Comics, after all, is a visual medium and if the art is great you create something that can be revisited for the sake of just enjoying the art. The art is good, the storytelling is good and I liked the dark/bright color chart (seems Jock colored the book himself) but this isn’t enough to redeem this boring and poorly constructed plot. I’m not going insult people for enjoying a book that wasn’t my cup of tea, so I’ll just say this wasn’t the kind of Black Label Batman story that works on any level for me personally.

Especially when it comes to the Dark Knight, Jock has proven himself to be one of the best artists on that character, so anytime he gets to do anything Batman-related, it might as well be an event. A gritty night that consists of just one simple prison transfer ends up giving us one of the coolest one off batman stories I have yet read. I like how he sometimes zooms in on Batman’s cowl, showing his white eyes as he readies himself for battle, only to zoom out again and show how Batman’s punching and kicking the criminals around him. It is woefully written and so stupid that I can’t review it properly without going into SPOILERS so I’ll say that now and recommend everyone who’s leaving the review here to save yourself the time and effort, don’t bother picking it up and avoid this utter drek entirely. Heck, I would have forgiven a lot but even the lettering looks like I did it and not done by a professional.The description for the book includes the mention of it being a sweltering summer night, which I felt was a confusing added descriptor since it isn't something that plays any relevance to the story. I hate to shit on Jock, he’s one of the most iconic Batman artists out there but man, this wasn’t good at all.

One of the most iconic Batman artists of the 21st century, the incomparable Jock (THE BATMAN WHO LAUGHS, BATMAN: THE BLACK MIRROR), has focused all his storytelling powers on the tale of one very, very dark night in Gotham City. Especially given that One Dark Knight is set against “Batman-classic,” elements outside the norm like EMP not just being a “regular rogue” but rather being the controversial leader of a street gang weren’t intuitive and took some pages to be understood.That is, with not an excessive amount of dialogue bubbles with long conversations, but instead, with many beautifully saturated pictures showing the the action and setting the mood with incredible angles and vantage points. The Joker brutally beating Amanda Waller with shades of Killing Joke in Suicide Squad: Get Joker is one instance, which surely would have raised some (more? But if Vasquez wanted EMP dead so badly, why does she create this entire plan of moving EMP from one location to another across town, especially as it then attracts the involvement of Batman, a major impediment to its success - if she has the resources to have all the gangs in the city, along with a number of GCPD, in her pocket, why doesn’t she simply use that reach to have EMP killed while he’s resident at Arkham? Jock has been one of my favorite artists since hitting the scene and finally gets to be showcased in an oversized DC Black Label series.