Everyone’s Back in Gotham This Week in BatChat

Batman is back in his own Gotham, but things have changed. And so has he. Is he really ready to step right into the role again, even after everything that has happened? Batman #136 is written by Chip Zdarsky, drawn by Belen Ortega, colored by Tomeu Morey and lettered by Clayton Cowles. In the backup, witness the birth of Failsafe in a story written by Zdarsky, drawn by Jorge Corona, colored by Ivan Plascencia and lettered by Cowles.

As Joker nears Gotham, both he and the Faux Joker gather their armies and prepare for the battle to determine who is really the Clown Prince of Crime. The Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing #9 is written by Matthew Rosenberg, drawn by Carmine Di Giandomenico, colored by Romulo Fajardo Jr. and lettered by Tom Napolitano. In the backup, Joker’s death takes Jim Gordon down a dark path in a story written by Rosenberg, drawn and colored by Francesco Francavilla and lettered by Napolitano.

Peacemaker is a man with a mission. That mission? Accompany French terrorist gorilla Monsieur Mallah on a raid to acquire the DNA of Deathstroke the Terminator. It’s as gloriously dumb as it sounds. Peacemaker Tries Hard #2 is written by Kyle Starks, drawn by Steve Pugh, colored by Jordie Bellaire and lettered by Becca Carey.

Matt Lazorwitz: Hey, it’s a week with three Bat books again. Nice to once again be caught in the flood, huh?

Will Nevin: Four books if you count the issue of Joker we skipped. But, uhh, I would advise against looking at next week’s release list. Someone needs to start greenlighting some Bat minis, Matt!

Batman’s Back in Gotham

Matt: You’ve been asking for a more grounded issue of this series since the first issue. This issue we have no robots and no alternate Earths. It’s just Batman reckoning with all that has gone down and feeling the years of all this madness weighing on him. How are you feeling?

Will: I feel seen and valued, Matt! I mean, I’d prefer this story without 1) the attachment of Batman’s alter ego and 2) the impending sense of crossover doom, but after robots, space and interdimensional travel, I will absolutely take whatever I can fuckin’ get out of this book.

Matt: To be clear for our readers, by Batman’s alter ego, you mean the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh, not Bruce Wayne, correct?

Will: Correct. Leave it to Batman to have a mask for his mask.

Matt: For any complaints you or others might have had about Zdarksy’s run to this point, one thing he has absolutely nailed is Batman’s internal monologue. Even when it has seemed off, it’s been to pay something off later. And it’s at its best here. “Bruce is hurt. Bruce is lost. But Batman isn’t.” That refrain, as Bruce fights to get things back to normal, is affecting. And a lesser writer would make it feel like a dissociative thing, but we know that’s not what this is. This is Bruce who is trying to make things normal (for Batman’s value of normal), and feels it slipping away. And for Batman, he can’t let that slip. If this continues in this direction, it will be up there with “Knightfall” in its exploration of Batman’s frailty.

Will: I’m always excited to see that fragility being explored, and it’s an idea Ram V broached at the beginning of his ‘Tec run but has let slip a bit lately. It seems like we’re headed in a direction that more explores his emotional vulnerability and his Batfamily fears, which I think the backup also hinted at with Failsafe seemingly inclined to think that Batman had already crossed a line by taking in a partner. Those ideas speak well to each other.

Matt: The concepts of the lone avenger Batman at war with the family man Batman is an idea that has been scratched at on a surface level many times, usually in stories that culminate with Bruce having to reach out for help. But we rarely see the inner workings of how and why. Hopefully we’ll get that here.

A large portion of this issue is setup for the upcoming “Gotham War” event between Batman and Catwoman, and I wish I didn’t know that event was coming, because while this reads well, and I like the way Zdarsky writes this dynamic more than some other recent-ish writers, it feels obligatory. 

Still, getting past that, I love Selina’s reaction to Bruce’s description of the past couple arcs. While she has done some wilder stuff over the years, she has stayed mostly grounded as a thief; sure, sometimes there’s some martial arts nonsense too, but she doesn’t go into space or to alternate worlds. You can see from her expressions that this is pushing a line that she can’t quite get past. This is too weird for her, and I think that will be part of what leads to the reckoning: How can she be in his life when his life is all that.

Will: You know, normally, when someone says they weren’t “in space” you can trust them. But that’s a flat out lie. He was on the damned moon! He survived re-entry! I know we’re supposed to think about all that time in … whatever version of Gotham that was … but you can’t make me forget that moon shit, Zdarsky.

Matt: You know how to hold a grudge, don’t you?

Will: Until the ends of time and back, Matt. Just ask J.J. Abrams.

Matt: While we’ve had some great art on this book up to now, no doubt, I think getting Belen Ortega to hop on for this issue was a great choice. Ortega does great character work (See the original Tim Drake coming-out shorts from Urban Legends), and that was very much needed here versus the awesome but bombastic and not overly subtle work of Jorge Jimenez.

Will: Agreed. One artist definitely seems better suited for the actions and explosions we’ve seen in the run so far, while the other handled the quieter moments in this issue — especially the meal scene — quite well. 

Matt: I could have used an entire issue of the whole family around the table eating a meal and just being together. But I guess that’s what Wayne Family Adventures is for.

Joker’s Back in Gotham, Too

Will: I want to start with the backup(s) here, because they continue to be the real gem of this series, even if the stories in #8 and #9 aren’t going to get dumb dumb conservatives all pissy for no reason. The backup in #8 is a simple premise — “What if Joker killed all the good guys in the world?” — that plays out pretty well. And in #9? The blackest of black comedy as Jim Gordon can’t accept that Joker is well and truly dead. Some bleak, bleak stuff.

Matt: This Gordon one is the best so far for me. I enjoy the wackiness of the rest, sure, but showing what Joker can do to someone, even when he’s not there, how he can push someone beyond their breaking point, and do it to someone like Gordon? That’s good stuff. And being able to keep it darkly funny is important for these. Add in the art by Francavilla, one of the definitive Gordon artists, and you have a highlight for any week.

Will: The rest of #8 and #9 are … well, fine, I think. Joker and Faux Joker are recruiting crews to fight each other as one makes the trip back from L.A. to Gotham. Nothing bad, nothing that makes a reader cringe. But also nothing that really feels essential. There’s certainly a reason we skipped this one last time out. Also, this is getting an event-tie in chapter. Blech.

Matt: We continue to be teased with Red Hood moments, and every time we see him, I just keep wishing this was a Red Hood book. Rosenberg gets Jason in a way a lot of other writers don’t (although one of the others who does is Zdarsky). I don’t get the whole ‘ship between him and Ravager, which feels very forced to me and always has, but I can overlook that mostly.

Will: And as you’ve pointed out in the past, Jason — along with Jim and Barbara — is one of the characters who should have the strongest feelings about Joker, but that continues to be a thing that’s not explored here. The first volume of this series is like … what’s a *good* Best Picture winner? I’ll go with Parasite. Depth and style and meaning. This one is more like Forrest Gump. It can be enjoyed. But it’s probably best if you don’t compare those two things side by side.

Matt: The best, best bits of this are the dialogue of the characters who aren’t Joker. Croc’s little soliloquy about Joker, about how no one knows Joker, no one likes Joker and no one cares which Joker is the real Joker? That no one but Harley ever cared, and now that she’s gone he has no one? That’s a better exploration of what Joker is and means to Gotham than anything from this series. And I wish it was teased out more.

Will: Yeah, as if the first book was what Joker means to one man, what if the second was about what he means to a city? This volume started with Joker publicly announcing he was taking a road trip, and we didn’t even see Gotham say “Amen,” did we? Meanwhile, L.A. seems to not even know who he is. Some curious storytelling beats continue in this book, my man.

Peacemaker Is Nowhere Near Gotham

Matt: We said it last issue and we’ll say it again here: This version of Peacemaker is made for Kyle Starks to write. And when you throw in a gorilla and some construction-themed villains? Yeah, this is exactly what you want.

Will: There might not be anyone else in comics I’d trust more to write this book. Being funny is harder than coming up with good similes, Matt, but Starks — and I think I said this last time as well — makes it seem effortless. But it’s not just zaniness with him, you know? There’s a real depth to everything he writes, and we see this here at the conclusion — we as readers are ready for Peacemaker to tear ass … because he got his feelings hurt. That’s only possible with both the fine work on the television series and what Starks has accomplished to this point in the book.

Matt: These hints we get of just how broken he is throughout the issue, with him talking about his father and what an utter bastard he was, keep Peacemaker from being a complete joke. That and the moments when he really seems to connect with Monsieur Mallah. This is a guy who just wants to be appreciated, to be liked … hell, to be loved. And it is absolutely clear that he has none of the emotional tools to do that, even from the little snippets we see here.

Will: And he’s so trusting, so eager to set himself up for heartbreak. He really is a pitiful guy.

Matt: I also never thought I would read a comic where I would enjoy the Demolition Team, DC’s Z-List answer to Marvel’s D-List team of construction-themed villains, the Wrecking Crew. But making them big on union rules? That’s a weirdly charming bit.

Will: And then there’s General Immortus, who (I gather from some intensive and exhaustive googling) has gotten a bit more attention than those guys over the years.

Matt: Yup, Immortus is one of the Doom Patrol’s regular nemeses, and has often teamed up with Brain and Mallah when they’re not trying to kill each other. So it’s not unexpected to find them in this scenario. His senility is a new wrinkle that wouldn’t fly in the main DCU, but in this Black Label book? Sure, why not?

Will: We’re only two issues in, but this book just works. It’s fun, it’s authentic, it’s good comics. DC editorial makes some baffling decisions at times, but this is not one of them.

Bat-miscellany

• This week’s BatChat podcast features three stories of the League of Assassins.
• The band Peacemaker and Mallah are listening to in the car is Mucous Membrane, the classic British punk band of the ’70s fronted by a young John Constantine. Love that.

Matthew Lazorwitz

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

Will Nevin loves bourbon and AP style and gets paid to teach one of those things. He is on Twitter far too often.