Jace Fox is still hunting the mysterious and brutal killer in New York, and it’s starting to weigh on him. Will he be able to stop the killer with the help of friends and family? I Am Batman #9 is written by John Ridley, drawn by Christian Duce and Stephen Segovia, colored by Rex Locus and lettered by Troy Peteri.
It’s another month of short stories from around Gotham in Batman: Urban Legends #15. We reach the penultimate chapters of the Batman/Zatanna/Constantine team-up, the Ace the Bathound serial and the new Birds of Prey arc, plus get a one-off teaming Batman with Plastic Man.
Jason Todd, the Red Hood, has been recruited by Amanda Waller for a specific task on one of her Suicide Squads: kill the Joker. Now, Jason and a band of mostly losers and maniacs are up for the fight of their lives in a full series review of Suicide Squad: Get Joker, written by Brian Azzarello, drawn by Alex Maleev, colored by Matt Hollingsworth and lettered by Jared K. Fletcher.
Matt Lazorwitz: OK, so I think we’re getting into the new rhythm of not having a weekly Bat book, huh? Batman on week 1, I Am Batman on week 2 and ’Tec on Week 4 are our tentpole ongoings, and we work on all the other stuff around them. I suppose The Knight serves as a tentpole for week 3 for the next six months, and who knows what is coming after Dark Crisis.
Will Nevin: And we still have at least a little “Shadow War” that might eventually go somewhere interesting. (Maybe.) If we get through all of that? Chip Zdarksy on Batman and Ram V on ’Tec await!
The Art of Murder
Matt: We can say what we want about some of John Ridley’s execution, but he is definitely not lacking in ideas. There is a whole hell of a lot of stuff going on in this issue.
Will: Before we get to the substance here — and not having read a *ton* of his comics work — I can’t help but feel he needs some stronger editing. His dialogue, which I’ve picked on in the past, was better here, but did you notice how often he went to the “I’m bumping this last line of the scene to the next page as a transition” gimmick? It was bothersome.
Matt: Yeah, that is something he does a lot. He’s doing it in Black Panther as well.
I agree this issue felt more natural, and I think he might even have been calling out one of your complaints. He only uses “masks” once in this issue, and it’s actually in quotes, as if he knows he’s been overusing it.
Will: Don’t you appreciate my restraint in not bringing that up myself? Because you should.
Matt: You would never say I told you so, Will, Never.
The more time we spend with Jace, the more I like him. He is deeply flawed, and haunted, and that works. He is much more of a Marvel-style hero. But it’s also not like Bruce Wayne hasn’t taken out his frustration with a foe who was elusive on one in front of him, so this might be more in line with Batman as a concept than I’m giving him credit for.
Will: That was one moment where I wished for more of a distinction between Bruce and Jace. How often have we seen Bruce use some dirtbag as a therapy session? I thought — like we saw in the last issue with Jace fleeing from a fight — we should have had a different story beat there. What it should have been, I can’t say, but it could have been something uniquely Jace.
Matt: I think we said this last issue, but this book is becoming more of an ensemble book. All the Fox family gets a spotlight this issue, and only one of those scenes are really in relation to Jace. Vol has a great scene with a Realtor with some art we’ll talk about in a bit. Hadiyah and Jace finally get together after that being teased for issues. And Chubb is still all over this book. I don’t dislike any of these characters, but I feel like we’re not getting enough of any of them, and the book would be served better by focusing on one or two an issue at this point; have this be the Jace and friends issue, and leave the other Fox clan to pop up next issue, say.
Will: Let’s get at that art now, Brother Matt. What caught your eye?
Matt: This book remains so artistically inconsistent. There were no new pencillers in this issue, but we have it split between two, and one, I believe it’s Christian Duce, does some weird faces. The look on the realtor who is working with Vol’s face at the bottom of that page? Does she look like she got Joker Venomed, or is that just me?
Will: *consults the text* I do believe you’re right there. And it’s not an expression that really matches the words on the page — this should be a polite smile or even a look of concern, not some giant, overacted grin.
Matt: Meanwhile, the scene between Jace and Hadiyah is much cleaner. I think I said this last review as well, but this book could stand being bimonthly if it got us a consistent artist. Or do it as a quarterly series of OGNs. I don’t want to see one of DC’s few books with a Black lead taken off the rack, but it deserves better, more consistent art than what we’re getting here.
Will: And I’ll join that with my earlier note: Editorial is currently failing this book.
Urban Legends
Matt: We’re wrapping up the current set of stories in the next issue, so this one is really a lot of place setting, huh?
Will: Aside from that nice lil’ one-off we got, yeah. And I’ll tell you this, these serialized stories really wear me out in a way that a backup usually doesn’t. Just something about getting thrown into the middle of a story two or three times in an issue that makes you long for being able to read these in a single volume.
Matt: I can see that. I kind of wish this was more two serials and two one-offs. That would give a better balance. It looks like after next issue we have an issue that is four one-offs, a palette cleanser before whatever the book is doing next, which should be fun.
Will: Sounds like editorial is at least thinking about how to collect these, I guess, because you’d need some break in there somewhere that doesn’t have the middle bits of a few stories. ANYWAY, Mark Russell continues to do great work, and I thought the art was particularly strong in that story. That poor chicken.
Matt: Oh, this has some serious We3 vibes! And Karl Mostert does a good job drawing the rogues. All very recognizable, but with his own slant on some of the classics. Freeze’s blocky armor and Ivy’s vine outfit look great, and I like Eddie’s little glasses, which you know are an affectation since he’s such a douche.
Will: Oh, he’s absolutely a douche. Forever. I thought the writing was a little softer in the Birds of Prey story — developing a concept as interesting as an app that lets you relive memories only for it to be nightmares instead? Seems like there’d be deeper places to go with that. And the intra-squad drama didn’t hold me there at all.
Matt: It seems a bit rushed after Fear State to be doing another story with a fear/nightmare-based angle.
Will: Here’s my revised pitch: Make the app addictive as hell, like that game from that one episode of Next Generation where Wesley Crusher saves the day. (Because there weren’t enough of those episodes.) Then bring in microtransactions that suck people dry. There — I’ve already got a more interesting story than what we have here.
Matt: On the other hand, the Zatanna and Constantine story remains fun. I like Constantine’s near incessant flirting with Batman. I don’t think John is into Bruce, I think he’s doing it to just keep Bruce off his guard. The trippier art on this one really works for me. The creatures and magic stuff look cool, but it doesn’t sacrifice any of the pathos of character work in the faces and interactions.
Will: And the Batman/Plastic Man story was solid, too. Rubber Deadpool, like the original, is better when he’s got some emotional grounding.
Matt: Now, now, Plas way predates Deadpool! It’s a rubber-and-glue moment! OK, please ignore my bad wordplay.
Will: I will never let your facts get in the way of my feelings, Matt.
Joker is Finally Got
Matt: So this book is another of those victims of tremendous delays. Issue #1 came out in August to tie in with the release of The Suicide Squad, then issue #2 in September, and then … May of the next year. Don’t know if this was the pandemic shipping woes, Azzarello, Maleev or some combination thereof, but man, I had to reread those first couple issues to remember what the hell was going on when the new one dropped.
Will: I took this all in one dreadful swallow, Matt, and lemme tell you: This could have been two issues. Or maybe even a hearty OGN. On balance, I don’t think I disliked it (although I may talk myself into that very position!), but it was a lot for a book that never really went anywhere. Good premise, solid ass and dark conclusion, but not much in between of substance.
Matt: I run very hot and cold on Azzarello as a writer. Some of his stuff (that one issue of Batman we love that came out as an interlude in “Superheavy,” the first half of 100 Bullets) is really good, while the rest (Moonshine, the second half of 100 Bullets) is very much not. This straddles that line. It is way better than the Birds of Prey one-shot he did, for instance, and I like his voice for Jason. But his Harley is only OK, most of the other characters are cardboard cutouts and Joker himself is at best OK as well. I did like Joker riffing on A Clockwork Orange, though. Very in character.
Will: Joker is ultraviolence personified, isn’t he? The problem of this book, I think, is all about subcontracting: If you’ve hired a crew of misfits and losers to do a job, and then you bring on another crew to basically work under them, they’re going to look like a bunch of dweebs and misfits. This team is Jason, Harley and even more expendable than usual fuckups — so expendable that most of this reads like a Final Destination story in that we’re just waiting for them to die. And it’s so strange to see the usual Task Force X portrayed as basically rockstars.
Matt: Oh yes, this definitely reads like the Jason and Harley Show, because these are mostly D listers; Firefly and Silver Banshee may just crack C list, but the rest are nobodies.
Will: The only things I know about Peacemaker I’ve learned through the HBO Max series, but Wild Dog was basically a more racist and less funny copy of him here, which, again, made it all the stranger when the genuine article popped in for a cameo.
Matt: Yeah, and his creator was not happy about that! I think the idea here, of a Suicide Squad going after Joker, is great. And since this is Black Label, why the hell didn’t we have more A-Listers in the main cast? The currently running Black Label Suicide Squad mini-series, Blaze, has killed off A-Listers because we’re outside of canon. Why not have Rick Flag, Deadshot and Captain Boomerang here with Harley, Jason and Meow Meow, who has a pretty cool visual and was at least a little bit interesting.
Will: Well, goddamn, Matt, I just read the link there, and that’s super fucked up, especially if most people are familiar with Wild Dog as a live-action character played by a person of color. What the fuck, Azz? Speaking of “fucks,” did you notice the profoundly weird switch in the middle of the first issue from “$&%@” to profanity? Was that a gag I missed or something weird in the editing?
Matt: The latter, I believe. Because I can’t figure out why otherwise.
For all the faults in the writing, I did like the art of this book. I’m a fan of Alex Maleev, and it’s interesting to see how his style has evolved since his early work, like “No Law and a New Order,” the first arc of “No Man’s Land” we covered on the pod recently. His art has a grit and grime to it that really suits Suicide Squad stories.
Will: Yeah, say whatever you want about the writing or the pacing (which was weird as all hell), but Maleev does great art for this series. I’m glad Bendis doesn’t quite have the market cornered on his work.
Bat-miscellany
- The Big Board hits 100 stories this week on the BatChat podcast! Tune in for the final chapter of the Vampire Batman saga, Catwoman’s vacation and another tale of a Damian Wayne that Will actually liked.
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.
