In Detective Comics #1,067, the Orghams’ moves turn more violent, Batman and Mr. Freeze talk and a new friend approaches Bruce Wayne. The lead story is written by Ram V, penciled by Ivan Reis, inked by Danny Miki, colored by Dave Stewart and lettered by Ariana Maher. In the backup, Two-Face and Harvey Dent come to a separate peace, written by Si Spurrier, drawn by Hayden Sherman, colored by Nick Filardi and lettered by Steve Wands.
Edward Nashton digs deeper into the corruption of Gotham City, and he learns there might be nothing that has escaped its touch in Riddler: Year One #2, written by Paul Dano, drawn and colored by Stevan Subic, and lettered by Clayton Cowles.
Batman throws down with Killer Croc, whose origins grow more tragic the more we learn about them, while Robin dines with the Penguin in Batman: The Audio Adventures #4, written by Dennis McNicholas, drawn by Anthony Marques and J. Bone, colored by Dave Stewart and lettered by Ferran Delgado.
Will Nevin: We’ve talked already about his passing, but seeing Kevin Conroy’s in memoriam page across all the books this week made me feel like it happened yesterday. A classy move from DC.
Matt Lazorwitz: Understated in the best way. My heart aches again.
The Cold Shoulder?
Matt: With the overture over, the first movement of the symphony begins in earnest. The Orghams are moving from just manipulating their way into power in the underworld to starting to take kinetic action against Gotham’s “undesirable elements,” meaning the poor who don’t suit them. Not exactly surprising that aristocrats aren’t a fan of the poor existing in their domain, huh?
Will: And they are just as ruthless on paper as they are in the real world. Forcing Wayne underlings via hypnotism to sell an affordable housing property and then making those same people kill themselves? Good god. At least Harvey is no longer under their spell.
Matt: I don’t think any of the traditional rogues we have seen making a play for Gotham in the past five years have been half as scary as the Orghams. The Court of Owls were the last ones to make a full court press against the city. They’re taking over the underworld, they’re taking over the “festering wound” that is the low-income housing in the Narrows both legally and through physical force and they’re playing with mystical forces. Bane, Joker and Failsafe with their over-the-top supervillain plots were nowhere near this threatening, and the build over an arc to get to this point has only helped. Factor in that Talia was afraid enough to try to assassinate them, and you have the best addition to Batman’s rogues gallery since, well, the Court of Owls.
Will: And importantly, this is not another revisit of “Knightfall”/”City of Bane”/”Joker War” in which we have one villain who wants to establish a fiefdom in Gotham. Yes, the Orghams want to rule what they see as rightfully theirs, but they’re doing it, as you said, in a more menacing way. You could see a Gotham under Orgham control that’s not that much different than the one we know, at least on the surface. And that’s the frightening thing.
Matt: That level of devil you know vs. devil you don’t and how much one devil might be worth than another is high on the list of reasons Ram V is killing this book. Another is the interaction between Batman and Freeze in this issue. “Gotham is your Nora … isn’t she?” might be the line of the year for me. Freeze understands obsession better than most people, and him seeing his own mirrored in Batman is, pun intended, chilling.
Will: That’s one of those lines that, after you put it down, you take a victory lap around the room. And while it’s not entirely germane to the situation, I wonder — for the purposes of the analogy — whether we have a pre- or post-New 52 Freeze here. Is Batman trying to save something he truly loves and a thing capable (deserving?) of loving him in return? Or is he laboring under a delusion?
Matt: I think that is a valid question. Batman has always protected Gotham, being the hero it needs, but how many times has the city shown he isn’t the hero it desires? Is Batman’s relationship with Gotham codependent? Is this a case where, for want of a better analogy, Batman is the spouse who sees his partner’s self-destructive behavior and constantly steps in to stop them from hurting themselves, regardless of the abuse he takes, but is in many way forcing his will on someone (or something) that really doesn’t want his help? And I think we are seeing a Batman who has been worn down by that difficult relationship. You enjoy the story of a Bat at twilight, and this might be the closest we have ever seen to that in a mainstream Bat book.
Will: Remember, this story started with Batman confronting his physical limitations, so it would only be right for Bats to be emotionally compromised as well. There’s just something about the hero at the end of his journey, stuck in a situation in which he’s outmatched and beset with frailties, that I enjoy. Dark Knight Returns without the mutants and the Frank Miller-ness is probably my ideal Batman story.
Matt: Meanwhile, Harvey and Two-Face have their probably not final confrontation, but certainly one of their most defining ones in the backup. Harvey admitting he needs Two-Face gives them the strength to defeat the Azmer, which shows they’re better together than apart.
Will: God, this backup, Batman ’89 and [something else] would make for a hell of a Two-Face episode.
Matt: Batman Annual #14, “Eye of the Beholder,” the post-Crisis origin of Two-Face. Been wanting to get to that one, and that might be the lineup.
Will: Hayden Sherman continues to do excellent work. We don’t have to point that out every time, but we still should. What an artist.
Matt: The only other thing that I want to talk about here is Arzen Orgham and Bruce Wayne. The idea that Arzen, who has no friends, sees the potential of friendship with Bruce Wayne fascinates me, because it feels like a Chekhov’s gun. We know that eventually they’re going to come to blows, but how they will, and how close Arzen will get to Bruce, is the question we’re left asking, and none of the answers are good. Not for the characters anyway. For the readers there is a ton of potential.
Will: I thought that scene was fascinating too, but here’s my question: Who was Jim Gordon texting? Bruce or Batman?
Matt: I believe Batman. We saw Jim talking on the phone to Batman last issue, so I figure there’s Bat-Bluetooth in the cowl. But we’ll have to see.
Riddler Meets Joker?
Matt: I don’t like starting a review off negatively, especially for an issue that was generally pretty good, but reading this issue is another example of why DC needs recap pages. This book is bimonthly, and after a few pages everything came back to me, but a recap would have come in handy. Or holding back and releasing this as an OGN, because it feels like it’s going to read quite well collected.
Will: Wait a tic, aren’t I usually the one screaming for recap pages? Don’t steal my bit, Matt. But seriously, I think they’re less of a necessity here because 1) you’ve got “The Batman” to lean on and 2) a lot of what you need to know is there on the page. Edward Nashton is an accountant who is clearly not doing well mentally, and he’s stumbled into some crime that’s out of his league. Really, this book is more vibes to me (owing to the art) than anything else, and I’m still strong on it. But I did struggle with this issue in re: how far Dano can go in making Nashton a sympathetic figure. He’s in distress but still trying to do the noble thing, going to his bosses when he finds evidence of wrongdoing and then tracking it himself when he doesn’t get satisfaction there. But mental illness cannot be an excuse (see e.g., West, Ye) for rhetorical or physical violence.
Matt: You’re right about this being a piece about the vibes. As good as Dano is, it’s Stevan Subic who is stealing the show. Edward’s visions of what his bosses are, these corrupt monsters, as well as the moody Batman fights that you aren’t sure are happening or are in Edward’s head are sights to behold.
Will: My favorite visual in … well, a long time … is Edward reflecting on a run-in with Thomas Wayne as he’s contemplating his current situation, with the modern day panel splitting his memory in two. It conveys angst and resentment and preoccupation in a way I don’t recall seeing before. Excellent visual storytelling.
Matt: As for the sympathy … yes, that is where this book is going to live or die. And this book is beginning to draw comparisons to Todd Phillips’ Joker, in that it is the origin of a Batman villain who has been failed by the system. That movie failed for me in numerous places, but its biggest failure was that it seemed to justify all the violence Joker perpetrated because of his mental illness and because the system is broken. And while you can argue for the latter, the former is uncomfortable and ugly. While I never wanted to revisit that movie, I think it might be something to watch in conversation with this book when we see how the landing happens.
Will: If you thought Joker was bad, imagine watching it on basic cable with commercial breaks like me. Blech.
Matt: I didn’t realize you were a masochist.
Will: I have read multiple chapters of White Knight, so I clearly hate myself at the very least. But you’re right in that this could easily land in a Joker/Death Wish place of incel/white victimization. I want to believe Dano is smarter than that, but I’ve been burned before.
Matt: As we haven’t really seen Edward interact with women, I kind of hope we keep away from that and keep away from the incel think that made Joker so ugly. But we might have a woman entering the body of this title with the Ana Joon character, who it looks like Edward is going to have some contact with. Whether he saves her or she does unceremoniously, well, we’ll see.
A Little Levity After All That Other Stuff
Matt: Before we get into this issue of Audio Adventures, some related news: As of last week, all of Season 2 of the podcast that inspired the comic is free to listen to on my podcast app of choice, Stitcher, so I bet it’s out there on all the major ones, so go out and listen to it!
Will: First season was the absolute shit, and the voice talent is crazy good. Zero reason to have to watch this on a TV/stream through HBO Max. But, yeah, this is still its own flavor of good shit, isn’t it?
Matt: I think this book gets better with each issue. The Croc stuff alone, getting this truly sympathetic version of the character, is worth the price of admission.
Will: And this Robin/Penguin plot is pretty interesting, too. You know, birds of a feather and all.
Matt: I like that Penguin references Robin as being close to a Burma Shave Boy. That weird little street gang introduced a couple issues back takes on a whole other dimension when you view them as a “there but for the grace of Batman” version of Robin.
Will: Robin would be an irritating little henchman, wouldn’t he?
Matt: Oh, Penguin is going to regret this for any number of reasons.
And on top of all this we get the first AA Universe appearance of Hugo Strange, and a Strange who clearly is working for Ra’s al Ghul. This makes me feel like the two plotlines of Croc and the sword, which have been tangentially touching, are going to more seriously interact in these last few issues. One of the things I liked about the first season of AA was how the different plot lines wove in and out of each other logically, and adding the Lazarus Pits into Croc’s background, while unexpected, is a similar touch.
Will: Life and death in Gotham City are remarkably interconnected.
Bat-miscellany
- This week’s pre-New Years podcast gives us three Elseworlds takes on Batman: Kingdom Come, Dark Joker: The Wild and Batman/Houdini.
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.
