It’s the start of a new era, as Chip Zdarsky takes over as the writer on the flagship Bat title. Someone is murdering Gotham’s wealthiest, and Batman is on the hunt. But when the trail leads to an old foe, things get out of hand fast in Batman #125, written by Chip Zdarsky, drawn by Jorge Jimenez, colored by Tomeu Morey and lettered by Clayton Cowles. In the backup, Catwoman faces the fallout of the main story in a story written by Zdarsky, drawn by Belen Ortega, colored by Luis Guerrero and lettered by Cowles.
It’s been a while in between issues, again, but we’re finally at the conclusion of the continuation of the Burton-verse. How does Batman deal with Two-Face? Who lives and who dies? Does someone else learn Batman’s secret identity? Find out in Batman ’89 #6, written by Sam Hamm, drawn by Joe Quinones, colored by Leonardo Ito and lettered by Cowles.
All our questions are answered as Jim Gordon’s quest comes to a close in The Joker #15, written by James Tynion IV, penciled by Giuseppe Camuncoli, inked by Cam Smith, colored by Arif Prianto and lettered by Tom Napolitano.
Matt Lazorwitz: OK, no time for bits today. There is A LOT to unpack this week.
Will Nevin: Matt, all I do is fuck around. BUT NOT THIS WEEK.
But in That Sleep of Death, What Dreams May Come
Matt: OK, so in this week’s BatChat pod, you specifically called out the fact that Zdarksy’s whole “Batman doesn’t dream” thing bugged you. So it’s almost funny that he uses that right from the get go.
Will: Zdarsky does things to spite me and me alone, including his use of the Queen’s English in Newburn. But some things I am willing to forgive.
Matt: Aside from that, I’m having a hard time coming up with a place to start here, because Zdarksy is setting up a ton of stuff in this issue. This feels like the start of a long run to me. Aside from the interactions with Tim Drake, which you know is pure Matt catnip, we get Batman realizing he needs to be Bruce Wayne more (something I feel does ignore a lot of what Mariko Tamaki had been doing over in ’Tec, but still …), the Penguin, the introduction of Failsafe and whatever mystery is tickling Batman’s brain. That is more in one issue than we get in arcs of other books.
Will: Yup, lots of Mattnip in this book, but I enjoyed it as well. That scene where Batman is rushing after a gunman who says, “I swear to god,” only for Bats to respond, “Not god. Not even close.” Oh, man. That was a visceral rush. The tone was so right here with a mix of noir and real emotion after Drake gets shot. This is by far the best start to a run since Tom King’s Batman No. 1, and I hope Zdarsky gets a run just as long (but with better results).
Matt: Batman tearing himself to pieces mentally as he strips Tim of his costume to not reveal their secret? The page is so well structured, with parallel panels of Bruce prepping Tim for the emergency room with panels of Bruce removing the Robin costume from Jason Todd’s corpse. Powerful stuff.
And I often find villains doing that last hurrah before they die shtick tired, but here, it works. Penguin seems to have a plan, and one that is just petty enough to make sense for someone who is so almost professionally aggrieved as Cobblepot. I’m not 100% sure I buy his death, being that he is a marquee Bat villain, but for now I’ll go along for the ride.
Will: The one direction I hope this book is not going is somehow all of Gotham believing Batman to be responsible for Pengy’s death. That story has been done and done and done again. But Batman himself shrugging it off gave me a little hope.
Matt: Do I think it’s a major plot point? No. Do I think it’s an inciting incident? Yes. I do my best not to speculate in this column, but I already have a theory. Do you want to hear it?
Will: Matt, we’re men of science. And the internet doesn’t have enough fan theories. GO ON.
Matt: Failsafe was designed by Bruce as the ultimate weapon against himself: If he ever crossed the line, this thing would pop out of the Batcave to stop him. And the only person who had the clearance to stop it, the only person Bruce trusted enough to do that? Alfred. But with the cave abandoned and Alfred deceased? The news of Batman killing Penguin triggers this and Batman has to fight a robot he designed to stop himself if he goes rogue.
And if that’s not the plot, I think I have my Batman pitch.
Will: I wasn’t quite able to put the pieces together because I’m not smart like you, but that makes sense to me as to where we’re going with this story. Sort of an echo of “War Games” as a Bat plan made with the best of intentions that could (will?) go incredibly wrong. Despite me not loving the idea of Batman v. robot(s), I think this could work as a story.
Matt: Zdarsky is giving us a Batman who is not quite at “Knightfall” levels of exhausted, but definitely one who is dragging a bit. After everything that has gone on in this run, from King to Tynion without any break, it makes sense. My concern is we’re going to get the “Bruce pushing everyone away” beats again, which is a really overdone chestnut. I hope that Tim’s presence, which I believe will continue, will help ground him. And Zdarsky is really grounding this title in what is going on throughout the DC Universe, or at least the Bat family. Between Bruce narrating about Tim finding himself and the close ties to the current run of Catwoman, this book doesn’t feel like one that everything revolves around, but instead one that will be in conversation with other titles.
Will: Even the backup took a holistic approach to storytelling, naturally following up from what would happen after Penguin’s “death.” Again, not crazy about the robots, but everyone should be fighting for Oswald’s treasures — preferably long before his body is even cold.
Matt: We might have to drop in on the new issue of Catwoman this month, if we have space in the ol’ column, for the start of its new arc and see how much it ties into all this.
No Rest for the Wicked
Matt: So here are two questions. Do you remember when the previous issue of this series came out? And possibly even more tellingly, do you remember when the FIRST issue of this series came out?
Will:
Matt: Well, not quite, but it was April for the previous issue, and nearly a year ago, in August 2021, when the series launched. Going back and checking that, I don’t feel as bad about how vague everything here felt to me. And how it feels like we crammed 12 pounds of story into a 5-pound bag, a lot of which we hadn’t gotten a real feel for up until here.
Will: It was a rushed, messy finish that would have benefited from less Catwoman. But you know what? I’m ready to call it — this is my favorite interpretation of Two-Face. So many layers, delusions and political calculations to this character. And one who points out the obvious amount of physical pain he’s in. Say what you will about this book, but this character was some good writing.
Matt: You hit the nail on the head about Catwoman. Batman movies often feel overstuffed with villains, and here Selina is just too much when we should have been spending more time with Harvey, or Barbara. Poor Barbara, who was so central to so much of this, gets relegated to a few panels. I wanted more emotional resolution for her in this story.
And I have to go back and reread the earlier issues, because I know we had done the branching timelines before, but it feels like that wasn’t as much a part of this whole series as this last issue made it out to be. Was it more than just the one bit as Harvey got his face burned off, do you recall?
Will: I don’t remember any other bit, but Harv is certainly obsessed with the idea of multiple realities and outcomes, which, again, I love for the character. As a theme for everyone else? Not so much.
Matt: Maybe I’ve seen Everything, Everywhere, All At Once one too many times now, but I’ve seen this done a lot lately, and better.
Will: No spoilers! I just got that on 4K!
Matt: Oh, no worries! I will be mum about it, because you need to go in as unspoiled as possible. I’ll be watching it for the fourth time now that my home copy has arrived, as I need to introduce Amber to it in all its glory.
But anyway, I just feel like we could have gotten a better story if we hadn’t spun our wheels a bunch in the middle here. Introduce the concept of the briefcase of incriminating documents at the beginning. Put Drake in trouble with the GCPD or the neighborhood sooner. See Harvey’s struggle with the coin earlier. These were all good or important beats that were jammed almost entirely into the last issue.
And on a somewhat related note, as was the case with the Burton movies especially, how much did Batman really matter here? This was the Harvey Dent show from start to finish.
Will: As we’ve talked about, this wasn’t a particularly good followup from the Burton movies either. All of the Gothic mystique, the Burton flair, is gone. What we’re left with is the good stuff I’ve already pointed out, an interesting take on Tim Drake and … well, not a whole lot else. But I’m still not ready to call this a bad book. Maybe one that failed in its stated mission, sure. But one that did some novel things along the way.
Matt: This isn’t a bad comic. I am looking forward to covering it on the podcast in a year or two, actually, when we can read it without the ponderous gaps between issues and see how it flows when read in one sitting. That might be the way to really tell.
Will: This story and the next one — can’t wait to get ‘em on the show.
The Sleep of the Just
Matt: Jim Gordon is a major character in comics. He’s been in every adaptation of Batman in one form or another. He is as old as Batman himself. He is going nowhere long term. But I have to say, if this was the “Last Jim Gordon Story”? I would be OK with that.
Will: And this was such an interesting read, too. Some of Gordon’s dialogue almost read as a meta critique of Batman stories. “We’ve done this for so long, and I’m so tired, but I don’t know what else to do” — which is not a direct quote but certainly a vibe — is a real statement in your superhero comic book. And a good last word from Tynion if he truly decides to hang it up after this book.
Matt: Tynion brings this book back around in a perfect circle. We started with Jim alone, unable to sleep, haunted by memories of the Joker. Now, after this quest, he realizes the Joker is just one of the evils in the world, and not some personal devil for him, and … he sleeps. Jim finds a peace that he didn’t have, a peace he deserves. He hasn’t given up, he still has his goal to take down The Network, but he is no longer a man haunted. And that’s a great denouement to this story.
Will: “Denouement” is a great way to frame this issue. There’s not much — if any — action, and a lot of it is exposition as Gordon is retelling the book to Batman. But it’s a nice coda. The series was extended from 14 to 15 issues, and I appreciate the space the conclusion had to breathe … which is not what we can say about all of the things we read this week.
Matt: What action there is in the book really makes it clear whose book this was. Yes, Joker is there. Yes, he gets away. But everything fades to black and follows Jim. He is the one who continues his quest with the delightful Isabela Hallows. Joker is … not an afterthought, but more a character who drives action around him, which as we have said is often how he works best.
Will: And the decision not to kill Joker is a purposeful one on Jim’s part, which only reinforces how much this was his story. He doesn’t have to cross that moral bridge, and he gets to give up Joker’s hide in exchange for information that he hopes will lead to the end of The Network. It’s all a very tidy bit of storytelling.
Matt: It absolutely is, and the bits that aren’t tidy feel intentionally messy. Bane is still in play, and James Jr. as a Talon is left there for other writers to pick up on when they need or want to. And in the end, part of this is about how things don’t always have tidy endings.
Will: How much of this do you think is canon? I know that everything is supposedly canon now, but do you think we’ll really see “Gordon & Bullock: P.I.s for Hire”? Because I want that.
Matt: That needs to be the regular backup in some book. Make it happen, DC!
Bat-miscellany
- In some pretty good timing (mostly thanks to there being no pandemic shift on Batman #125), this week’s BatChat podcast is three other Batman stories written by Chip Zdarsky.
- Nom de plume means pen name. It isn’t any old alias. Apparently, The Executor wasn’t programmed with proper word use in mind.
- Remember everyone: Avoid clickbait headlines. All the panic headlines from certain … less reputable comics sites about how, “Could this issue be the death of Tim Drake?” with a couple pages of scans when the end of the issue says Tim is alive are just there for clicks, and we don’t want to reward that behavior.
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.
