Batman: The Blind Cut

by K. Arsenault Rivera, Martin Cahill, Catherynne M. Valente

A new, original adventure of the Dark Knight, as a terrifying adversary enacts a bold plan to bring Gotham City to its knees.
Batman: The Blind Cut follows the Caped Crusader and Zatanna as they join forces against a terrifying adversary who enacts a bold plan to bring Gotham City to its knees

Genres: Audiobook, Dc Comics, Batman

Audiobook

Published July 8, 2021

About the author

Puerto Rico born and New York raised, K is a lifelong fan of all things nerdy. She drew on her love of tabletop gaming for her debut novel, THE TIGER'S DAUGHTER. An out and proud queer, she lives in Brooklyn with her partner.

Reviews

[Mohan Vemulapalli · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Batman: The Blind Cut" is an engaging and fairly original novel featuring the Dark Night and Zatanna along with a few favorite villains and supporting characters. First, it should be noted that although an electronic text version is available for this book, it was originally written and produced as a podcast and the best way to experience this story is through the audio book, Second, although titled as a Batman book, this work also strongly features Zatanna, and to a lesser extent, Poison Ivy. These characters actually have more interesting story arcs than Batman and Zatanna's character development is the strongest in the book. Finally, the story itself hangs together, well and has enough twists and surprises to keep most readers guessing and engaged. However, it does veer heavily into occult and creepy themes to a point that the actual impact of the book is weakened.

[Lucía · Rating 4 out of 5]

las historias de Batman siempre son buenas y emocionantes. esta la leí principalmente porque Catherine Valente es una de las autoras y me encanta todo lo que escribe. aquí me agrada cómo sacan un tema profundo como la desigualdad económica a través de la historia a través de un medio tan interesante como la magia lo único que hubiera deseado es que este libro profundizara más en todos los temas y hubiera sido el doble de largo porque sí da de si, espero que lo adapten a cómic.

[Mike Rempel · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was actually a podcast, not a book
The double narration one male and female was okay but I would have preferred if the female narrator had read only the female parts and the male narrator had only read the male parts

[Zoe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zatanna teaming up with Batman? Poison Ivy being plot important? Immortal witches and an evil crusader? Umm, hell yeah. This was dope. Love the magic with Zatanna, it feels so intriguing and neat. Only downside is I can't read her spells to figure out what she's saying, but otherwise the magic is really cool. I thought her getting real hungry after magic was funny and neat. I also like how possession is rightfully shown to be pretty traumatizing. Anyway, great story, kinda wish the end wasn't as rushed. Could've benefited from even just another 20-30 minutes, but otherwise it's solid.

[Candyce Sweet · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m a huge Batman fan so I really wanted to like this, and I did like it, but only just. The narrations were truly excellent. One narrator, a woman, voiced the Zatanna point of view, and a male narrator voiced the Batman point of view, and that was a wonderful choice—having two narrators for one book. And they were superb. Truly excellent. But it took me a long time to make my way through the episodes/chapters, and I kept doing that thing where you look to see how long is left before the end of the episode and when you have a stopping point, when you can quit, and that continued throughout. I never really got immersed in the narrative. I just kept waiting for it to be over. I do hope they do more, but this wasn’t my favorite.

[Ilona Peters · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s no secret that I love comic books. Bruce Wayne and Selena Kyle may be one of my favorite “ships” of all time. Bruce Wayne and Zatarra Zatanna may be one of my new favorite “friendships”. She’s a very intriguing and cool looking character (yes I know this is an audio book LOL). She does card tricks but she knows actual magic. Things start normal enough. Bruce and Zatanna investigate some murders in Gotham. Eventually they find out that not Poison Ivy but a necromancer named Palmyra Lent or the Pearl is behind this. She has the power to transfer a person’s soul to a new body but this power comes at a high cost: other people’s lives. Also when she uses her powers she rejuvenates herself and creates flowers (that’s why Ivy was the main suspect). At some point Palmyra has a conversation with Ivy and the title is explained. A blind cut is a card trick “You shuffle the cards so it looks like a random mix but really the order never changed. The cut looks fair but it never was”. And so according to Ivy what Palmyra has been doing for centuries (keeping her cabal, a group of very rhich and influential people, alive at the cost of other people’s lives) is also unfair. She’s only pretending to shuffle the deck. The order of the world stays just how they wanted it and the house always wins… It all ends during the king for a night event at Oswald Cobblepot’s casino. The objects that Palmyra uses to transfer her cabal’s souls get destroyed one by one so the bodies’ original owners regain control. And Zatanna casts a spell that causes Palmyra to lose her magic. The necromancer is now “silenced”, the magic can’t hear her anymore and she’s powerless. Locked up in Arkham Asylum.

[Jake · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty good time. I appreciated the story and the wide cast of both Gotham City and magic characters used. Some voices worked well for the narrators and some didn't. I wish the author understood that, as a Justice League member, Zatanna can fight too! She is trained in combat! She's not useless the moment someone covers her mouth! That always annoys me. Ending was also a little rushed.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am not a fan of DC doing Batman meets magic. Batman being on the astral plane is odd. I know this is comics but it felt like a knock off doctor strange story. If your going to do magic stick to all magic cast not the Batman.

[Jack Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got to listen to this one on Spotify audio. The narrators were terrific. The story combines with typical Batman mystery with magic and general spookiness. I’m unfamiliar with the Zantana character but I’m interested in reading more of her comics now.

[Ryk Stanton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this very much! And free on Hoopla!

[Chris Vest · Rating 5 out of 5]

Woah that was dark

[Sam Mammen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great voice actors, but moved so fast it was hard to keep up.

[Nyssa Rose · Rating 2.5 out of 5]

2.5 Stars. It had its' moments but there were times that certain plot points would make me cringe, and then I would be stuck on that page for over a week until I race through one awkward scene to something better. Etrigan and Ivy easily stole the show. I really wanted to love this but it wasn't quite for me. I feel like I might have enjoyed it more in audio format then just reading it on my phone.

[Bill Fuller · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5: This actually has a lot of good things going on, but it meanders often. It's padded to justify its length, which keeps it from being a truly exciting entry in the Batman universe. I'd have preferred a shorter, tighter story, but I would anticipate another effort from this author.