Waid makes smart use of the Batcave setting in this sequence, including that giant penny which has long been a part of the background. While our teamed-up heroes fend off an attack by the still-mysterious bad guys, we learn GL's power ring no longer has the dumb vulnerability to the color yellow, which used to be a part of the Silver Age comics. Our duo travels to Las Vegas, showing up in the Kismet Casino in their civilian identities, which provides the writer a chance to play Bruce Wayne's playboy identity off Jordan's middle-class adventurer persona.
There's a nice, irrelevant scene at the blackjack tables designed to contrast Hal's risk-taking ways against the more deliberate Batman. While I don't really have a sense if this dichotomy makes "historical" sense, it works for the story.
Kismet's owner proves to be a villainess I vaguely recognize (Bruce helpfully tells us that she's "run afoul of the Justice Society in the past"), who's in possession of the MacGuffin that brings out the story villains for a second big dust-up. Both the Batcave and Vegas fracases could've been a bit more clearly delineated for this reader.
Artists George Perez & Bob Wiacek had me longing for the cleaner, less frenetic superhero art of Silver Ager Gil Kane more than once during the fight scenes, especially when they get hyper-busy with the green and pink power rays. You can clearly see the twosome having fun with the Vegas setting in general, though. The page where Bruce and Hal first enter the Kismet has an appealingly Bond-ian feel.
Ish #1 ends with the MacGuffin in the hands of our mysterious alien antagonists – and with the promise of an issue two team-up between GL and Supergirl. That's another character who's had more pretenders to the throne than I can keep track of, though, on the basis of this minor but diverting opening outing, I feel confident scripter Waid will be able to babystep me into her current story.
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