The following is a review for Batman: Night of the Monster Men (Rebirth).

Spoiler level: mild.

Diving into the Rebirth Bat-verse you might expect to come across a heavy hitter or two in the Dark Knight’s rogues gallery. How about giant nightmarish monsters instead?

Authors Tom King and Steve Orlando take readers on a Bat-crazy, monster-riddled romp through Gotham. In his first crossover since Rebirth, Batman teams up with Nightwing and Batwoman after Hugo Strange’s dastardly deeds give birth to the aforementioned monster attack. There’s a dash of Cloverfield, hint of Godzilla, and a splash of Pacific Rim as Team Bats try to extinguish this new terror. Being a Batman story, it would have been easy to stray too far and lose the core of what makes this team important to the reader. The story manages to keep the characters familiar amidst the relative absurdity of skyscraper sized monsters.

Speaking of which, the Monster Men were hellishly cool. While they aren’t your typical foes found in Detective Comics, it brings together these heroes and forces them to find new ways to fight for Gotham. The style defied expectations for typical comic book creatures. Any absence of detail fed its ominous nature. I couldn’t wait to see how next big bad burst onto the page.

Familiar faces like Spoiler, Orphan, and Gotham Girl join the fray, but there was one guest spot that helped shape the series, so to speak. One time baddie, Clayface, is taking a turn as a good guy and gives Batman a sick upgrade: a shape-shifter exosuit. That tells you all you need to know about this series.

The core team flies from from their respective comfort zones and all have moments to shine and deliver their brand of beat-downs. A gritty horror noir for Batman and his crew, the Night of the Monster Men crossover succeeds at bringing this group together, pushing them to their physical and mental limits, and propelling them through a living nightmare.

From the creative team of Steve Orlando (MIDNIGHTER), Tom King (BATMAN), Tim Seeley (BATMAN ETERNAL), James Tynion IV (DETECTIVE COMICS), Riley Rossmo (CONSTANTINE: THE HELLBLAZER), Roge Antonio (BATGIRL AND THE BIRDS OF PREY) and Andy MacDonald (THE NEW 52: FUTURES END). This epic of horror and heroism collects BATMAN #7-8, NIGHTWING #5-6 and DETECTIVE COMICS #941-942.
Hardcover  |  ISBN 9781401270674  |  PRICE $24.99 (USD)

Night Of The Monster Men is the first crossover in DC Universe: Rebirth, and if it is anything to say how the other crossovers will go, then they will be hit and miss for people. I personally do not think that it was as bad as everyone is saying that it was, but it was not amazing either.

Lets start with the storyline. The Bat-family have to protect Gotham from monsters that start appearing one night. Batman divides the team to either evacuating citizens or fighting it. It starts out all fine, but things start to go downhill very fast. Spoiler and Orphan are tasked with helping the people in the caves and keeping the peace whilst everyone else is on the streets fighting these monsters. Whilst I do not want to say much more about the actual plot, what I will say is that it does get better and a few twists do keep you interested in what is going on.

The art style was very variable, as expected from it coming from different artist who have different styles. This, personally, made it very jarring changing from one artist to another who styles are very different. The last two issues, which I believe were from Detective Comics, was my favourite art style out of the three. That is not really a surprise as Detective Comics is my favourite ongoing storyline from DC: Rebirth.

The redeeming part of this crossover is the final few issues. All the pervious issues, whilst not the greatest, set up an amazing finale that I could almost forgive the rest of it for not being up to standard.

Whilst not the greatest, I would say still give it a read as it does not have a follow-on but it will give a nice context to what is going on for the Batman, Nightwing and Detective Comics storylines.

For me, DC’s Rebirth has been a disappointing parade of astonishingly low-quality comics - except for Tom King’s Batman which was surprisingly decent. So I was actually looking forward to Night of the Monster Men, the first Rebirth crossover book, thinking King was writing it. And then I saw the credits page: “Plotted by Tom King/Tim Seeley/James Tynion IV - Script by Steve Orlando” and my heart sank. Steve fucking Orlando.

You know what Orlando’s Midnighter book was? “I’m a gay superhero!” - and that’s it. You know what Orlando’s indie book Virgil was? “I’m a gay action hero!” - and that’s it. I get it dude, you’re a gay writer who wants to write gay comics, and I’m all for that but can you at least make them readable? His Monster Men isn’t “We’re Monster Men and we’re FAAAABULOUUUSSSS!” (although that probably would’ve been an improvement) but it is mega-mega-boring.

Dr Hugo Strange (who’s suddenly jacked for no reason) decides to make Godzilla-sized monsters to rampage across Gotham. Why? Stupid reasons. Ugh. Batman and the Bat-family fight them. Guess who wins? Ugh again. What a fucking useless book!

The story is so immensely dull because it’s static for a lot of the book. Batman rides around on his Batcycle most of the time, Clayface is directing people around Gotham (I still don’t buy why he’s suddenly a good guy either), Spoiler and Orphan are hanging out in a cave. Something happens to Nightwing and Gotham Girl (see Tom King’s first Batman book for her backstory) but it gets resolved predictably and easily. There’s no excitement or tension or anything in this crappy wafer-thin “story”!

And it shouldn’t be this way! Batman! Bat-Family! Mad scientist! GIANT FUCKING MONSTERS! How is it this boring? I take it back, Steve Orlando is talented - talented at sucking out anything remotely interesting from a narrative! 

Night of the Monster Men is a completely pointless, unentertaining and irrelevant book full of dull action and a meaningless, unmemorable pseudo-story. Whether or not you’re reading Batman, Detective Comics or Nightwing, you can easily ignore this one - and I recommend you do - without it affecting those titles. It’s the Rebirth standard: unreadable comics! Steve Orlando joins Dan Jurgens and Scott Lobdell as the worst writers DC have at the moment.

From the publisher: The first Batman crossover of DC Rebirth is here in BATMAN: NIGHT OF THE MONSTER MEN!

It’s the storm of the century, and it’s headed straight for Gotham City. The guardians of this sprawling urban center—Nightwing, Batwoman and the Batman himself—think they’ve prepared for the worst.

They have no idea.

Thanks to the machinations of the macabre scientist Dr. Hugo Strange, the storm has unleashed a rain of monsters upon the city. Colossal creatures are stomping through the streets, terrorizing the citizens and challenging the skills of even Gotham’s greatest heroes.

Can the Dark Knight and his allies stem the tide of destruction? Or will the Night of the Monster Men mark the fall of the Bat?

Find out in BATMAN: NIGHT OF THE MONSTER MEN, the first crossover of the DC Rebirth era from the creative team of Steve Orlando (MIDNIGHTER), Tom King (BATMAN), Tim Seeley (BATMAN ETERNAL), James Tynion IV (DETECTIVE COMICS), Riley Rossmo (CONSTANTINE: THE HELLBLAZER), Roge Antonio (BATGIRL AND THE BIRDS OF PREY) and Andy MacDonald (THE NEW 52: FUTURES END). This epic of horror and heroism collects BATMAN #7-8, NIGHTWING #5-6 and DETECTIVE COMICS #941-942.

Night of the Monster Men, by various writers, is the first Batman crossover since Rebirth started. And overall, it was entertaining. A quick summary: Hugo Strange has developed a serum that creates monsters. These are Godzilla type monsters and they began to run rampant. To make matters worse, a hurricane is threatening to hit Gotham. Batman and Batwoman gather their team (Spoiler, Orphan, and Clayface), and enlist Nightwing to help them defeat the creatures and save Gotham. What starts out as a relatively simple mission turns out to have a deeper meaning and possible long-term repercussions.

I enjoyed this as a crossover event. It basically spanned one night, and taking two issues from each of three different comics wasn't a huge departure for any of their regular storylines. Additionally, it was fun to see Batman take on literal monsters as opposed to the more figurative type he usually battles. I thought the character interactions were terrific: Gotham Girl and Nightwing, Batman and Batwoman, Duke and Alfred, and Orphan and Spoiler. Clayface is also becoming a very intriguing character as he continues to try to be a "good" guy. The writers are coming up with some new and unique opportunities for him to show some new uses for his abilities. I also liked the concept of the Wayne Watchtowers; they absolutely need to become a recurring thing.

As far as villains go, I think Hugo Strange has potential. With his psychology background and his willingness to misuse science, he could be a very formidable adversary for Batman. This story did a nice job of pushing that idea.

Batman: Night of the Monster Men is a fun and entertaining book. It is a decent place for new readers to begin, but it will definitely appeal to Bat-fans. It also seems to be setting up events for future books down the line.

I received a preview copy of this book from DC Comics and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Goodness, this was awful. The story is basically crap. Giant, poorly explained monsters that are... supposed to provide a psychoanalysis of Batman? For six issues? This might have been more bearable in one or two issues, but who really needs Hugo Strange attempting to diagnose and replace Batman? Also, there's mind controlling spores, because of course there are. The awful, Power Rangers-esque Watchtowers is sort of the cherry on the D-movie sundae of terrible. Maybe if characterization was good, and the dialog was solid, or there was anything like a sense of fun in using so many tropes that are usually associated with delightfully bad SF at once, this would have been a fun and exciting read. There were none of those things.

Considering this a story about Batman and the gang punching monsters for 150 pages and little else it was surprisingly decent. I haven't been overly impressed with any DC Rebirth stuff I've read thus far, but this was pretty middle of the road stuff and could have easily been terrible.

This was intense! Loved it! Need more like this!!!!!

Oh so many monsters. And they, combined with a Hurricane, Hurricane Milton, are destroying the heck out of Gotham City.

My favorite part of Batman books is not generally Hugo Strange, the villain of this TPB, but in this TPB I thought that the way that he was used in this was slightly different and I thought better than usual.

It was a good portion of the hands on deck of this one (although now that I think of it where were Batgirl, Damian, or Red Hood?) But, Batwoman and her team, Orphan, Spoiler, Clayface were there. As was Nightwing and we even got to see a bit of Duke Thomas and Alfred too.

I do yearn for the simple days of Batman and Robin, but, these other characters do have interesting stories too. So I don't want to totally go back to the old days.

I got this ARC through Netgalley on behalf of DC Entertainment.

Beware the Monster Men! This volume collects the issues across the Batman family that creates the Monster Men story arc. If you follow one comic series but not the other, this volume will fill in the blanks. Overall a fast-paced and suspenseful  crossover story-arc for your favorite heroes in the Batman Universe.

Night of the Monster Men has a level of fluid storytelling that is not often seen in these sorta of crossover events. This is likely due to each script being written by the highly talented Steve Orlando, with the regular series writers co-plotting each individual issue. Monster Men is action packed, and full of wonderful little character moments. The characterization of Hugo Strange really manages to shine through in this homage to a classic Batman tale, harkening back to some of his best stories. The monster design is grotesque, stylized, and always thematic. This is one of the most well put together crossovers in comics in recent memory.

There's nothing new in this DC crossover event. I wish DC wouldn't rely so much on re-hashing old ideas, just to get sales. The individual Batman stories are always more interesting and unique.

This had a 90s feel to it which I liked . The story is fine as Hugo Strange unleashes monsters in Gotham. The crossover was good. I just did nit find myself riveted to the page for some reason or another

This was pretty bad, but in a fun way (kind of like the ongoing Gotham TV series, which I keep watching, even though it never seems to improve). When I got this collection through NetGalley, I was expecting the second volume of Tom King's Rebirth work on Batman, so was a bit surprised at the presence of characters I'd never heard of before--Orphan and Spoiler--as well as a seemingly-reformed Clayface. They're all part of a "Bat" team, which also includes Nightwing, Batwoman, and Gotham Girl, who are faced with a number of giant monsters attacking Gotham. These monsters are part of a rather underdeveloped scheme by Hugo Strange to defeat and replace Batman (the whole thing is barely explained at all, other than a fleeting image of Strange lifting weights in the nude and then a brief battle scene between Strange, dressed in pseudo-Batman costume, fighting the real thing towards the end). Along the way, we also have scenes set in a giant cave system where much of the population of downtown Gotham has been relocated, supposedly for safety from the oncoming threat of a hurricane, and at risk from some sort of sentient mold spores that turns them homicidal. The monster men are the result of some modified Bane venom and a couple are truly hideous creations, including a spider-creature in a prison. This was all rather ridiculous, but presented in an entertaining fashion. I rather enjoyed it despite all the loose ends and the varying artwork from one issue to the next.

Fantastic art with lots of action but a bit of an obscure story for me personally, little explanation and a lot of relying on the reader having read certain back issues. That being said I found it highly enjoyable, I loved the watchtowers and each individual member of the Justice League had their own time to shine. Would highly recommend to any fan of the Bat.

This is the second Batman Rebirth cycle TPB I've previewed from DC. This is so much better than the New 52! Batman, Batwoman, Clayface, and others team up to fight Hugo Strange and his abominations, and discovery his reasoning for creating them in the first place.