Title: Kicking Gotham
Author: Steelbadger
Rating: T
Genre: Adventure/Mystery
Status: Complete
Library Category: The Alternates
Pairings: None, really?
Summary: When Neville Longbottom goes missing during an investigation into reports of strange magical plants in the Muggle world, it falls to Harry to try to find his friend. Last known location? Gotham City, USA.
Link: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13521865/1/Kicking-Gotham
AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23190862/chapters/55514140
WbA: https://forums.darklordpotter.net/threads/the-shadow-of-angmar-hp-lotr.28486/

Well, after waiting not all that long at all, the last chapter of this story has been posted on FFN/AO3. Figure it's time to really throw it to the wolves.

The more fun thing, of course, is trying to come up with an approximately objective review of this story.

It's not Megamatt. 6/5 stars.

Okay, maybe I should try and do it properly.

The Good:

• In general, the characterisations take no great liberties. Everyone is fairly close to what you might expect from an extrapolation of canon. Harry has become somewhat disconnected from the muggle world in his job as an auror, and as a result his dealings with them can seem a little unfeeling, but it doesn't feel egregious.
• The plot is pretty laser-focused, and the story is in general far more fast paced than much fanfiction. It moves quickly between plot-relevant events, with brief spaces for breathing room and doesn't waste words on many unnecessary or irrelevant elements.
• The quality of the technical writing is decent, if perhaps not exactly inspired. The prose is functional, and fairly effective though it does lack a little for 'x-factor'.
• Speaking personally, I like the fact that this story does not need to give Harry a massive power-up, nor have him combating some end-of-the-world scenario. Just being a wizard, and good at it, is enough to make him relevant to the setting.
• There's more to the story have just 'Harry is now surrounded by hot DC superheroes, and he's going to fuck his way through all of them'. This automatically makes it better than 99% of existing HP/DC crossovers.
• The magical combat is actually not bad.

The No-So-Good:

• It could be argued that the general competence of pretty much everyone is overdone. As a result, there is a lack of immediacy to any threat. The investigation never meets a real stumbling block, and is pretty much a straight path from start to end. The result is a general feeling of blandness.
• The blandness is further reinforced by the prose. Functional? Yes. Exciting? In places perhaps, but in general it blends into the background. In some cases, this would be a good thing, as it would allow the twists and turns in the plot to really show themselves off, but there aren't really any twists and turns.
• The setting itself is a little unclear from within the context of the story. What superheroes/villains exist? What about the old ones like Shining Knight, or Circe and her ilk? How can the DC world work as it appears to in the story? Perhaps not so much of an issue if you're unfamiliar with DC in general, but there's a fundamental problem of buy-in if you think about it too much.

Over-all, it's actually a well written story that doesn't really step on any tails, or fall afoul of any big cliches. On the other hand, the weaknesses in the 'mystery' plot, and the somewhat shallow characterisation keeps it from a big score. I'd rate it somewhere between 3.5 and 4 depending on how charitable I'm feeling, so lets round it up to 4 cos I'm a hack.

 

I enjoyed it a good deal actually. It was fast paced, a lot of fun, kept me drawn in. About the only negatives honestly was things I wished I had more of (more of batman's perspective on Harry for instance). Its definitely one of the better HP fanfics ive read this year and deserves to be in the library.

Heh I did spend an ungodly amount of time (not being familiar with dc or marvel whichever batman is... see im ignorant) trying to figure out if Constantine was an original character or like... the guy from that movie about hell, angels, and demons.

But in any event very tightly done story. Also I might add one of the better post-canon stories ive read. Harry came off as powerful and mature, but still *harry* and not someone different.

 

I thought the balance between magic and Batman was well-done. He didn't' shy away from showing magic's OPness (casual memory erasure LOL) though I think he missed a fun opprotunity for magic-enhanced Batman on thin premises

Harry was generally competent and believable, though I wish he'd had a touch more witty dialogue. That's hard to do as well as in canon, honestly, so I don't hold it against sbadger too much.

The plot was tightly written and generally made sense. A touch more emphasis on how the book corrupts would have been appreciated. Neville's corruption always struck me as a bit out-of-nowhere.

The writing was great.

4.5/5 -->5/5

 

It's good, should be Harry/Padma pairing

Tentatively 5/5 if the sequels not Harry/Padma then it's a potato/5

 

A story with the Batman? Competent Harry Potter? Powerful magic? AND it wraps in under 100k words? All of that from Steelbadger?

Oh my god, that's definite 5/5.

Wait, it's not Megamatt. 6/5.

Overall, I actually, like, 100% agree with Steelbadger's own review (LOL), with the minor point that I don't care about DC beyond crossovers, so I didn't really care about "not being 100% sure about the setting".

The only minor thing - just a note really - is Harry's "overreliance" on exploding floor and ceiling. I'd like to see a bit more illusion like stuff, or some more colorful magic, although if this is really a part of a trilogy, I can see the author not putting all the magic in the first part.

My favorite (AND FINISHED! under 100K WORDS) story of the last year.

 

I enjoyed Kicking Gotham very much, though I went into your story more or less blind to the DC elements, I thought that you managed to weave the two worlds together quite well, which is more then I can say for most crossovers of this nature. Your combat scenes were thought out and executed in a very clear manner, and the dialogue felt natural. Overall it deserves a place in the library.

- Oh, and you handled Greengrass in a very amusing manner.

5/5

 

My main issue is the pacing. It feels sinusoidal, rising and falling rising and falling. But the cadence is too neat, too redundant.
Still 5/5 because that's a pathetic quibble, but I wish we could have seen a bit more of a beat down on Harry. Things go bad. Then get worse. Then even worse. Then just add they start to get better it gets beyond worse. Instead we for things get bad, quip, things get better, things get bad, quip, things get worse.

 

My issue with this story is that I have no idea who John Constantine is.

He gets warped in plot armour and for some reason I got the impression that I was supposed to clap every time he showed up.


I would have preferred if the story at least tried to earn that treatment. Because I read this entire thing and still don't get why I or anyone should like him.

Other than that I did really like this.

 

I dunno about this specific story, as I haven't read it, but that's pretty true to the source material as well.