Batman: The Dark Knight Volume 3 - Mad by Gregg Hurwitz and Szymon Kudranski and Ethan Van Sciver

9/10

Batman takes a trip to Wonderland as Bruce Wayne believes he has met the woman of his dreams. She could even be the one to encourage him to reveal his secret that he is actually Batman, the caped crusader of legend. But there is the matter of several kidnap attempts on the citizens of Gotham from another masked man, the opposite of Batman, the Mad Hatter who uses mind-warping hallucinogens to trick and manipulate others.

While Batman is busy keeping the streets criminal free, Bruce Wayne struggles with his relationship with his Ukrainian concert pianist lover, Miss Trusevich. His new problem with the city is made worse by her telling him she knows his darkest secret. This is what keeps them apart, this and his night work. This both annoys and disturbs him as he prefers to keep his alter ego anonymous. Being the Dark Knight, he can work around it, but first he has to deal with the Mad Hatter.

Batman suspects he is responsible for the kidnappings and the strange goings on at the Wild Hare, a nightclub where anything is possible if you have the right type of mind. Playing director, the Mad Hatter seeks out the perfect actors and actresses to play in his twisted version of the Wonderland he alone wants to control - with the help of his dim-witted henchmen. He has everything he wants, but still needs an Alice for his version of Wonderland, and he can think of no one better than Alice Dee, though she has changed - grown up, but not like he hoped she would. In his own mind he is the Mad Hatter, but to everyone who knows him, he is Jervis, a small man trying to live a lie.

While Bruce does what he can to investigate the Mad Hatter, the more the Mad Hatter tries to take unsuspecting victims down the rabbit hole. The question becomes, can Bruce keep a steady girlfriend without his private life getting in the way? With Greg Hurwitz, Ethan Van Sciver and Szymon Keidranski at the helm, there's no wonder it's a New York Times bestselling series.