This is one of those 2000s Batman story-lines that your Michael Baily and Linkara types usually hate. But for me this era is my personal Golden Age for Batman comics.
It is a story-line that begins with a female character being Fridged, and like when I defend the Princess Massacre of Code Geass or Identity Crisis that's the criticism I most sympathize with. But one thing that makes me more okay with any individual example of this is when that's kind of what it is in universe, and more then once the text kind of addresses that. And given what Bruce Wayne's public persona is I can't imagine a plot to frame him rather then Batman involving any other presumed motive.
The story has other flaws, there are things that confuse me, but it just has so much good melodrama while also having fun with it's premise. It has interesting moments with some of my favorite characters, and is an epic Batman story not dependent on gratuitously throwing in any of the Iconic Rouges Gallery. Now days that has become a lot more common, some people are sick of most Batman events being new villains rather then the classics. But this was really the first to do that, Knightfall and No Man's Land were constantly falling back on what the Arkham patients were up to.
People love to say that Batman is the real person and Bruce Wayne is the mask, SFDebris talks in his Mask of The Phantasm background video about how that was part of the core founding premise of Batman The Animated Series. This story is great to me because it is a deconstruction of that interpretation of the character, Batman makes decisions fans like me and those who hate the story don't like to see him make because he's gotten lost in that way of thinking about himself.
Sasha Bordeaux is probably my favorite Batman character who's over 20 when they're introduced. And one of my annoyances at DC's decision making on what to release trades for is that none of her appearances prior to this were in any trades, I wish they'd release a sort of prologue trade for this like War Drums was for War Games.
During the time prior to when this story-line officially starts Alfred was living with Tim Drake helping him out (a period of the Robin series also not seen in any Trades yet). And Batman is now compartmentalizing everything so much that this makes Sasha an ally completely isolated from everyone else who knows Bruce is Batman. And that dynamic itself is so interesting to watch, because once this starts everyone suspects she must know but can't risk giving it away by asking her. Sasha will be important again later to the OMAC Project part of the Infinite Crisis build up which may soon also be something I'll discus on this blog.
[Also when I first read this story-line I didn't know what I do now about French and always pronounced the X in my head. And when I first wrote this post I relapsed into that, forgetting all my Paul Feval obsessing lessons. So I'd like to inform potential future fans that I''m pretty sure her name is pronounced like the Wine.]
This is also important to Cassandra Cain's history, in the chronology of her comics this happens effectively right after the Death Wish story-line. It is in this story-line she first learns Batman is Bruce Wayne, and how she figures it out is kind of exactly like John Blake in The Dark Knight Rises.
It also has a few interesting scenes with Stephanie Brown. Steph didn't know Bruce Wayne was Batman at this time (I'm not sure she ever knew?), which is weird mainly because she knows how to get into the Batcave, we see her try to drive her bike into it. I guess she just never thought about the Geography of it that much.
Black Canary also doesn't know Bruce is Batman in this, something that was pretty much Retconned by Identity Crisis, guess that was another Superboy Prime wall punch.
This story really is some of the best writing I've ever seen in Comics.
Update: Apparently the New Gotham trades include a good deal of Sasha's earlier appearances, collecting Detective Comics stories written by Greg Ruka. I simply had missed the word on it. (Chronologically Officer Down goes between those two volumes.) Her appearances in Batman meanwhile are in Batman by Ed Brubaker Vol.1.
It seems Ruka has written almsot everything featuring Sasha, from those stories to much of this story-line to OMAC Project to the later Checkmate series.
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