There have been several good novels featuring Superman, but Batman seems to be a much harder nut to crack when you take him out of the visual environment. The latest effort, Wayne of Gotham, tries to expand the Batman mythos by digging into the Wayne/Gotham backstory. But Tracy Hickman falls flat in his attempt to add depth to Bruce Wayne. The story is a rehash of previous Batman stories(most notably the The First Batman – which has Thomas Wayne dressed up in a proto Batman costume and being forced to help out gangster Lew Moxon) with not much interesting added. Let’s take a look at where this went wrong.

The story takes place in two time periods. There is the current storyline with Bruce/Batman dealing with villains as well as realizing that Alfred is hiding something that ties back to Bruce’s father Thomas Wayne. The other time period is 1958, when Thomas is courting Martha (who’s a wild child who gets drunk and hangs around with gangsters) and getting involved in Arkham Asylum.

One big problem with the book is Bruce acting like an idiot. He comes across an intruder on his property and Alfred lies to him about her. But rather than asking Alfred about it (while letting him know that the World’s Greatest Detective) actually knows something about what’s going on around Wayne Manor, Bruce decides to investigate himself (while acting like a raging jerk to Alfred along the way).

Meanwhile, Thomas is dealing with his domineering father Patrick while starting his new job as a doctor and trying to woo Martha (who has thoroughly friendzoned him). This brings Thomas into contact with mobsters and Arkham Asylum. Needless to say, this ties directly into the Alfred’s mystery that he’s hiding from Bruce.

The biggest issue I had with the book is that it was boring. The only character that seemed remotely interesting was Martha, but she’s never the main character. All the Wayne men seem like they are causing more problems than they are solving. It’s not a fun read and became quite a chore to slog through. Overall, don’t read this book. There are much better books and even if you are a Batman fan, you’re not going to like it.