Batman and the Mad Monk suffers from the same big problem Matt Wagner's previous “Dark Moon Rising” series, Batman and the Monster Men, does--Wagner's incredibly lazy sense of proportion and perspective. Mad Monk tends to open with a really bad close-up of a character--the first issue's Catwoman opening is so bad, if Monster Men hadn't already seasoned me to the “style,” I would have closed it immediately. Actually, some aspects of Wagner's art improve in this series--Bruce Wayne's girlfriend, for example, is obviously supposed to be attractive (in the other one, you couldn't tell).
As for the story itself, it's still okay--Wagner mixes old Batman with new Batman to a decent effect, story-wise (though some of his dialogue is pretty lame). Mad Monk is a remake of the old stuff and it works to a large degree. When it doesn't work, it's usually when Wagner's mixing elements. It's also a sequel to Frank Miller's Year One and while following it as a general backstory works, whenever Wagner tries to introduce the “war on crime” element, Mad Monk induces some seriously skimming, page-turning, and eye-rolling. Oddly though, it's probably the best sequel anyone's done to Year One, just because Wagner's interest in his story is still apparent. His approach to Batman, character-wise (not art, obviously), shows a real endearment to the character, one he's not afraid to exercise.
The greatest defect, actually, of Batman and the Mad Monk is its ending. “Dark Moon Rising” consists of the two series and nothing more (apparently) and Mad Monk has a big, “epilogues for all” ending to it, instead of the “to be continued” ending of Monster Men. Wagner leaves some things open to come back to, but it'd have been nicer if it had just been open, instead of another stupid reference to Robin coming soon... everyone has that stupid ending.
