better than the first volume of Road to No Man's Land. This volume shows the American government setting up to, and finally declaring, Gotham a No Man's Land. There's some good Bruce Wayne scenes, as Bruce attempts to convince the government to save Gotham. The villain of the piece is Scratch, and he really didn't work for me. He acts villainous for no real reason. He has no motivations for wanting to shut Gotham down, he has no real motivations for anything he does. He exists so the story has a clear villain, and it doesn't work. On the whole, there's good storytelling in here, there's good character development, and the writing is crisp and moves along nicely. The Scratch stuff is a little clunky, and some plot lines really, really strain suspension of disbelief - even for a comic book.

3.5 stars, rounded up.

[Jacob Shaffer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Again I feel it’s important to state that I have not yet read Cataclysm, tracking down a trade has proven to be much more difficult than I expected

Vol 1 of Road to NML was a lot of great stories in quaked- quoked- Gotham

Vol 2 is plot progression getting us to the big No Man’s Land, I’d imagine I ain’t read the shit yet
We have Bruce pleading with congress, we have Nick Scratch also pleading with congress I think but for the other side of the coin
It’s boring, but it’s building somewhere

We do have the oh so fun addition of Azrael in this book, and Nick Scratch is certainly a character, I had fun with him

[Leonca · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mixed bag. Nick Scratch was very goofy for me, so I skipped a lot of his stories. The story set in Arkham stuck out as the most interesting. The Joker seeks revenge for his embarrassment, and Dr. Arkham’s struggle with compassion fatigue is haunting when you know the statistics of suicide associated with the medical profession. I also got a kick out of an inmate cameo based on the legendary Scottish cannibal Sawney Bean.

[JD Comics · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has better stories compared to Road to No Man's Land, Vol. 1. My favorite is the issue where Bruch Wayne gave an emotional and powerful speech before Congress. He can be a politician if he wanted. I also like the story about Gordon, which I don't want to spoil, and the four-part Arkham Asylum story by Allan Grant. I'm starting to like Azrael as a character although his main villain, Nick Scratch, is ridiculous.

[Jordan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume is definitely more of a set up plot-wise for the coming arc than the previous volume, missing the thematic exploration during this unusual time. Still plenty of good issues. Writers playing with Bruce Wayne instead of Batman is an interesting change. The supporting cast, both heroes and villains, preparing for what is to come feels important but not as moving as the prior devastation depicted.

[Jolyne Kujoh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some ugly art and the dullness of the majority of the comic being Wayne giving speeches (or at least that's what it felt like) keeps this from reaching the heights it could.

The Arkham Asylum comic was the absolute highlight here, for obvious reasons, but for the most part this is all a set-up for whats to come.

Don't bother if you're not interested in the rest of the series, this doesn't work as a quality stand-alone.

[Anthony · Rating 3 out of 5]

The continuing saga of an earthquake riddle Gotham City, as Bruce Wayne travels to the nation's capital to plead his case for the salvation of his city. Meanwhile back in Gotham the mayhem and chaos continues as the Bat Squad does all that it can to keep some form of order as the city crumbles around them, and the populace dwindles as the people leave the area.

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel like this would’ve been much better if the villains were better. The overarching plot is good, but Nicholas Scratch is just not fun to read and to be honest neither was Azrael. The “Waxman and the Clown” story in Shadow of the Bat issues 80-82 was also terrible. This just ended up being bloated and disjointed.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slight improvement on Volume 1, however still not as strong as Cataclysm. Some issues were a lot better than others, but overall I did enjoy the book. I liked the Azrael issues and the Arkham Asylum stories. But I am now hoping that No Mans Land hooks me a lot more than these last 2 books did. Would recommend to someone reading No Man’s Land.

[Martijn Van · Rating 4 out of 5]

After te not so good contagion, cataclysm and road to no man's land vol. 1 paperback things start to pay off in road to no man's land vol. 2. A lot of stuff is coming together and icant wait to read how it all will play out in No Man's Land.

[Ming · Rating 2 out of 5]

The overall arc is compelling enough, but is let down by too many chapters (a result of parallel storylines happening across far too many Bat-titles at that point in time) that retread old ground, and dull and lame villains like Scratch (ugh, seriously?).