To me, that seemed to counteract the effect the author was trying to aim for. Unfortunately, a pet peeve that offset that for me was the random mentions of Bruce’s “white privilege.” As much as I appreciate the attempt at inclusion of current world problems, this was consistently out of context in my opinion and was almost always only mentioned from a POC character to Bruce, inadvertently making it seem like a guilt trip or complaint on their behalf.

There were good moments of misdirection of characters and the novel included a diverse cast of characters. The idea behind the Nightwalkers organization was also well planned and entertaining in it’s own right. She was a good fit for anti-hero and even a mirror of sorts for Bruce himself. The character of Madeleine Wallace was created complex and in depth, by far my favorite character of the book. There were aspects that kept it entertaining and in fact made it worth a read. I don’t want to make it sound like the entire book was bad, because it wasn’t. There were also references to characters and places in the DC Universe, but rather than fit perfectly and make me feel nostalgic, they came off as name dropping. The majority of the novel moves slowly with interspersed moments of action and hints at Bruce’s future as Batman. This plot factor alone, even for Gotham City, seems absurd. Instead, he is here thrust into Arkham Asylum for community service and as a result stumbles his way into being involved with a case. This side of a teen Bruce Wayne was not he was the opposite of how every other Bruce Wayne has ever been depicted and aside from mention of owning his own police scanner, never seemed interested in pursuing a life of solo justice seeking. It didn’t meet my expectations because, growing up watching and reading Batman, I grew expected to fast paced action and tough vigilante justice. With that being said, Batman: Nightwalker was a decent read. While WW was written by Leigh Bardugo, Batman was written by Marie Lu. What I should’ve kept into consideration, and should continue to do with the rest of the DC Icons series, is remember that not each book is written by the same author. Admittedly, I probably set myself up for failure by holding it to the same standards as Wonder Woman: Warbringer. This book was among my highly anticipated releases this year, and it pains me to say that it did not meet my expectations. ‘The world would always have the liars and traitors and thieves, but there were still those who were good at heart.’ (pg.

Batman nightwalker book