Welcome back to Bat Chat with Matt (and Will!). Batman is on the run from The Magistrate, Duke Thomas makes a speech and the Arkham Knight makes a statement in Future State: The Next Batman #3 with:
“The Next Batman,” written by John Ridley, drawn by Laura Braga with breakdowns by Nick Derington, colored by Arif Prianto 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: We’re into the “Future State” home stretch now. The whole event has been a mixed bag, which is frankly unsurprising with the number of titles involved. But these anthology titles have been a mixed bag within themselves, like the whole thing in microcosm.
Will Nevin: “Consistently inconsistent” is what I’d call it, and I first used that for A.J. Burnett when he played for the Yankees, so that should give the good content consumers a taste of what I’m really thinking here. It’s been strange for 1) so many of these titles to basically drive the Magistrate/Peacekeeper storyline deep into the cold, dark earth and 2) some of the “Future State” titles to not even deliver the anthology setup. Conceptually, it doesn’t make much sense to me for The Next Batman to deliver at 60+ pages while Harley Quinn is the standard 20 or so. But I digress.
The Next Batman
ML: So, now that we’ve reached issue #3, I think I can safely say what it is that has me less excited about this feature than I anticipated being. We talked in our issue #1 review about how this had the feeling of something repurposed to fit into “Future State” from an earlier pitch. I still see that, but I’ll raise you this: Either this was repurposed specifically from an opening arc without taking into consideration that there are only these four issues, or this is expressly setting up something for the future of this version of the character beyond the origin stuff in The Next Batman: Second Son digital first series.
The issue I’m having with this is that there’s too much worldbuilding around Jace and his family and his supporting cast. There’s so much going on that doesn’t have a direct bearing on the main plot that I can’t imagine is going to dovetail into what will be the final part of this arc. I never thought I’d complain about too much worldbuilding in a comic, but there is a balance in these kinds of future stories with a limited shelf life, and it feels like this one is erring on the side of losing momentum to worldbuild.
WN: This was yet another issue where the pacing was all off — the next time I see Batman fighting a drone, it will be too soon. But yeah, you’re right; none of this seems to hang together, and none of it seems particularly imaginative — which is another overall criticism of “Future State.” You give someone Batman and the rest of the DC stable, and this is the best alternative future they can dream up?
ML: Well, that’s the question, isn’t it? How much of this is imagination, and how much is something that came from a Bat summit? Were each of the writers told, “OK, coming out of ‘Joker War,’ we want to build a Gotham where masks aren’t trusted, so take that to its logical extension.”
WN: Of all the “Future State” books I’ve read (Harley Quinn, Swamp Thing, Justice League, Dark Detective), this is the one that reads the most like any other book. Outside of Gotham PD going all “shoot to kill” and “we’re going to wear the hell out of that phrase,” it’s not much different — to me, anyhow.
ML: I’m reading the whole event, and this is far from the most samesies title (that award goes to the main story in Suicide Squad, and Legion of Super-Heroes was saved from that award only by Riley Rossmo’s crazy-excellent art), but your point is well taken. Also, you might enjoy Catwoman. It’s a train heist, which might just be a me thing, but I dig it.
WN: I knew I was forgetting one. Yeah, Catwoman slapped.
ML: There’s one more issue left of this, for all of these disparate threads to come together, but how we’re going to get some resolution on a court case about the legality of that shoot-to-kill order next issue, I don’t know, while you also have to wrap up the Magistrate after Batman and Batman having to deal with these two killers who have now turned on him. That plotline drives me the most crazy, because it feels completely extraneous to the driving action of the book, except to give Luke’s mother something to do and to make commentary this book doesn’t have time to make; it’s the subplot of an ongoing or maxi-series, not a four-issue mini that already has two other plots boiling. John Ridley’s The Other History of the DC Universe is telling a subtle, fascinating take on DC history with the time and nuance needed to address these kinds of issues. I wish I felt that nuance here.
WN: I know you’re not saying this, but I want to make it clear for both of us: I think a Black man should be absolutely entitled to use a Black family in one of DC’s legacy titles (insomuch as this is Batman at the moment) to make a point about police violence. But this has just been done in such a goofy way — again, it’s the Sean Gordon Murphy route of sticking a label on a complex problem and then exhausting the reader’s patience with that label. Police violence is a more complicated issue than “I’m working on the legal justification for that ‘shoot to kill’ order,” which is a damn near verbatim quote. Come on. We can do better than that.
And that Sad Dad who flips on Batman? What a groaner of a plot twist. Shallow, nonsensical characters making arbitrary decisions.
ML: I just don’t care about that couple. Their reason for killing that guy is absolutely justified, but it’s so justified as to almost remove accountability. And now the heel turn comes and … yawn. You can’t balance the character and make them multidimensional by having them move from one extreme to the next.
WN: It’s the Gotham and Gotham Girl problem: You can’t make readers care about characters when you haven’t invested the time in them as a writer.
ML: I also feel bad saying this, but I said something similar with issue #2, so I’ll say it again: Laura Braga is a good artist. But you gave us Nick Derington in issue #1, and then just pulled the rug out from under us. Man, I wish Derington had done all these issues. You can get the feel from his layouts, but it’s not the same.
Outsiders
WN: Will’s Honest Confession Time: I couldn’t read this. It was something about Duke’s speech/narration being so wordy and everything else going on, my eyes glazed over like hot and fresh Krispy Kreme.
ML: Yeah, this was super wordy. I might still have PTSD from those god-awful Jeph Loeb issues of Superman that were narrated by famous speeches by American leaders that came out 20 years ago, but you use a speech as narration, and I just lose interest.
WN: Which was disappointing, especially since I thought this chapter was going to focus on a mole inside the resistance to the Magistrate. Did that get paid off?
ML: It did, but in a pretty simple way. The dude makes a break for it almost immediately, and it becomes Duke and Katana chasing him to the bridge to stop him from getting the info to the Magistrate. The art is very cool, and there are some really nice action sequences (although none quite as great as that two-page spread from part one).
There’s also another one of those hints of something cooler in here, where the Magistrate mole is cybernetic, and he’s excited to get this information to his bosses to get upgraded enhancements. There’s some transhumanism addiction stuff there that might be a really interesting mine to dig in, but it’s just a throwaway line in this issue.
WN: More actual future stuff would have been nice in “Future State.” ALAS.
Arkham Knights
ML: And now, Arkham Knights. I still enjoyed this, but I really wish it had more time to breathe.
WN: Precisely. This was my favorite backup, the one with the most ambition, the greatest deviation from the status quo, and it was entirely too rushed. This should have been a mini unto itself, and I would not have predicted that coming in.
ML: Each one of the protagonists of this story was written so clearly and so quirkily. I want more of this tragic Dr. Phosphorus, of the semi-reformed Two-Face (a concept that has been done so many times before I thought I’d never care to see it again) and just snarky as hell Zsasz. And Astrid Arkham’s narration is actually solid, which I would not have expected from the character’s appearances before this. I would have liked a little more of the sun motif, and her obsession worked into it before the end, truthfully. Did that being her thing come through to you, who I don’t think read the Arkham Knight arc from Detective?
WN: I think I tried to get into that arc, but it didn’t work for me. But this makes me want to give it another shot. Also, she and Harvey had some real chemistry.
ML: They did, and I think it’s fascinating, for someone to accept the monsters for who they are and love them regardless. It’s a unique take, and does come from that ’Tec run, but it comes out more here. Imagine this spun out, and maybe even done as a counterpoint to a Suicide Squad story, with the two teams playing off each other. One led by someone who gives the team conditional but constant love, the other led by someone ready to blow their heads up the minute they step out of line. That’s one of those contrasts that has potential.
WN: I pulled up the “Infinite Frontier”-era Batman teaser, just to see if any of the Knights were there. Of course they weren’t. But Peacekeeper and Ghost-Maker are there, baby. Hell yeah.
Bat-miscellany
- Y’know how in the review of issue #1 I said DC needs to get Sumit Kumar on a book right now? Well, guess what? He’s doing the art on the Man-Bat miniseries that launched this week. (Will’s note: Can’t wait to read it.)
Matt Lazorwitz read his first comic at the age of five. 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 creator interview podcast WMQ&A with Dan Grote.
Will Nevin loves bourbon and AP style and gets paid to teach one of those things. He is on Twitter far too often.
