Somehow, this second volume in the NML story line is more intense than the first one. Batman is back entirely. There's a Batgirl with no mouth opening in her suit who's there also.

The borders have changed again and while the first volume has the underlying influence of the Penguin, in this second volume the underlying influence is Two-Face.

We also got some Two-Face/Renee Montoya stories which were good. He's always been my favorite Batman VIllain, and Montoya is one of my favorite GCPD officers.

I thought it wasn't quite as good a collection as the first one. I thought that some of the art was too dark (color-wise), as well as some of it being very, very cartoony, which I don't like. But still a solid TPB. ( )

While I enjoyed the second collection, it's kind of hard to top that Scarecrow story from Volume 1. However, what Volume 2 lacks in story, it makes up for in artwork.

With Greg Rucka and Bob Gale sharing the majority of the writing task, the reigns of the artwork are given to several people throughout the novel's brisk 208 pages. In fact, some of the most interesting presentations of The Dark Knight's world are shown here through the pencils of illustrators like [a:Chris Renaud|4015437|Chris Renaud|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg] and [a:D'Israeli|19291|D'Israeli|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg]. Both gave us a very cartoonish vision while still maintaining that sense of darkness the story required.

While I'm excited to continue the series, the artwork really helped this review secure an extra star. I'm probably not going to be so forgiving the next time around if the story doesn't grab me as quickly. ( )

In the past, I've tended to shy away from the big comics events, which tend to stink of plot-by-committee, but what's really good about No Man's Land is that it seems to be less about plot and more about setting.

This volume is really a series of vignettes, still moving the larger story forward, but focusing more on painting miniature portraits of what it means to exist in the No Man's Land that Gotham has become. The stories are varied, ranging from the light-hearted what-if tale of Harvey Dent having an unprecedented string of coin-flipping to the morality tale told by Alfred of a dilemma faced by Thomas Wayne (the bit wherein he makes Batman take off the mask was a nice touch) to the darker, almost gothic, horrors of what it's like to live in the feudal realms run by Black Mask or Penguin.

The best thing about this series remains the way that expectations are upended when the characters we know so well are dropped into unfamiliar settings. Batman seems mortal, Gordon seems ruthless ... even the Penguin manages to seem threatening. ( )

The second volume of the compiled "Batman" stories telling the events that followed the cataclysmic quake that caused Gotham to be cordoned off and written off by the Federal Government. This book is essentially a series of jockeyings for territory by the various gangs that have established themselves, but one or two are more than this, and quite moving. Gordon has just about written Batman off for not showing when he was most needed. It's moving toward an interesting climax. ( )