It's difficult to tell if Gotham City Monsters #3's overwrought, overdramatic tone is sincere, or if it's merely tongue-in-cheek. If it's a joke, it's one that the reader isn't in on. If it's not a joke, then its overly intense melodramatics are simply absurd for no reason. Either way, Gotham City Monsters is a bit of a mess.

The book picks up with Frankenstein and his new team convincing their latest recruit, Killer Croc, to help them save Andrew Bennett (aka I, Vampire) from the multiversal vampire Melmoth. As they do, each member of the team soliloquizes about their history, their demons, and their pasts with Melmoth. The group manages to save Bennett, but fails to save two other innocent lives who have to die because...reasons? It's unclear, except that it has to do with one of DC Comics' weirdest MacGuffins, the Bible of Crime.

Much of the blame can be laid at the feet of the usually-strong writer Steve Orlando. Orlando fills his characters' mouths with cliche after cliche--Croc at one point observes, "This ain't the first mission I've seen go sideways"--but rarely has anyone say anything that sounds like something a person would say. The engine driving the plot is almost incomprehensible, as are most of the characters' motivations.

The art by Amancay Nahuelpan is similarly grotesque and overblown, with hammy over-emoting from the characters and weird anatomy that doesn't quite make sense. The coloring by Trish Mulvihill and lettering by Tom Napolitano are competent, but they don't save the sinking ship of this book.

It's a shame. The first issue of Gotham City Monsters was substantial, but so far, it has just deteriorated as each new chapter comes out. The book is slated for six installments; the scariest thing about this horror-themed miniseries might just be how bad the final issue will be if it continues in this direction.

Grade: C