The S.S. Silver St. Cloud is setting out for its maiden voyage to test a new navigational system developed by WayneTech. Bruce Wayne has invited Mystery Inc. to join him on the cruise and to help solve the mysteries he has set up. But when real pirates show up, it’s up to Batman, Scooby-Doo and the gang to save the ship in The Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries #10, written by Ivan Cohen, drawn by Dario Brizuela, colored by Franco Riesco and lettered by Saida Temofonte.
The members of Batman Inc. are in a race against time to stop Joker’s minions from killing their hostages. But even if they stop them, Joker will trigger the WMDs he has hidden on each of the members of Joker Inc. and kill everyone, unless Batman Inc. kills them. Can the heroes find a way to stop the villains without breaking Batman’s One Rule? Batman Incorporated #10 is written by Ed Brisson; drawn by John Timms, Michele Bandini and David Lafuente; colored by Rex Locus, and lettered by Clayton Cowles.
Joker has fallen asleep and awoken in the nightmare of DC’s new summer event. With Batman dead, Joker is trapped in a workaday job at Wayne Industries, and there seems to be no escape. Knight Terrors: The Joker #1 is written by Matthew Rosenberg, drawn by Stefano Raffaele, colored by Romulo Fajardo Jr. and lettered by Tom Napolitano.
Matt Lazorwitz: So, you want to feel old, Brother Will?
Will Nevin: I teach undergrads for a living, and I just had an MRI on my hip. I don’t know how much more I can take, Brother Matt, but go ahead and hit me.
Matt: The day this column drops will be the 15th anniversary of the New York premiere of The Dark Knight, and Tuesday is the anniversary of its full release.
Will: The only midnight movie I’ve ever seen where I would have stayed for another showing. What a film. Too bad it never got a sequel.
Scoob
Matt: It be adventures on the high seas this month, me hearty! Mystery Inc. on a mystery cruise sponsored by Bruce Wayne. So, of course, we have pirates!
Will: Yarrrr, and we got two great references before we’d even left port in the S.S. Silver St. Cloud and Bruce’s line, “Scooby-Doo, where are you?” It be one more fine excursion with the meddling teens and Batman, arrrrrrrrr.
Matt: I love when these stories mix up different elements from their respective universes, so bringing in a DC villain who is not a traditional Batman villain is a nice touch. And I was so trying to figure out how they were connected to Mystery Inc, since they were doing the dress-up thing and we’ve seen more Scooby-related characters pop up in the last few issues, I completely missed the clues to our villain’s identity. And let’s be fair: Captain Hyde could pretty easily be a Jekyll/Hyde or generally spooky reference, and not Black Manta using his actual last name when in disguise. Not the brightest play there, Manta.
Will: If you’ve got the rights to the characters, you might as well use ‘em, no? And it certainly plays with the nautical high seas adventure to poach one of Aquaman’s rogues. By the way, how long do you think you would have stayed in the Armchair Mystery room?
Matt: A comfy armchair and books, I assume mysteries, lining the walls? That is pretty close to my definition of heaven. You just need to add in a warm purring cat on my lap.
Will: And another fun gag this week? The gang shitting on Bruce Wayne. Matt, if they only knew. But as Fred (I think) said, Batman and Bruce Wayne couldn’t be any more different.
Matt: Hilarious. The thing that makes this book work is the kind of thing that doesn’t work in even all-ages just-Batman comics. The Scooby Gang is from a world that is more cartoony and broader, so you can have those jokes that are more on the nose, plus the traditional Scooby gags that would never fly in a just-Batman comic, like Shaggy and Scooby eating the way they do, and it fits in this world. We only have two issues left, and I’m going to miss this book.
Will: We’ll get another volume, right? Of course, I keep thinking that about Batman ‘66, so what do I know?
Inc.
Matt: Y’know, for a guy who claims to be this smart master of everything around him, Ghost-Maker is kind of a dumbass. It takes El Gaucho, who is usually the most arrogant and full of himself member of Batman Inc. to point out that ol’ GM telling everyone to kill the members of Joker Inc. is playing right into what Joker wants. I would golf clap, but this is a written medium, so that doesn’t come across here.
Will: *nods in approval*
As a confirmed psychopath and dedicated utilitarian, Ghost-Maker at his core doesn’t see why you can’t just kill the guy. He only abstains from killing because Batman tells him so, not because he realizes the valuable principle contained in The One Rule. (As a side note, here’s an essay prompt: Compare and contrast The One Rule with the Prime Directive. Which one is more important to its respective universe and why?) Before this story is over, he’ll have to learn this lesson, but it appears he’ll have to learn it the hard way.
Matt: There is only so long his inferiors (as he views them) can scold him before he snaps, I think. He considers Bruce as close to an equal as anyone, but these pale imitations are barely worth his time. But they keep trying to stick to The One Rule. I am curious to see which one it is who shows him that restraint, if not full on mercy, can be a strength. I think Raven Red choosing the right way, not killing the guy who beat his father, might move in that direction.
Will: At some point, the book will have to slow down and really get into those emotions. Whipping around the globe shows the scope of this dastardly Joker scheme, but it doesn’t exactly give us much time to settle down with someone like Raven Red or these loony henchjokers.
Matt: After this arc, this book absolutely needs to take two issues off the full-on action. It needs a couple issues of day-in-the-life stories for each of these characters, so we can get a better feeling for who they are. Brisson hasn’t done a bad job of sketching out their personalities, but we need more time to make them more than just sketches. I wonder how much longer this book will last, though. Thanks to all the different distributors, it’s hard to get a full picture of sales anymore, but Batman Inc. without Batman struck me as a concept that wouldn’t last too long, and while the book has been better than I thought it would be, that initial concern hasn’t ebbed.
Will: If nothing else, it’s quarantined Ghost-Maker into a series I’m not heavily invested in. That’s a commendable service to our country, Matt.
Joker
Will: This right here? Everything the Knight Terrors: Batman story wasn’t and more. This had creativity and novelty, some good comedy and didn’t totally fuckin’ exhaust me on the concept of this event.
Matt: This was wildly different, no doubt. But I don’t think I was as high on this as you were. It started out well, but I’m not sure if I see the nightmare of it yet. I thought we were going in a “Going Sane” direction, asking what Joker would do without Batman, and while it goes there, it doesn’t seem to settle into the idea. I wanted to see this follow through more on Joker’s ennui before Batman returned. It’s not a bad comic, but it didn’t exactly hit where I thought it was going. Issue #2 might pull it from good to great for me, but I’m more at solid than excellent.
Will: There have only been three excellent comics ever, Matt. This was a solid double, which means a lot in the context of this *helplessly waives his arms at this two-month event*. Admittedly, the premise is a bit messy: Batman dies *and* Joker, bereft of any meaning, stumbles into a white-collar job at Wayne Enterprises, where even murder and other mayhem doesn’t get him fired. Say what you will about the book, but I think we found the least good death ever proposed for Bruce: slipping in the rain, smashing his skull in and falling off a roof. Poor guy.
Matt: THAT there was great. Because for Joker, the only thing worse than killing Batman would be him dying in some dumb way that he can’t even claim responsibility for. His great nemesis, dead in an accident, and a dumb one at that.
Joker’s inability to get fired is not just amusing from a dream logic way either, but I feel like it’s a bit of social commentary. After all, is there any whiter white guy than Joker?
Will: It’s practically a do-nothing job, too. We had that Office Space-esque scene in which someone explains to him what the department does, and it basically amounts to oversight of the oversight. It would be a dream job for a lot of people — ease, security, pay. (All of the things most of us don’t have!) But it’s a nightmare for Joker specifically, because he thrives on chaos and individuality. And murder. Can’t forget about the murder.
Matt: The best comedy here for me is the fact that Joker is getting laughs from all his coworkers when he says horrifying things, but they’re not the laughs he wanted. He wants nervous laughter to screams, but all he gets is, “Oh you’re so funny!” What’s the point of being a murder clown if everyone just thinks you’re amusing?
Will: I’d say the book is too busy — and maybe it is — but I suppose the point of a nightmare is to hit you on as many fronts as possible with strangeness and horror. I’m guessing the still-patrolling Batman is probably more complicated than both Dick or someone else in the family stepping up or a straight-up specter of Bruce. How about a fun Fight Club riff and Joker is actually Batman? Take this nightmare to its logical conclusion.
Matt: A good supposition. Either that or Gaggy. Getting revenge for all those deaths in Joker’s fantasy comics month in and month out. Again, this is nightmare logic.
Will: The best parts of this really do play like the Joker backups. And, again, it’s a bit on the bloated side. But I’ll take it.
Bat-miscellany
- This week’s BatChat podcast features three stories of the GCPD: the “Officer Down” crossover, an arc of Gotham Central and GCPD: The Blue Wall, which we covered in this very column. See if our opinion has changed!
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.
