Revelations abound as we learn the secrets tying together the citizen criminals and Riddler’s secret backer in the final issue of this creative team in Detective Comics #1,061, written by Mariko Tamaki and Nadia Shammas, penciled by Ivan Reis, inked by Danny Miki, colored by Brad Anderson and lettered by Ariana Maher. In the backup, more mysteries are solved, as elements of the main story start to tie in with Gotham Girl’s in a story written by Sina Grace, drawn by David Lapham, colored by Trish Mulvihill and lettered by Rob Leigh.
Task Force Z fights Batman as Red Hood confronts the rest of the Bat family in a confrontation that is more violent than the superhero/supervillain clash in Task Force Z #9, written by Matthew Rosenberg, penciled by Eddy Barrows, inked by Eber Ferreira, colored by Adriano Lucas and lettered by Rob Leigh.
The Joker’s daughter makes a new friend. Bruce Wayne won’t accept help. And we learn more of Terry McGinnis’ backstory in the Murphyverse in Batman: Beyond the White Knight #4, written and drawn by Sean Murphy, colored by Dave Stewart and lettered by AndWorld Design.
Matt Lazorwitz: So this is it: the final week of the Infinite Frontier era. We’ve been doing this column from a little before that started, but it’s a milestone: our first major linewide creative shift. Our little column is growing up!
Will Nevin: Seems like just yesterday when all the DC books had that pretty blue Rebirth bunting. We should have saved some for the column’s scrapbook, Matt.
’Tec
Matt: This issue is by no means bad, but as a finale to an entire run? It leaves a lot on the table that I’m afraid no one else is going to follow up on, and introduces some stuff at the last minute that could have been left aside to provide some more insight into the stuff that had already been established.
Will: Tamaki had a nice tenure — much more satisfying than Joshua Williamson on Batman, and I’d say she never made me frustrated like James Tynion IV did on the same book (although people will certainly remember and talk about his contributions more than Williamson’s). “Shadows of the Bat” was fun, and she’ll always have that. But, yeah, introducing this idea of Chase Meridian as some kind of anti-criminal punishment siren was a strange bit for the very end of your run. Also, I’m not expecting anyone to follow up on Judge Donovan.
Matt: And the Talia stuff, while interesting, is doing the corporate comics thing of, “Hey, check out this tease for our NEXT BIG EVENT.” Nadia Shammas is an unabashed Talia lover, and I will never fault anyone for writing their darlings, but Talia’s inclusion feels shoehorned in. She’s very well written. I like Shammas’ Talia a lot; she embraces that femme fatale thing of early Talia while acknowledging the years of growth and agency. But here, I don’t quite understand why she was suddenly deciding to bring down Gotham’s upper crust.
Will: You’d think that once “Shadow War” was done, you might put her on the bench for a bit. But noooooooo. Shouldn’t her aims and designs be bigger, especially with her father being “dead” and all? Strange decisions abound from the Unknowable Mind of DC Editorial.
Matt: But there is a lot of positive here, too. This is a really strong take on Riddler. Riddler should be hard to catch. He should be planning things out 10 steps ahead. I liked that he put Batman in check here by keeping himself out in public. The Riddler as social media star is another thing I hope we see more of, but I’m worried we won’t.
Will: His social media turn came with a visual redesign, and I know some effort was put into that, so maybe they both stick. Again, his culpability for what happened in this arc would be an interesting thing to explore, and yet, that’s not going to happen.
Matt: Meanwhile, the Gotham Girl backup wrapped really well (barring what again felt like a tacked on last page reveal). Adding in Huntress, who has had her recent mental health struggles, to be Gotham Girl’s foil works here. This has made me … look forward to more Gotham Girl, which is more than I can say for anything Tom King did with the character. Maybe a lead feature in Urban Legends would be in order?
Will: Agreed! King flopped hard with her introduction, so it’s nice to see her getting some depth and attention.
TFZ
Matt: A couple columns ago, you asked how long this series was, and I said I thought it was 10 issues. It is in fact 12, which is good, because while we’re starting to get some answers, there is way too much to wrap up in one issue here. As the beginning of the third act, though? This works.
Will: And we got some Black Mask. So much going on here!
Matt: Matthew Rosenberg absolutely knows how to keep the pace of a book moving, balance multiple plot threads and keep it all entertaining as hell. And it’s funny, too. Geri Powers’ reaction to Langstrom in human form? Jason threatening Black Mask and Harvey using it to leverage his rent down to $2,000? Good stuff.
But the character highlight of this issue for me are the opening couple of pages, the scene between Red Hood and Spoiler. There aren’t a ton of scenes I can remember between these two, but it makes perfect sense that they would get along. They are the black sheep of the family: Jason for his murdery past and Steph was on the outside looking in for so much of her career. That they would form a kinship, and she would go behind the others’ backs to give Jason one more chance? I like that a lot.
Will: And they’re both failed Robins who were never really given a chance to succeed, so they really are a natural pair.
Matt: And it looks like next issue we’re finally getting some answers to who “Bane” is here. Since the reveal over in The Joker that’s been a big question, so it’s good we’re getting some payoff. I think it’s going to be some other notable Arkhamite who was killed during A-Day that Bloom has been screwing with, but I can’t be sure. I like a mystery that I don’t have an easy answer for.
Will: Put anyone under a mask and pump ’em full of venom, and you’ve got yourself a Bane. Makes sense to me! I like that better than the clone explanation — although that would certainly fit with what we know from Joker.
Beyond
Will: Couple of little details in this one that really show you who Sean Gordon Murphy is as a creator. First, when Terry goes to his father’s gravesite, there are background tombstones for both Bill Finger and Bob Kane and the former dwarfs — to a ridiculous degree — the latter. He’s making a fine point (that Finger should be remembered as someone more important than the “with Bill Finger” credit that took DC forever), but his obviousness is cartoonishly silly. Second — AND THIS GETS TO THE POINT OF CREDITING CREATORS FOR THEIR WORK — he acknowledges that writer Clay McCormack gave him feedback and lines of dialogue — lines that Murphy didn’t want to use because McCormack “wasn’t being credited.” Hoss, it was your fucking book! You could have acknowledged the man’s contributions. Astounding stuff. Oh, and of course Murphy used the line anyway because McCormack said it was OK. Also, McCormack told him “Neo-Joker” was stupid. But don’t worry — Murphy will “eventually” call the character Riot. Because!
The way this man thinks makes my brain hurt.
Matt: Oof. That’s … very much not cool. The Finger thing is just beyond frustrating at this point. Everyone knows about it. Just … argh.
And the Riot thing is comical. When I read that first volume the first time, the line where she says Riot is so obviously a name drop line, and when she was instead called Neo-Joker, it… sucked. Which is to be expected.
But as for this issue in general, well, it’s more of the same. And adds in a whole new level of ick with the Joker’s daughter. Why … why is he sexualizing a 12-year-old? Why does she look so much older than 12? Why couldn’t SGM in his “infinite wisdom” just say this took place 17 years later and have her look appropriately aged? Or is this longer than 12 years, in which case what was that creepy line? Why, Will? Why?
Will: Heeeeey, I see what you did there. Yeah, as usual, this was all bad. Even the parts that weren’t cringey were still bad because they were so fucking boring. Why do I care enough to read some interminable Terry McGinnis exposition? So plodding.
Matt: I have a fondness for Terry you don’t, as someone who loved Batman Beyond (which we should maybe do a couple episodes of for a BatChat Patreon bonus episode so you get a feel for it), but we haven’t spent any real time with this Terry, other than him working for Powers or moping. Why dedicate so much time to his backstory told in the most tell-don’t-show way possible?
Will: I’ll give this to Murphy: He’s at least consistently bad at writing. Also, did no one visit Bruce while he was in prison or at least write him a fucking letter? You’d think Dick and Barbara having a kid wouldn’t be a big fucking surprise … but, again, Murphy loves his surprises. The readers were supposed to be shocked a couple of issues ago about Bruce’s marriage to Harley, and now Bruce is surprised about the kid. Dumb.
Matt: And one more thing. This book is utterly impenetrable to anyone who is not versed in both Batman Beyond AND the Murphyverse. If you were hoping to bring in new readers who were just fans of Batman Beyond, the inclusion of the Azrael gang and the off-hand comments about Bruce not being a Wayne are just the worst kind of, “Go and buy my other books to understand this.”
Will: NO ONE FUCKING CARES ABOUT BRUCE WAYNE’S ANCESTRY. PERIOD.
Bat-miscellany
- The Joker was supposed to wrap up this week, but it looks like it was pushed to next week. But since we record the podcast so far out, this week’s episode was a Joker episode to celebrate that series’ finale. Instead, it’s just a Joker episode where we talk about The Killing Joke, the celebrated Alan Moore/Brian Bolland Batman story that … we don’t like.
- Ben enjoying Task Force Z? Really liked the bit this issue with Red Hood and Spoiler? Check out this week’s Wayne Family Adventures. How is this Webtoon a top-five Batman comic being published right now? And when can we get a season break or collection so we can cover it on the pod?
- We will be covering Batman: Fortress moving forward in the same way we’ve been covering Killing Time, in two-issue chunks, because there are too many damn Bat books.
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.
