Batman - The Chalice
Story by Chuck Dixon
Illustrated by John Van Fleet
Lettering by Jack Morelli

Paperback published by Titan, £9.99, 22nd of September 2000
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I'm not going to spend too much time on this one.

Batman, due to his lineage, is given the Holy Grail to look after. He's given it by a truly incompetent secret society. They are so secret that everybody knows they have it, and everybody finds out it has been given to Bruce Wayne.

Ra's al Ghul (my all-time favorite Batman baddie/goodie/whatever), the Penguin (my least favorite baddie, excepting De Vito's excellent performance) and Catwoman (back to this way of spelling her name, I see) all vie for the attentions of Wayne and the Dark Knight.

Urgh.

Some great dialogue between Catwoman and Alfred is wasted in an otherwise by-the-numbers story. The artwork basically stops the thing from being unutterably dull, although Ra's al Ghul is not well portrayed; he looks a little young. Ultimately, the story premise is dull, the plot is dull (just a series of uninspiring fights), and the end is so naff, so utterly predictable (you'll have likely guessed it just reading the review) as to be laughable.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no.

2 out of 10

Review by Iain Lowson