This, like they say in the letters page, is the VERTIGOised issue of LOTDK. With Delano (Hellblazer, Animal Man), Bachalo (Shade, Death) and Pennington (Shade, Hellblazer), the mood is distinctly dark in both text and pictures. The story is a collection of vignettes, describing the inhabitants of a dilapidated hotel in the bad part of Gotham, and how they all came there. Told from the point of view of the hotel, it's really a tale of Gotham relationship to Batman that vice versa - The Batman is considered more as a symbol of the real world in these end-of-the-road lives than as a crime-fighter, and his few lines are out of place.
Bachalo's art is as individual as ever - each of the faces are unmistakably his, including one which is unmistakably Jack Nicholson's. The one jarring note is the actual Batman, who's seen to be uncharacteristically grinning at a crucial point.
Art: 4
Writing: 4
Andrew