Let's start off with the title story EGO. Ego begins with an injured Batman failing to save some lowly thug caught up in the battle between Joker and The Batman. This leads Batman to question if his mission is ultimately pointless and whether or not he should hang up the cape and cowl. Nothing new for a Batman comic. This is where Cooke decides to have Bruce talk to The Batman face to face as a sort of ego/id argument; with The Batman, calling itself "Fear", arguing that Bruce should let go and let Batman take over and finally start killing the villains that deserve it; all the while Bruce fighting to gain control of his subconscious. This is where the story goes off the rails. The idea of Bruce and Batman being two separate personalities/entities has been done to death, even by the time this story was written, and it just doesn't work. Bruce is Batman and Batman is Bruce. Batman is a tool that Bruce uses to fight crime, not some split personality that was born from his parent's death. They're the same dude, albeit a very complicated dude with many faces, but the same dude nonetheless.
The other problem I find with this whole Batman/Bruce sit down is The Batman's willingness to cross the line and kill criminals if Bruce was out of the way. This is the biggest failing of this story because BATMAN DOES NOT KILL. EVER. Even if Batman were some split personality separated from Bruce Wayne, he still wouldn't kill. The Batman is many things, Caped Crusader, Dark Knight, Vigilante, but Murderer isn't one of them. After a long discussion and "Fear Batman" tries to get Bruce to shoot him with the gun that killed his parents (of course it would be that gun) to free himself from Batman forever. Bruce refuses and convinces "Fear Batman"to accept the no killing clause of what they do and goes on being Batman. The whole thing comes off heavy handed and weak.
The smaller filler stories from Batman: Black and White are decent, but just that filler. Nothing to write home about.
Where this book does shine is Darwyn Cooke's Catwoman story Selina's Big Score. It's a fun, globe trotting heist story set in Selina's early days of being Catwoman that is filled with all the things that make a hard-boiled noir story great, tough guys, cold dames, and lots of dead bodies. The story follows Selina returning to Gotham after laying low for a while and organizing a train heist with some old colleagues. It's a great of example of what drives Selina as a character and how she can manipulate men to get what she wants. After the job goes wrong and stuff hits the fan, we see that Selina does feel for other people, but doesn't hesitate to put herself above all else. It's a great story that would have been worth the cover price without all the mediocre Batman stories surrounding it.
The last story collected in the book is Deja Vu based on a Batman story from the 70s called "Night of the Stalker". This tale opens up with a family being in the wrong place at the wrong time to witness a robbery where the mother and father get gunned down in front of their son. Of course this sets Batman off and he spends the rest of the pages silently stalking the crooks taking them out one by one letting their fear build the entire time. Batman as the silent, inescapable, pursuer is always fun, but if I ever have to read another Batman story where he's too late to stop another kid's family getting gunned down it will be too soon. Just like the "Bruce is Batman's mask" idea it's just too easy. Of course seeing another kid silently sobbing while his parents lay dead in an alleyway would set Batman off or make him even more resolute or doubt himself but it's been done. To death even.
Other than those not so minor gripes, it's a great trade worth checking out for the art alone. There's also a nice Catwoman short with Tim Sale on pencils and Dave Stewart on colors which looks as good as you'd expect. I'll link the book and some of Darwyn Cooke's better work at the bottom of the page.
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