John Jackson Miller delivers the second story in his Batman series that connects the 1989 Tim Burton film with is follow up, Batman Returns. It works to sew all of the narrative and connective tissue together, and it does it well.

It’s a fun, expansive and while I can’t always hear the actors’ voices in the dialogue it ends up being an enjoyable ride. Picking up shortly after the events of the previous novel, Resurrection, this story introduces an intriguing version of The Riddler, as well as Killer Moth. It also continues tying in the overall arcs of Selina Kyle and Max Shreck, who appear in Batman Returns, and Alexander Knox and Mayor Borg, who are both in the first film but not in the second.

Now Harvey Dent continues, and he also shows up in Batman Forever, but completely different, exchanging Billy Dee Williams for Tommy Lee Jones, so it makes one wonder if there’s a third novel coming about Dent’s fall.

Bruce Wayne/Batman finds his hands full when he deals with a militia group, a flying attacker, a dangerous archer, and a villain who couches his clues in riddles.

There are some fun bat-gadgets, though some of them aren’t outstanding. I miss the Batwing, and everything this version of Wayne does in these books doesn’t seem to have the same level of cool. A Batvan? I think a variation on the tumbler or something would have been better. I just doesn’t seem to work as well as it could.

I have some minor nitpicks with the story, but I really like this version of the Riddler. It’s well-written, and a believable character for the Tim Burton world. In fact, I could see in my mind’s eye how he would shoot some of the sequences in the library where Norman Pinkus spent a large portion of his life.

I can’t always hear Danny Elfman’s score as I read the book, but there are moments where I could hear it in the background. Miller definitely likes the character of Batman, and he is definitely intent on tying the Burton films together (and does it well), but it doesn’t always feel like Burton’s Batman, sometimes it just feels like Batman.

There are some nice nods to things to come, honoring what has gone before, and like I said, it entertains. It just doesn’t always sound like Micheal Keaton’s version of Batman. Having said that, I did have a lot of fun reading this one, so Miller delivers, but it’s just not as fun and strong as the two films his series is working to connect.

Still, this is a must-read for Batman ’89 fans. Check it out.