A cat burglar, a serial killer and a familiar manhunter all enter Bruce Wayne’s life as his journey to become Batman takes him to Paris in Batman: The Knight #2, written by Chip Zdarsky, drawn by Carmine Di Giandomenico, colored by Ivan Plascencia and lettered by Pat Brosseau.
In Detective Comics #1,053, we’re three days from things going very wrong at Arkham Tower. Dr. Wear’s plans continue to unravel, Nightwing learns a secret, and the Batgirls and Batwoman have some uninvited guests stop by their cave in a story written by Mariko Tamaki, drawn by Max Raynor, colored by Luis Guerrero and lettered by Ariana Maher. In the backup, “House of Gotham,” the life of The Boy intersects with a classic Batman epic in a story written by Matthew Rosenberg, drawn by Fernando Blanco, colored by Jordie Bellaire and lettered by Rob Leigh.
Jace Fox moves to New York and establishes a new status quo in I Am Batman #6, written by John Ridley, drawn by Ken Lashley, colored by Rex Lokus and lettered by Troy Peteri.
Matt Lazorwitz: So, for the first time in a while, we only had two of our normal books to cover, and nothing left over from last week. But we fixed that, huh?
Will Nevin: As I said to you in making my pitch to pick up an extra book, I don’t like change, Brother Matt. Three books just feels … right. Although I’m a bit disappointed you didn’t go with taking a detour into a Batman-less Scooby Doo.
An American Vigilante in Paris
Matt: I’m going to start with my big complaint about this issue before we get into anything else, which I usually don’t do, but it’s a fine detail that just bugged me, and brought what I thought was a solid comic to a thud right before the end. Will, how do you feel when a character says the title of a movie, or winks really hard at the camera metaphorically in a movie? Because I, personally, am not a fan of that level of metatext.
Will: I know that all-time Jeopardy! legend Ken Jennings claps during a movie when that happens, and I feel that’s the appropriate response.
Matt: This issue sees young Bruce training with Lucie, the legendary cat burglar known as the Grey Shadow, in Paris. After a moment of near romance between the 17-year-old Bruce and a woman at least in her thirties, one she immediately stops, thank God, Bruce’s narration says, “It’s WRONG, but whatever I end up DOING … wherever this road takes me … CAT BURGLARS of the WEALTHY will be LOW on my list of who to–” before being cut off.
Will: Matt, do you think Big Daddy Chip was making a reference to Catwoman there? The subtext is hard to make out.
Matt: Yes, I believe he was. And here’s a tip to a writer who does this professionally from an IT guy who doesn’t: We all know the subtext here. You don’t need to make it text. Especially since I liked the rest of this comic.
The idea that Bruce would train with not just the best on the good side of the law, but on the bad side of the law? It makes perfect sense. And the French gentleperson burglar is a tradition in literature, from the legendary Arsene Lupin to the charming all-ages comic Bandette by Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover. Grey Shadow is a worthy addition to the annals of people who trained Batman. And that’s in addition to one of the more legendary and traditional Bat trainers popping up in here, too.
Will: Aye, that’d be one Henri Ducard, wouldn’t it?
Matt: Indeed it would. Ducard, the legendary bounty hunter, has been hired to stop a serial killer, and it looks like Bruce and Lucie have stumbled into the case. Bad luck, that. This is a coincidence I can live with, as it forwards the story, versus one we’ll talk about in a later book today that just feels like it’s there because the writer needed to get pieces in place.
I think Zdarsky is still pulling this off rather well, other than that one bit I already kvetched about. His Bruce is young and impetuous; he’s not Batman yet by any stretch. He’s still trying to figure out what he needs to do to make that vow he made to his parents a reality. And Zdarksy specifically has Bruce think, “All I know is I want to STOP CRIMINALS. Prevent VICTIMS from happening.” (Italics are mine for emphasis). He gets that Batman, that Bruce, isn’t picturing his parents’ killer with every crook he hits. He’s picturing his parents and young Bruce walking down that alley safely with every victim of crime he saves.
Will: And maybe, just maybe, falling a teensie bit in love.
It’s All Downhill from Here
Matt: Last issue marked the halfway point of “Shadows of the Bat.” After a couple issues that had a lot of character stuff going on, this issue very much feels like table setting for the rest of the arc to me: Characters are being moved into place, and we’re seeing secrets revealed. Do you read this the same way, Will?
Will: I feel like this arc/event/whatever this is alternates between hot and cold books. Last week was hot, hot, hot with the cracks in Psycho-Pirate’s ability to keep Arkham Tower under control really starting to grow. This week? More like lukewarm. But I could certainly be talked into a higher appraisal.
Matt: It’s not a bad comic, but it’s just moving pieces into place. For one, Dr. Wear is just getting more and more out of his depth. We’ve seen it happen over the course of the series, but now he’s just screwed. The Penguin and the Party Crashers are all thoroughly pissed at him, and there’s dissension in the ranks as members of the Arkham Tower staff are starting to feel the effects of Psycho-Pirate. And his response? He gets into bed deeper with them. This is not the way to go. To quote Chief Clancy Wiggum, “Dig up, stupid!”
Will: Matt, I’m going to make a promise to you: If I ever find myself in an alternate reality in which the DC Comics universe is real and I get into a super tight spot with money, I promise I won’t take out a loan from the Penguin. Jesus Christ, what a bad idea. But that tight panel of Wear’s face really sold the idea he knows just what trouble he’s in. That swan dive he’s gonna take might be a relief for the good doctor.
Matt: On the other hand, the Party Crashers remain fairly generic. I don’t have a real feel for them other than they’re bad guys who want money, and Wear promised them money, but has now screwed that up. And now they have found the Batcave where our heroes are headquartered. I mean, I know they have guns, but you want to take a bet on how long it takes for the Batgirls, Batwoman and Oracle to kick their knock-off-Joker asses? Because I don’t think it’s going to be long.
Will: “Party Crashers” continues to be a dumb name for these goons who absolutely stole their look from Batman Beyond. And you’re absolutely right — the Bat family (minus Batman) doesn’t seem to be in any real danger here … at least the ones outside the Tower.
Matt: On the other hand, Nightwing has gotten himself into real trouble. See, Dick has put two and two together on the mind control, and has made his way into the parts of Arkham Tower he’s not supposed to be in, and, oops! There’s Psycho-Pirate. I think this is what brings about everything bad: Psycho-Pirate has barely been able to hold things in place as it is. Having someone as strong-willed as Dick actively fighting him, knowing what’s going on? He doesn’t have enough focus to deal with all that.
Will: I want to make it clear that, like you said, this is not a bad comic, although perhaps this is suffering a bit from decompression sickness. The story as a whole, though? I’m still sold on it. This is going to be one crazy ride — or perilous fall (depending on your personal perspective).
Matt: And over in “House of Gotham,” aka “The Life and Times of Young Nero XIX,” we’ve reached a point of major intersection with continuity: This is a story set at the beginning of “Knightfall.” I like that we’re seeing a classic event from a different perspective.
Will: Not having read “Knightfall” — although I know we’ll get to it over the course of a dump truck load of podcast episodes — what tipped you off that this is set in that period?
Matt: The inciting incident of “Knightfall” is Bane breaks open Arkham Asylum and sets all the villains loose, so this takes place between the pages of Batman #491. Now, most of the villains we see in this issue weren’t a part of “Knightfall,” except for Zsasz, and naturally Bane, but this allows for Clayface and Grundy to escape and we don’t know where they were right after, so Rosenberg has time to play with them to not fit into the known narrative.
Will: But what about all the *other* times Bane let all the Arkham inmates loose?
Matt: Will, just go with me on this one, OK? Trust your sherpa through Bat history on this one point.
Welcome to New York
Matt: You read the first four issues of this series for next week’s BatChat, but have you read the intervening couple of issues?
Will: Matt, you know me better than that. I don’t read anything. Ever. I’m not even reading your questions. Just banging out letters and letting Google Docs shape them into words. Dan takes care of the rest. [Grote’s note: It’s true.]
Matt: I don’t feel like you needed to read anything in between to get this issue. It’s really an absolute new status quo, and everything you need is right there on the page. And it’s nice to have an artist like Ken Lashley here, a strong, classic superhero artist.
Will: Let’s talk about this status quo. As we talked about on the podcast (OK, will talk about since maintaining kayfabe is fun), it’s clear from what we can discern of the unknowable mind and intentions of DC editorial that Ridley was supposed to be the guy on Batman, but that plan went kablooie when the 5G plug got pulled. Ridley, though, is apparently a good sport and agreed to stay on for his book. But now, if you’re DC, you got a problem: namely two Batmen in Gotham in your main timeline. I would have kept Jace in Gotham, made it clear the story took place in a world in which Bruce Wayne truly was good and dead and let him play with all the Bat family toys and/or rogues.
This — shipping him off to New York — feels like a cop-out. I already don’t like shoving real cities into the DC world (Why not send him to Central City and let him mix it up with Flash for a bit?), and I especially don’t like it here, where there doesn’t seem to be anything particularly New York-ish in this issue.
Matt: Might that be Ridley’s choice, the use of New York? If he wants to make these social points, do they hit better in a real city? Marvel loves to be “the world outside your window,” and part of that has always been that most of its stories are set in a real place.
Will: You could very well be right, and I hope that’s what’s going on here because Jace Fox as a “real world” Batman could be a powerful storytelling device. However, I gotta wonder — and this is not having read The Other History of the DC Universe — is he up to it? Can he pull off nuance and insight in a monthly comic? The NYPD commissioner raving about being “woke” and “SJWs” does not inspire confidence.
Matt: Between Other History and The American Way? I think he can. I just think he needs time to get this off the ground and not just repurposing what he had in the 5G pitch, which is where I feel like this is going. Jace is feeling a lot more of a full character by now, and that’s partially because he finally got to have his talk with Lucius last issue and has at least put some of the father issues that defined the first arcs and Second Son behind him.
And he’s not leaving all of Gotham behind, either. Detective Chubb, the one who doesn’t trust superheroes? She’s conveniently in New York now, too. I know Ridley couldn’t throw out all the time he spent developing that character, and her partner Whitaker, but it feels awfully coincidental. Would it have been better if the mayor of NYC had contacted Nakano, who contacted Montoya, and Montoya sent Chubb especially to deal with the Big Apple’s Bat problem? That seems more organic to me.
Will: This absolutely feels contrived, and once again, it feels like the only thing that was really done here was to subtract Gotham from the story.
Bat-miscellany
- Over on the BatChat podcast, it’s three stories from the early days of three Robins: Jason Todd, Tim Drake and Damian Wayne. And here’s a spoiler: learning more about Damian’s early days didn’t make Will like him any better.
- “I’m strictly an above the ground policeman, what you need is the sewer cops.”
- Will actually pitched Scooby-Doo content. For real.
- There’s a somewhat throwaway line in ‘Tec this week: “Doesn’t Deb Donovan have a daughter who’s a judge?” (their emphasis). That’s new information, and I’m curious to know more about that.
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.
