DC’s big summer event has kicked off. The new villain Insomnia has put the heroes of the DC Universe into deep sleeps, and he is traveling through their nightmares. What are Batman’s greatest nightmares? Find out in Knight Terrors: Batman #1, written by Joshua Williamson, drawn by Guillem March, colored by Tomeu Morey and lettered by Troy Peteri.
Gotham is quiet, so it’s time for Batman and Robin to take a vacation. But at the island resort, Talia al Ghul comes to visit. And where Talia goes, her father is never far behind. Batman: The Adventures Continue Season Three #6 is written by Alan Burnett and Paul Dini, drawn by Ty Templeton, colored by Monica Kubina and lettered by Josh Reed.
Betrayed by the Brain and Mallah, Peacemaker is at a new low. But he still needs to rescue Bruce Wayne (the dog, not the billionaire), so it’s time to saddle up with a new ally. Peacemaker Tries Hard #3 is written by Kyle Starks, drawn by Steve Pugh, colored by Jordie Bellaire and lettered by Becca Carey.
Will Nevin: Got some Bat trivia for you, Matt. Did you know that on the night she was murdered, Martha Wayne was wearing a pearl necklace? Not many people know that. Keep that one under your hat if you ever need to pull out a little factoid to impress folks.
Matt Lazorwitz: You know just the button to push for me, don’t you?
Will: Don’t blame me, Matt. I’m not the one continuing to put the damned pearls in the books.
Batman’s Nightmare
Matt: Let’s get right into this from the intro then. I have to imagine that Joshua Williamson is aware of how overplayed the pearls thing is, and is doing giant pearls rolling to crush Bruce as an ironic nod to how overdone it is, taking that bit to the illogical extreme. Because if he wasn’t being ironic … oy.
Will: I’m already put off by this event, and I’m even more put off by the lack of imagination here. When we had the Dark Knights one-shots, they weren’t all winners, but at least they had some creativity. Maybe even a couple of ’em stuck with you to the extent that they were a bit fucked up. But this? Blech. Twenty-plus pages of your average Scarecrow nightmare. And we’ve got a whole-assed additional issue to go.
Matt: I am trying to figure out if Williamson is leaning into the tropes here. He is writing so much of this event, with the core mini plus Batman and Superman, that I feel like he might be stretched thin. But the pearls, the fact that Insomnia, the villain (who maybe is more interesting if you’ve read the First Blood one-shot, which I haven’t yet, but here he just seems like Scarecrow, Doctor Destiny and Joker in a blender), uses the Bat/Cat thing with some ironic italics when zombie Catwoman shows up, the ridiculous gun-headed Bat monster, I wonder if Williamson is rolling with the tropes because it’s hard to do anything original with Batman’s nightmares.
Will: The end — with Bruce perhaps having to play the part of Joe Chill — arrives at an interesting place, but it’s after a big, long slog to get there. Kinda wish we had picked the Joker book — if the cover can be trusted to say anything about the actual contents, it at least looks like a fresh idea.
Matt: At this point, that would be the only thing Batman has to fear anymore, right? After Metal, he’s seen the worst versions of himself and faced them down. The only thing he has left to fear is becoming the nightmare that created him. A good hook. I hope the next issue really leans into that as well, rather than just seeing him break out of it in two pages and then having a typical dreamscape fight with Insomnia.
The art is very much what you’d expect from Guillem March as well. This is a perfectly well constructed comic, and if you haven’t read a bunch of Scarecrow stories before, I think it would be appealing. But if you know this trope, it’s really just nothing new. I am looking forward to some of the rest of the event, though. Tim and Jason in Robin, and especially Jim Gordon in the Dan Watters-written Detective Comics have more potential to tread new ground.
Will: You’re right in that this is a good-looking book that’s competently put together. But that’s about the most generous thing I can say about it. Bring on the more interesting stuff, please.
Ra’s al Ghul’s Dream
Matt: Gotta give the creators on this book credit; they’re not sticking to one style of story. This final arc is about as far removed from the previous Straight Man/Joker arc as it can be while still being recognizable as a story that logically works in the Animated Universe.
Will: And it feels intriguing as a story, doesn’t it? Ra’s, in what looks to be his final days, wants to do something objectively good for the planet with his amazing new grain that can end world hunger. But like Bruce, we know there’s a catch.
Matt: The real question here isn’t if Ra’s is lying. It’s how much of this is a lie. Is he really dying, or is appearing this way a part of the plan? Is the grain really as amazing as he makes it out to be, or is there something hidden in it? How much does Talia know? And is he really uninvolved with the eerie quiet in Gotham, or is he in league with the Court of Owls?
Will: All of the above? I guess that’s not really an answer to your rhetorical questions, but the point here is that Ra’s is not turning face, and the fun of this story will be watching Bruce put all the pieces together. I think the two settings — island paradise and the homefront in Gotham — are working now, but I wouldn’t want to see too much herky jerky movin’ around in the next chapters.
Matt: Yeah, I think once the plots start to come together next issue, that will clear. I expect Bruce to come back to Gotham to analyze Ra’s miracle wheat, and that will pull the Gotham City Sirens into his orbit. And with this being (purportedly anyway) the final arc of the final miniseries of this world, we need to get the rest of the family, plus as many rogues as logically fit, and it has to end in Gotham. It would feel weird to end this universe anywhere else.
Will: You and I both know this universe will never truly die given how popular it is, but if this team makes more comics in the immediate future, you’d think it would be tie-ins for the new Caped Crusader show. We shall see, I suppose.
Matt: Seeing Bruce and Talia rekindling their relationship makes the fact that Selina looks like she’s going to play a big part in the end of this arc a hook, too. The Animated Universe never really played a Batman love triangle on the classic series, but it would be something to do here at the very end as well.
Also, I can’t remember, have you read both the previous seasons of this book? I know we didn’t cover season one, as that was before the column.
Will: I think I read the first few issues of that one? Can’t swear to it, though.
Matt: Just curious, because with the Talons popping up again, who appeared in season one, it feels like they’re pulling from all the seasons now that we’re in the endgame.
Will: You know, if they wanted to do something wild here and really put a bow on the TAS universe, maybe the Talons are defeated and dismantled and crime does actually go away — or at least sink to a “can be handled by regular cops” level — and the mission can end. Wouldn’t that be nuts?
Matt: As fun as that sounds, I am more thinking we’ll end with a Batman Beyond nod. But we’ll have to wait two months to see.
Peacemaker’s Up All Night
Matt: Holy crap, it’s the Red Bee! I didn’t see that one coming.
Will: Your encyclopedic knowledge of comics knows no bounds … or limits … or sense of how obscure is too obscure. Who, dear sir, is the Red Bee?
Matt: Red Bee is a minor Golden Age hero, one of those comedic footnotes of a character who people wonder why anyone thought he was a good idea. He was an assistant DA who fought crime with his martial arts prowess and the bee he kept in his belt buckle. So Starks didn’t have to change much to make him as goofy as he is here.
Will: What a perfect character to repurpose as Amanda Waller’s parole officer. Look, this has to be as good a book as you can put together with this character and this approach to him. None of it drags or feels forced, and while this issue didn’t have quite the same gut punch as the previous one, it still had its moments. “I am an unloved, worthless failure that no one needs in their lives.” DAMN.
Matt: We’re getting rising and falling action. The scene in the bar with the bartender was clever, and her answer as to why she wouldn’t go to Peacemaker’s party was possibly the funniest moment in the issue. These little human moments are what make a Starks book great.
Will: He’s such a master of them — my favorite el-oh-el moment was, “Welp. Delmont’s dead.”
Matt: With the exception of Red Bee officially becoming Peacemaker’s ally in his hunt for Bruce Wayne, this issue didn’t forward the plot much, which is fine. Starks is just building the character and the world, and that is fine. He has six issues, so he can take that time.
Will: This is a series that doesn’t need a lot of action. As we’ve pointed out, the choicest cuts of this issue were just Peacemaker interacting with these random townies. Yeah, yeah, there was some punching and murder by the end of it, but it’s the gags along the way that make this series work.
Matt: “Sharp as a bag of wet mice” is also a great dig. I would love to see Starks write a Waller book someday, just a “put upon boss surrounded by idiots” workplace drama.
Will: Ahhhhhh that would be great, with her as a straight woman dealing with an unending stream of nonsense? Yes, let’s get that approved today.
Bat-miscellany
- This week’s BatChat podcast has us reading three stories that tie into Batman in other media.
- We did not need the reference to (HBO) Max in Adventures this week. Lame.
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.
