It’s the Magistrate vs. the Unsanity Collective, and the Scarecrow makes his play in Batman #111, with a lead story written by James Tynion IV, drawn by Jorge Jimenez, colored by Tomeu Morey and lettered by Clayton Cowles.
Two-Face faces the GCPD in interrogation and his story includes some new twists and new characters. The Joker Presents: A Puzzlebox #5 is written by Matthew Rosenberg, drawn by Jesus Merino and Dominike “Domo” Stanton, colored by Ulises Arreola and Mike Spicer, and lettered by Ferran Delgado.
Matt Lazorwitz: Not a lot of Batnews this week for an intro here. There are a lot of explosions and a lot of action across both of these books.
Will Nevin: A word to all the writers out there: Explosions are not plot. Unless you’re Michael Bay. If you are, keep pluckin’ that chicken.
Batman #111
Matt: I still stand firmly by the feeling that Tynion introduced too many new characters too quickly at the beginning of this run and left us with a lot of paper dolls. But now that the pace has slowed, we’re getting more time with the same new characters, instead of a cavalcade of more and more, and they’re feeling more like characters with flesh on their bones. They’re still not A-list, but I’m not cringing every time they appear. Well, except Ghost-Maker. Still don’t like him.
I don’t know if I’d say we were too hard on Tynion, because it was a problem, but I think there might have been more of a plan here than I initially thought.
Will: We are constantly roasted by the other ComicsXF staffers who read Batman, because they have fuckin’ loved this shit. (Hi, Big Boss Zack, Cori, Zoe and literally everyone else.) While they’re still wrong, let’s extend an olive branch to our friends who are wrong and should bathe in their wrongness: What has been good about this arc generally and this issue specifically? I’ll start with two things in Scarecrow’s depiction as a boss alpha mastermind and that this arc has been leagues better than the last one. (Sorry, couldn’t help with the backhanded compliment.)
Matt: This is Scarecrow as he should be written. He’s not a physical bad; trying to make him someone who can go toe-to-toe with Batman in a fight doesn’t make sense. But for him to be a chess-playing villain who has these plans all laid out? That’s perfect. He’s ready to screw with everyone’s minds, and he’s cold and completely logical about it. That is a great portrayal of the character.
Will: And the art. My goodness. Simply otherworldly, especially the splash where Scarecrow is injecting our good buddy Peacekeeper-01. Reminded me of the Kelley Jones Batman where he’s more creature than human.
Matt: Jimenez is on fire, no doubt. I have a concern that no one else will be able to capture this look for Scarecrow as well as he has, and the same can be said for Miracle Molly. These are looks that work because of the artist’s particular talents, and there are plenty of examples of this kind of thing where someone else takes over and it falls flat. I guess we’ll see in “Fear State.”
Will: Continuing in the “things that were good” list, I liked the character development we had for ol’ Sean Whateverhislastnameis (Mahoney, I think?). He gets this massive dose of fear toxin, and Scarecrow says, “Hey, that might stick with you for a bit, guy. Have fun terrorizing Gotham!” I like having that as an explanation for whatever he does next and what’s to come in Future State. That said, I also liked the idea he was just a shitty, abusive wannabe cop. So this might be putting a hat on a hat.
Matt: My favorite beat is the moment where Scarecrow betrays Simon Saint, and Saint is left holding the bag.
Will: Holding the bag but not able to hold his lunch. What a pus.
Matt: Exactly! This isn’t Lex Luthor, who has robots ready to go after his betrayer. It’s not even Dr. Sivana, another mad science villain, who would rant like some Golden Age madman. Nope. He just barfs. It’s a great moment to point out that Saint did not have this whole thing thought out.
Will: Saint is clearly your second-tier mastermind — the sorta guy who thinks Scarecrow can be bought off with a consultant gig. What exactly do you think he’s here for, buddy?
Matt: It would be so easy to make Saint yet another anti-Batman, in this case the cracked mirror of the planner, the billionaire looking to make the city better but taking it a step too far. And that’s how it started. But now, he’s clearly in over his head, and that makes for a different story than I anticipated, and I’m here for that. Although Nakano, also in over his head, is still buying what Saint is selling, figuratively and literally.
Will: Speaking of Nakano and good things in this issue, what a solid design for the character in his address to the city. Professional and dignified. And while that sounds like a low bar, believe me, artists don’t always clear it. (Don’t think for a single goddamn second, Elizabeth Breitweiser, that I’ve forgotten about Bruce Wayne’s black dress shirt in “Cold Days.”)
Matt: And with the end of this issue, it looks like we’ve caught up with the beginning of the Scarecrow material from each of the issues of this arc, so it’s crossover time. We’ll see how all of this comes together.
Puzzlebox #5
Matt: OK, I’d like to start this off with a digression, but it’s our column, and so I hope you’ll indulge me.
Will: Of course, Brother Matt, by all means. The floor is yours.
Matt: Thank you kindly.
I fucking hate Deathstroke. There are no words for how much I hate this character. He is a guy who was introduced as a sort of villain with honor, but pretty soon it turned out he was a sexual predator and, as John Ridley pointed out in issue #3 of The Other History of the DC Universe, pretty much a white slaver thanks to his treatment of Terra, and yet somehow he has repeatedly gotten a pass for this and was redeemed without ever addressing his sleeping with a 14-year-old, except by it being ignored or retconned.
He also gets the same treatment as Batman does, where he can be the guy who can beat anyone with enough planning. One of my least favorite single issues of all time is Identity Crisis #3, where he beats the entire Justice League, in a fight that was written illogically just to show how badass Deathstroke could be (still not the worst issue of that series, but that’s not what we’re here to talk about).
All of that is to say that seeing Deathstroke get punked by Two-Face, who is not a world-beating fighter, and Dr. Phosphorus made me happy.
Will: As with all things, you know more about the character than I do, but he’s certainly not called on to do much here. The rest of this issue, though? What a banger. Stanton, Arreola and Spicer brought such a great vintage vibe, and Joker on the shitter is such a fun visual.
Matt: Oh, the trouncing of a character I despise only added to the joy I felt with this issue. Stanton’s Joker looked deranged in the best possible way; still human, but just off kilter enough to be off putting, and the shadows in the scene where he pops up in Two-Face’s apartment added to the weirdness.
And as with previous issues of this book, Rosenberg shows how much he loves Gotham Central with the appearances by Detective Crowe and Sarge, two of the characters created for that book who never really showed up afterward. Love it.
Will: And not to hone in on the toilet gag (because I am 12 and obsessed with these things), it was the right touch of zaniness. Go too far in that direction, and you turn Joker into a toothless, grim Deadpool, but with only a sprinkle, you can emphasize that this fella just ain’t right. And to follow up from our last discussion, I want to point out that my (our?) only real complaint with this book is the wonky distribution model, and that is in no way the fault of the creative team. Where’s Jim Lee to answer for this “director’s cut” nonsense? I demand satisfaction, Mr. Lee!
Matt: Very true. This series continues to live up to its name, too. I’m not sure exactly what is going on and whom to trust. Joker is an unreliable narrator, no doubt, but Two-Face isn’t exactly trustworthy, especially since we don’t know what the last flip of his coin said. Do you think that Joker is the new boss of Two-Face’s man in the GCPD? Or Riddler maybe, since he is obviously not really dead.
Will: It’d be a hell of a twist if Joker wasn’t the mastermind here, something like the punchline in Batman Eternal (Sorry: Spoilers incoming!) that there was no grand conspiracy. I don’t even know that I can scrape together a guess for what happens next — I’m just along for the ride, brother.
Bat-miscellany
- Puzzlebox #1 arrives in print this week, and it contains the first two digital chapters. As far as I can tell, this is identical in content to what we read, so maybe it’s not till the next issue that new material starts appearing in print?
- Hot tip: Working at the comic shop yesterday, two people came in during the first hour after we opened, one who was not a regular comics reader, asking for the first issue of the Harley Quinn: The Animated Series — The Eat. Bang! Kill Tour tie-in mini, which was released digitally this week, and will be out in print in September. So if you’re a physical reader and you’re interested, you might want to pre-order the issue at your shop since many shops don’t order digital-first books heavily, and come back in September to see a review here on ComicsXF from the team of Armaan Babu and Cassie Tongue.
- Great job of subtle nonbinary representation in Batman.
- Ghost-Maker still sucks out loud.
- Another tip to writers: Try to eliminate cliches from your work. Simon Saint should not commend anyone ever for “playing Gotham like a fiddle.”
- The Unsanity Collective, as a bunch of cyberpunk body hackers, seems like a played out concept.
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.
