This is one of those Batman tales that fans seem either to hate or love with no middle ground in between. A long awaited match (allegedly ~ I for one was never really waiting for this to happen), the story sees Batman investigating the crimes of a killer called the "See-Through Slasher" and finding himself taking on much more than he could ever have bargained for!

This has much in common with the Rbocop Vs Terminator story that I read many years back in that it seems like just a comic book match made merely for the sake of it. I can well imagine a room of writers sitting around the table either randomly suggesting scenarios they would like to see or alternatively picking comic book character names out of a hat and fitting them together! How about Billy The Fish meets Rogue Trooper? What about Captain America Vs Popeye? That sort of thing....

The plot too reads mostly like a re-hash or re-imagining of Predator 2 but set instead in Gotham and utilising the Batman franchise with all its familiarity. Hence we get the Batmobile, the Bat-Cave and of course Alfred thrown into te mix just in case we happen to forget what comic we are reading!

It's not all bad though. The artwork is good and it is nice to see Batman challenged in a way that he is not normally by something that comes from outside his universe. But I can't help thinking that this book came out at a time when there were just a few too many of these such titles floating about and for that comes across ever so slightly weaker than it might have done otherwise. About this time a Superman Vs Aliens comic was also released and Batman Vs Dredd was still fairly fresh in everyones minds.

I can understand trying to keep a character fresh but, like I said, too much of this feels like it has been inspired or borrowed from Predator 2 and unfortunately, and this is a hard thing for me to say, but I actually think the film did it slightly better!

Is this for Batman fans or is it for Predator fans? I am not entirely sure and neither, it seems, are the writers meaning that this is more of a mash-up than a match made in heaven. Still there are worse Batman stories out there than this and if you want a relatively short Batman tale that is a little different from the norm, then this might just be worth checking out.

But other than that, it can be summed up by two words; distinctly average!