Warning: The following contains spoilers for Batman: Earth One Volume 3 by Geoff Johns, Gary Frank, Jon Sibal, Brad Anderson and Rob Leigh, available now.

The long-awaited third volume to the Batman: Earth One series has finally been released. Over its first two volumes, this series offered a relatively more realistic take on Batman and the classic parts of his world that contrasted against the more fantastic aspects of the character, which frequently take precedence in other Batman stories.

However, Batman: Earth One Volume 3 takes a different approach, rushing to build a Bat-Family to take on an unusual slate of villains.

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The villains of the book are Jessica Dent, this world's Two-Face, and Adrian Arkham. Although he's seemingly Martha Wayne's father and Bruce's long-thought-dead grandfather, this is actually this universe's version of Clayface. Clayface's goal was for Bruce to die while he, in the guise of Adrian, inherited all of the Wayne Family fortune. Likewise, Jessica poses as her deceased brother Harvey, even digging up his body to complete the ruse. This is all part of her bid to destabilize Gotham City, which she sees as deserving of destruction.

Both of these plans stretch past the breaking point of credulity, and Bruce Wayne is strangely unaffected by the revelation that he still has a living family member. While neither of these villains seems particularly more threatening than the standard Batman villain, Earth One hastily assembles an odd permutation of the Bat-Family to deal with them.

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Batman's associates already include Jim Gordon, Alfred and this universe's much more heroic version of Killer Croc. This story adds Catwoman to the mix before greatly expanding the Bat-Family in its last several pages. By the end of the book, Barbara Gordon's Batgirl, Dick Grayson and Ragman have all joined the nascent Bat-Family.

Since this is still so relatively early in Batman's career, this Batman never feels like he truly comes into his own and is dependent upon the aid of others to get things done. It doesn't help that the threats he's faced so far seem fairly pedestrian compared to stories in other continuities.

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Bat-Family Earth One

Batman: Earth One Volume 1 as well as its sequel, to some extent, were breaths of fresh air because of how much they grounded the character and made him more human and fallible. This grounded tone was set with a Dark Knight who constantly failed, a Gotham that was much more unforgiving and versions of The Penguin and the Riddler that were far from cartoony.

In sharp contrast to that, this volume leans into the more cartoony elements of Batman, with colorful costume designs that border on garish and villains with relatively thin motivations. At one point, Alfred even refers to Oswald Cobblepot as the Penguin, despite the fact that he has never been called that in this continuity until now.

The fact that so many people would be privy to Bruce Wayne's double life is also questionable, which again is a side effect of the cast's rapid growth. While the initial volumes spent a fair amount of time in Batman's psyche, this story is much more about building the world around the Dark Knight and populating Earth One's Gotham with familiar faces from around the DC Universe.

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