I will admit that the art is uneven at times. Women sometimes have Barbie hips, and some of the silhouettes look really jagged. But most of the time it creates beautiful settings and characters that perfectly match the bleak tone.
The story itself is flawless. It begins with Bruce realizing that he no longer feels grief over his parents' death (because of it being so long ago), which gives him an existential crisis about why he's still Batman. After maybe seeing the ghosts of his parents, who were disappointed with his life since they wanted him safe and happy, he says to Alfred that if they were real, he would quit being Batman. Alfred calls bs and says a great quote:
>"You cast your life to a purpose, regardless of the catalyst, Bruce. Simply put, you are the Batman because it is who you are meant to be."
Meanwhile, the other side of the story shows Nyssa, Ra's al Ghul's first daughter, who is many centuries old and has seen the worst of humanity, from slavery to the Holocaust. Unlike Bruce, she lets the outside world decide who she is, and becomes even more misanthropic than her father.
Aside from those parallel arcs, the main plot (in the current day) is a great thriller and ties the two together.
I really wish more was done with Nyssa as a League of Assassins that had no respect for Batman like Ra's does would be so cool. I feel like it would be much more of a threat.