Batman, Lex Luthor, Abyss and Batman Inc. collide in the conclusion of the “Abyss” storyline in Batman #121, written by Joshua Williamson, drawn by Jorge Molina and Mikel Janin, colored by Tomeu Morey and lettered by Clayton Cowles. In the backup feature, Maps Mizoguchi solves the mystery of her missing classmate in a story written, drawn and lettered by Karl Kerschl and colored by John Rauch.
In Detective Comics #1,055, “Shadows of the Bat” reaches its third act, as Arkham Tower descends into chaos and a new player enters the game in a story written by Mariko Tamaki, drawn by Amancay Nahuelpan, colored by Jordie Bellaire and lettered by Ariana Maher. In the backup, “House of Gotham,” The Boy enters No Man’s Land in a story written by Matthew Rosenberg, drawn by Fernando Blanco, colored by Bellaire and lettered by Rob Leigh.
The curtain falls on this series of madness and fervor, as Dr. Joy experiences what Professor Pyg has been planning all along in Arkham City: The Order of the World #6, written by Dan Watters, drawn by Dani, colored by Dave Stewart and lettered by Aditya Bidikar.
Will Nevin: Two big Batman news items: 1) The Batman drops in theaters this weekend, and 2) Chip Zdarsky is taking over the main Bat title. Gotta say — I think I’m more excited for the second. And I’m not even down on the movie! Zdarsky is clever, and — if Newburn is any indication — he can write the shit out of a detective story.
Matt Lazorwitz: Absolutely. Between Newburn and his run on Daredevil? This is a writer who is made for Batman. It will also make him the only writer to be the ongoing writer of Batman and Daredevil at the same time. There are two other notable writers for both titles, Denny O’Neil and Frank Miller, but they weren’t doing their best runs on either book at the same time.
Will: That’s some rarified air, even to be someone who got a crack at Batman *and* Daredevil, much less at the same time. Really does signal that the Big Two are getting away from exclusive creator contracts, doesn’t it?
Code: Club of Heroes
Matt: Joshua Williamson’s caretaker run on Batman wraps up its first arc here, and it’s a perfectly fine book to me. There’s some action, the villain gets taken out, Luthor gets his comeuppance. In all fairness, I am a fan of Wiliamson’s work in general, and I think he’s got Bruce’s voice down well, so that does a lot for me.
Will: I think the visuals, which have been incredible, really carry this story. Outside of that? Kind of a nothingburger, especially with Batman’s status quo resetting at the end of this issue just in time for *yet another* event story.
Matt: Yes, the upcoming “Shadow War.” We’re going to have to figure out how we’re going to cover this, since we don’t usually talk about two of the three books involved.
I don’t mind the nothingburger that this story could wind up being. So many comics try to be momentous now, just telling a story that goes from A to B, that re-establishes some forgotten characters and maybe sets up something other writers can come back to later? I’ll take that over another, “And Batman’s life will never be the same,” again.
Will: Williamson had to know this was going to be a fill-in, and for what it was, it’s perfectly acceptable. They don’t all have to be earth-shattering stories — sometimes, you just gotta make the sausage.
Matt: And this is some decent sausage (Let’s move away from this metaphor quickly). We’ve talked about it before, but I like Batman and Lex Luthor stories; they’re very similar characters in a lot of ways. But this issue sees Batman realize the one thing that Lex never will: Sometimes you do need help. This arc started with Batman sinking back down into some of those dark places he often does after bad stuff happens. But by the end, he realizes it’s OK to ask for help, and that he needs to take a win every now and then. And that’s character growth! Or as much as you can get for one of these iconic characters.
Will: And let me emphasize again how great the art was with an almost photo-realistic set of textures and warmth. Seemed just a smidge above the typical house style quality.
Matt: Definitely. The texture of the smoke that Abyss uses to escape? You feel like you could run your finger over the page and come away with soot on it. And the facial expressions of frustration and annoyance on Lex’s face, as he realizes that Batman Inc. has been playing him all along? Priceless.
Will: And the suits, my god, the suits. Like you could feel the spandex in all of them.
The Inmates Are Running the Tower
Matt: OK, so we’re picking up pretty much where the flashforward from part one ended here, yes?
Will: With Wear taking his header, absolutely. Gotta say, I thought there would have been more of a dramatic buildup to that moment, but nope — they tossed him out off-panel. It feels like there’s more to learn about him, right?
Matt: I do too, and I think we’ll get that when we get the faux-Harley reveal, since I remain sure she’s somehow tied to him. I think, as satisfying as it would have been to get more of that, we’re at a point where this story’s momentum is pulling it forward at breakneck pace. Everyone involved is going head to head.
The reveal of the new player in the game seems so obvious to me now. We knew that Scarecrow was in the Tower in Fear State Omega, so the fact we haven’t seen him should have been a glaring omission. Tells you how good the rest of this is that a major missing piece didn’t stand out, but makes perfect sense now that it’s popped up.
Will: The one guy I would want to see less than Joker in a story right now is Scarecrow. “Fear State” was a test of endurance and patience, and it seems like he should be on the shelf right now. But you’re right in that his appearance does make sense — although I think a direct confrontation between him and Psycho-Pirate would be more interesting. But we’re not not getting that, right?
Matt: Not yet, anyway. I wonder if this is going to be what ties the backup directly into the main story, since Crane was sensitive to The Boy in “House of Gotham,” and we’re pretty sure The Boy is Nero XIX, who is running around in the main story.
Will: I generally don’t give a shit about continuity, but I love the New 52 pickle DC put itself in with the Batbooks — every Robin, “Knightfall” and “No Man’s Land” (as we’ve seen in the last two backups) and anything else in the established canon has happened in about the last five years. That’s incredible to think about, and if you think about it too hard, seems like nothing makes sense. I’m kinda surprised they let Rosenberg make both of the very clear nods to those big event stories.
Matt: Oh, I chalk that up to Infinite Frontier, and the fact that everything has happened now, so screw continuity! There’s too much good stuff in the past to be mined to let that weird New 52 mess interfere with it.
Will: Dr. Lazorwitz or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Continuity Implausibilities.
Matt: Oh, and we did get our Act Three artist joining the book here. I’m not terribly familiar with Amancay Nahuelpan, outside of the under-appreciated Gotham City Monsters with Steve Orlando, but I thought it looked good. Similar in style to Viktor Bogdanovic, who is a jerk as well as a former fill-in artist on ‘Tec, but the style is a bit cleaner, and I like the way he handled the fight scene with Huntress and Freeze especially. That looked nice. There’s one panel where she kicks Freeze in the back, and oof, you can feel the impact on that one.
All things taken into consideration, and barring any major miscalculation, this looks like a story that is going to wrap up well. And I’m glad to see that, since I’ve been enjoying this a lot.
Pyg’s Asylum
Matt: Well, that was a weird ending for a weird book. Not unsatisfying, but certainly weird.
Will: A bit more touching than I was expecting, and maybe a tad rushed? This world was so weird and different; it certainly was a story I wouldn’t begrudge sticking around for a bit longer.
Matt: I agree with that entirely. While it doesn’t feel like there’s a sequel setup here, between this and the short serial he wrote with the character in Urban Legends, I think a Dan Watters Azrael miniseries to follow this up would be well in order.
Will: If we’re wishcasting, let’s make it a Black Label book both to get some non-Batman stories over there and let someone with an actual brain for telling stories take a crack at some dark, adult-oriented material. (Sorry, we just recorded a BatChat episode on White Knight, and I’m still mad at anyone who had a hand in that book.)
Matt: I would love to see Watters do anything Black Label, be it Azrael or, I dunno, House of Mystery or something else in that Sandman vein; his Lucifer was great, and sadly hurt by the pandemic.
The thing that I really wish we had gotten more time to see blossom here was the idea that Professor Pyg’s asylum was working. Mad Hatter and Dr. Double X were actually recovering, or at least were nonviolent. There was something to be really looked at about the idea that the old ways don’t work, and sometimes madness might be best cured by the mad (I know that is not at all a proper or sensitive term for those with mental illness, but I use the parlance of the medium). I would have loved to see more time with Dr. Joy in the “asylum” and her really wrestling with the fact that Pyg seemed to be doing more good than she ever did.
Will: That’s something that definitely could have used more exploration, along with the idea that Dr. Joy was a bit unwell herself in how she viewed her job and the realistic expectations for her patients. To me, that was the most striking moment of this final issue — a more thoughtful take on the old “you’re locked in here with me” line.
Matt: And the ending, of Joy sacrificing herself to protect the one patient she has been able to maybe save? That definitely has the feel of a horror movie, or at least a tragedy.
I would have liked to spend a little more time with some of the other characters who unraveled through this story to really make the end sing as well, both Detective Stone and Azrael. It’s obvious why they both were losing it, but I would have liked to see more of that evolution. And I also would have liked to know if Azrael keeping his mask on was a direct reference to the fact that the character had a programming in him that was triggered by the mask, or if this was just a part of his break with reality, but that I can hope for in whatever Watters does next with the character.
Will: In my head, the good doctor survived her gunshot. The world can always use a bit more Joy.
Bat-miscellany
- So, we got lucky this week, and by sheer coincidence (or maybe Matt’s Batman-level planning) the BatChat pod ties in nicely with this week’s new books. We feature three stories by Grant Morrison, including a tale of the Club of Heroes and the first full appearance of Professor Pyg.
- Because of the large quantity of Bat books this week, we’ll be covering issues 1 and 2 of the new Tom King title, Batman: Killing Time, together next month.
- Will guesses Killing Time > Bat/Cat, but we’ll have to see about that, won’t we?
- This tweet seems to suggest that Watters has another DC book in the works, and if so, good for him. He wrote Limbo, and that remains a comic that goes real, real hard.
- I (Matt) know that Scarecrow is all over one of the upcoming covers for Detective, but I do my best to not read the solicitations or look at previews for books I know I’m going to read, so that reveals like this remain something of a surprise, and I stand by that.
- And Will doesn’t read anything, so everything is a surprise (dictated, not read).
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.
