Batman Nightwalker: A Book Review

Title: Batman Nightwalker

Author: Marie Lu

Genre: Fiction

Page Count (story only): 250

Series: DC Icons - 2nd book

Rating: 4 / 5

Batman Nightwalker by Marie Lu is a superhero fiction story. It is the second book within the DC Icons series, following the first book Wonder Woman Warbringer. 

The origin of Bruce Wayne in Batman Nightwalker follows the traditional Batman trope and Gotham corruption. Bruce Wayne loses his parents at a young age due to an unfortunate alleyway mugging and inherits his wealthy family’s fortune. However, before Bruce becomes the noble Batman we all know, he is just a reckless teenage boy who makes impulsive decisions. Lavishing in his wealth as the world’s wealthiest teen, Bruce makes rash choice after rash choice until he ends up being assigned to community service at the most infamous prison in Gotham: Arkham Asylum. At Arkham, Bruce meets Madeleine, a young inmate with ties to a terrorist organization called the Nightwalkers. Fascinated by this mysterious girl, he becomes entangled in a dangerous and difficult situation with a target on his back.

I personally enjoyed this book because of its uniqueness to most Batman tropes. In most Batman storylines, you only hear about the tragic backstory of Bruce Wayne losing his parents as a young child briefly before the story fast forwards to his becoming of Batman as an adult. You are never really told about what happens in his adolescent years. Because this is a fresh story of Bruce before he is Batman, you don’t have to have much background knowledge about the Batman universe to understand the plot. The aspects of this book that stood out to me the most were its intriguing and engaging plot, excellent character development, and impactful writing style. While I did find a few dialogue and monologue excerpts to be a little unnatural, it never really distracted me from the plot and did not make the story any less enjoyable. Overall, the book is very well paced and there are plenty of action-packed scenes to keep you hooked. As someone who enjoys reading, it took me around three sittings to finish the entire book.

Readers who have liked the other books from the DC Icon series such as Wonder Woman Warbringer, Catwoman Soulstealer, or Superman Dawnbreaker or books written by Marie Lu may also enjoy this book because of the similar superhero trope and writing style. Rating this 4 out of 5 stars, I would definitely recommend taking this book for a spin.