Welcome back to Bat Chat with Matt (and Will!). It’s a new year and a whole new Gotham City … of the future. Gotham is now a fascist police state controlled by private security called The Magistrate. Masks are illegal. Batman, whoever he may be, is as much an outlaw as the villains he once hunted. We see three different tales of this new Gotham in Future State: The Next Batman #1 with:
The Next Batman, written by John Ridley, drawn by Nick Derington, colored by Tamra Bonvillain and lettered by Clayton Cowles
The Outsiders, written by Brandon Thomas, penciled by Sumit Kumar, inked by Kumar and Raul Fernandez, colored by Jordie Bellaire and lettered by Steve Wands
Arkham Knights, written by Paul Jenkins, drawn by Jack Herbert, colored by Gabe Eltaeb and lettered by Rob Leigh
Matt Lazorwitz: There’s a lot of heavy lifting that needs to be done in this first issue. We’re seeing the establishment of a new version of Gotham City created from as close to whole cloth as you can in a well established fictional world.
Will Nevin: My goodness, what an embarrassment of things to talk about in this book. You’re definitely right — we’re remaking what we know of Gotham with little exposition to back it up. (There wouldn’t be room, anyway; also, a whole mess of this is going to go away by March anyhow.) I think a lot of it works. But that necessarily implies that some of it doesn’t.
The Next Batman
ML: As I read this first story, I was thinking about your preference for a more Year One-era Batman. You hear “Batman of the future,” and if you’re not thinking Dark Knight Returns tank-driving Batman, you’re thinking Batman Beyond and his high-tech suit. We haven’t seen a lot of this new Batman, but he definitely doesn’t have a Terry McGinnis flying invisibility suit.
WN: Ahh, yes, indeed, friendo, but was this Batman particularly troubled in anything he did? Did he seem like a rookie? Out of the three stories, this felt the flattest to me — the Batman parts were smooth but not spectacular; I could not care less about the Fox family drama, and the state of the police in the police state was just confusing.
ML: I’m a John Ridley fan in general (his American Way is vastly underrated, and the first issue of The Other History of the DC Universe was one of the best comics of last year), but yeah, this felt a little paint by numbers. I have a bit more investment in the Foxes than you do, but the whole “Tamara was exposed to mind-altering poisons and was comatose” thing was lazy plotting and a total fridging, just to get her brother, Luke, invested in the villains in the Batwing series.
WN: Here’s what I know: I know Lucius.
ML: Someday I am going to write a piece about Lucius Fox and the “death” of the Bruce Wayne persona, because the two are intrinsically linked. Lucius was the one person in Bruce’s immediate orbit who didn’t know he was Batman for decades, but since he knew in Batman Begins, that made its way into the comics, and after that, there was no reason to really do Bruce Wayne plots anymore, since everyone and their mother knew Bruce was Batman. But I digress.
I think one thing that really bugged me wasn’t the story itself but the fact that DC leaked that Tim Fox is Batman. The whole issue is set up to make you believe Luke is Batman, and it’s going to be a twist in probably issue #2 that it’s Tim. But with the reveal already known? Meh.
WN: What are the key differences in the brothers? Is there one who would make a more interesting Batman?
ML: With Tim, it’s more a redemption story. He was a juvenile delinquent who was sent off to school after getting in trouble. Luke was the golden child; he’s what Bruce could have been if Thomas and Martha weren’t killed. He’s a mechanical genius who gave up the family business to be an MMA fighter to try to get Batman’s attention. He wants to be Batman adjacent, while Tim was busted by Bats as a teen. Your mileage may vary on which is more interesting.
WN: So Tim is, in essence, the Fox brother we would not expect.
ML: Yup. He’s also the first one. He was introduced in the Bronze Age, Batman #313, while the other Fox kids are more recent creations.
WN: I like it when you explain stuff to me, brah.
ML: All this useless Bat knowledge finally comes in handy!
WN: See if you can explain this to me. In the Gotham of The Next Batman (since I guess we can’t be sure that all of these stories are taking place in the same universe?), we have two law enforcement entities: the regular Gotham PD and “the peacekeepers.” GCPD have a standing order to arrest masks … and the other guys shoot on site? And we have multiple gangs like the Bane-litos who wear masks as a signature? These things do not make sense.
ML: Yeah, so this is something I figure we’ll get some explanation of in the Bruce Wayne-centric Dark Detective next week, but my assumption is the peacekeepers, agents of The Magistrate, were brought in after some mask-related tragedy, and their mandate was mask specific, but the latitude they were given allowed them to expand that to more or less take over; it’s commentary on fascist overreach of power. The GCPD is now there for parking tickets and to hassle corner dealers. It’s not clear at all.
I will say, having the Bane gang in Little Santa Prisca is a nice touch of continuity, though.
WN: Lack of clarity is one thing. But this?I think some pieces of the puzzle here simply don’t fit together, and I’m not looking forward to watching someone try to squish ‘em up. But I reserve the right to be wrong. Always.
ML: I do want to call out the art on this, which I really enjoyed. Nick Derington did the delightful Batman: Universe with Bendis a couple years back, and it’s great to see him get a spotlight in a main Bat book, even if it’s just the main book for a couple months.
WN: Sweet sassy molassy, yes. I could stare at Derington’s work all day long.
Outsiders
ML: Speaking of art, Outsiders was an artist spotlight if I’ve ever seen one. No slight to Brandon Thomas, who wrote this, but either he knew what his artist, Sumit Kumar, can do and played to his strengths, or they did this Marvel style and Kumar just got to go to town.
WN: Normally, I detest two-page spreads because they are a pain to read on an iPad and never add anything of value to a book. But this? A fight scene you can actually follow along as it tells a story? *chef’s kiss* Top notch work.
ML: Absolutely. I looked him up after reading this story, and he’s done some shorts in various DC anthologies, but that’s it so far [Grote’s note: He also did the excellent These Savage Shores with Ram V over at Vault]. They need to give him a book soon, because his storytelling is tremendous. The panel of Katana blocking bullets with her sword was just fun and animated.
WN: Outside of the art and focus on Duke Thomas (who is having a heckuva week), the thing that struck me here is the narrative setup that we have some nefarious plant in this band of rebels. I think that’s a story that’ll work even for a casual reader.
ML: Had you read the recent Bryan Hill Batman and the Outsiders with these characters in it?
WN: Matt, you know I can’t read.
ML: I withdraw the question, counselor. I thought this did a great job of establishing Duke’s relationship with Katana, and Katana’s with Kaliber, both things from that book, without spending a lot of time on exposition. You didn’t need more than what you got from Thomas here, and you never felt that feeling of, “Oh, I guess I missed X number of years of these characters’ lives.”
WN: Yeah, this thing zips right along, which is what you need in an anthology. And let’s talk about that for a second — did I read it right that these backups will continue in #3? That seems … strange.
ML: The back-ups are alternating. Same ones in 1 & 3 and 2 & 4. Issue #2 we get Vita Ayala and Aneke’s Batgirls and Laura Braga and Emanuela Luppachino’s Gotham City Sirens.
WN: They should have consulted me on that decision. Don’t like it at all.
ML: Everything would be better if they consulted you.
WN: I agree.
Arkham Knights
ML: And now, for the final story. This was the one I came in with the most trepidation for, and I wound up being pleasantly surprised by it.
WN: It was my favorite, fur-sure, because it is so damned bonkers. Arkham Knight with Two-Face as what seems to be a love interest? Random C-list Bat villains fighting a police state — and making their group therapy appointments? Looney Tunes stuff, but so far, it’s working.
ML: Definitely. After her first appearance, I didn’t think I would care to see the Astrid Arkham version of Arkham Knight again, but here, where she’s the lesser of two evils? She’s a lot of fun.
And Paul Jenkins, a writer who I have always found hit or miss, finds great moments here. He’s the first writer to write Victor Zsasz as the character he was created as, rather than this generic psycho that he has been for the past while.
WN: Zsasz only needs to do a little killing. Just a pinch of murder.
ML: The bit where he’s making snarky philosophy comments at the monosyllabic Humpty Dumpty? Gold.
WN: To me, this really showed off the potential of Future State and its ability to do almost anything. It’s an alternate future, people — these stories don’t have to go anywhere or survive past March. Go nuts! Outside of the general craziness, I thought Jenkins found a nice voice and vibe for this story — it’s a war book. Nothing more complicated than that.
ML: Saving Private Ryan if Private Ryan was Killer Croc.
WN: Only if Ryan could eat people.
Bat-miscellany
- Not a single image of or reference to the Joker in this issue. I’m … pleasantly surprised. And I say this as someone who likes the character a lot.
- I have no doubt that Peacekeeper One is someone we have met in the present. I’m just not sure who. [Grote’s note: OOH! OOH! No one’s asking me, but I have a guess.]
- The Knights taking Wayne Manor as their base of operations is a nice touch.
Matt Lazorwitz read his first comic at the age of 5. It was Who's Who in the DC Universe #2, featuring characters whose names begin with B, which explains so much about his Batman obsession. He writes about comics he loves, and co-hosts the podcasts BatChat with Matt & Will and The ComicsXF Interview Podcast.
Will Nevin loves bourbon and AP style and gets paid to teach one of those things. He is on Twitter far too often.
