Deep in his own dreamscape, Batman travels to find what will allow him to free himself and fight Insomnia. But what waits for him behind that fearsome and locked door? Knight Terrors: Batman #2 is written by Joshua Williamson, drawn by Guillem March, colored by Tomeu Morey and lettered by Troy Peteri.
Batman is dead, his corpse hanging in Jokerâs closet. Then who is hunting the streets of Gotham, inspiring fear in all its criminals? Knight Terrors: The Joker #2 is written by Matthew Rosenberg, drawn by Stefano Raffaele, colored by Romulo Fajardo Jr. and lettered by Tom Napolitano.
The rollout of Wayne Enterprisesâ new AI is interrupted by a ghost in the machine, so itâs up to Velma, Shaggy and Scooby to team up with Oracle and enter cyberspace to find out what the ghost is up to and stop it. The Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries #11 is written by Sholly Fisch, drawn and colored by Erich Owen and lettered by Saida Temofonte.
Matt Lazorwitz: So, we took a week off because, alas, we have day jobs. Now if the BatChat Patreon could only support us so we could do this full time âŚ
Will Nevin: Just need to live within your means, buddy boy. Now, excuse me while I try to find dinner for $0.76. Maybe Iâll go with a can of green beans instead of a can of baked beans. Feels fancier. But, hey, if we get a few more subscribers, I might be able to step it up to pork and beans or ⌠even Spam! Goshamighty, Iâd be livinâ high if I could afford Spam.
Into the Nightmare-verse
Matt: If this were in the monthly Batman title, if this were the culmination of something that had been building for a while, if this was something I thought would actually affect the ongoing continuity of the Batman family of titles? I would applaud the ending here. But as it is off in a two-issue miniseries that is part of an event? I just canât get too excited.
Will: Which ending are we talkinâ âbout here? The good one with an emotional center or the one that continues the slog into the thing I donât care about?
Matt: The good one. The idea of Bruce entering the part of his mind he shut off, the part where young Bruce Wayne still lives in that alley, and telling him everything will be OK. If that was something a regular writer would play with, a Bruce Wayne who has really and truly made peace with that night in the alley and what that means to both Bruce and Batman, it could lead to some truly fascinating stories.
Will: Itâs a shame, too â that was such a nice scene. Bats *are* âcool.â Really, it was the only thing that had any resonance out of 50-something pages. Well, that and the gun-bat. That was something straight out of a nightmare, Iâll tell ya that much. But something that may or may not be canon â what did you think of the idea of Bruce sitting with his parentsâ bodies for an hour and a half? I had never seen that mentioned before, and as odd as it seems for that to be possible, it certainly would explain a lot of his trauma.
Matt: It absolutely would explain a whole lot. I have never seen it anywhere else, though, and when you think at the time Park Row was an affluent area and a movie had just let out nearby, it doesnât make a lot of sense. Of course, with time being relative and this all being in Bruceâs head? Five minutes could stretch into 90 pretty easily in that scenario.
Will: I took it to be a statement of fact (and not perception) because it was in the narration. The explanation of âOh, itâs Gotham, thereâs gunfire all of the timeâ doesnât hold weight for the reasons you mentioned, but I thought it was an interesting thing to include because, again, it does give layers to Bruceâs character. The rest of this, though? A big hot plate of nothing.
Matt: Itâs pretty nothing, though. Guillem March isnât my favorite artist, but his style is suited to these nightmares. The characters are all weird long limbs, and the horror of all the little Bruces tearing at adult Bruce/Joe Chill works under his pencil.
There are a lot of ideas here, but aside from the one at the end, none of them are fleshed out. Give us more time with Bruce as Joe Chill. Or instead of just a cool looking two-page spread, have Bruce really dive down the catalog of all his dreams and nightmares. The ending works because we have the time to sink our teeth into it, but nothing else does.
Will: Fighting alongside his parents would have been something to dive into, for sure. Itâs weird to see all of these more interesting ideas float along unexplored, isnât it? And as far as the art goes, I thought the coloring and the inks were a bit off. Too washed out for the former, too ⌠I dunno, didnât care for it for the latter.
Matt: Interesting. I wasnât a fan of the coloring myself, but I had wondered if that had to do with this being on the paper stock it was, as DC has been using a coarser, less glossy paper lately. But if youâre seeing that in digital too, I guess it was actually an issue with the coloring.
Joker the Batman
Matt: So, last issue, you were warmer on this series than I was. I definitely was more into this issue than last. How are you feeling now that itâs done?
Will: Oh, how the tables have turned, Matt. I thought this issue was less surreal than the last and didnât do anything really unexpected â why, yes, Joker is going to be Batman and try to catch himself. Gags were still funny enough, but yeah, I think Iâm a bit more lukewarm on this now.
Matt: I enjoyed the Joker as Batman thing here. That Joker canât live without Batman is admittedly on the nose, but I liked seeing him having to be Batman and not even realize it just to give his life any kind of meaning. It reminds me of that quote by Voltaire about, and I paraphrase, if God did not invent man, then we would have to invent God.
But this does actually pose a problem for this series. The whole series has two Jokers, neither of whom seem to give a crap about Batman, just each other. If his deepest psychological fixation is Batman, why have we barely heard mention of him in this series?
Will: That sure does present a pickle, doesnât it? Methinks this will not be collected in the Joker Vol. 2 trades when those come to pass, because this doesnât fit into that story at all. Is Batman in a Joker book the same as Joker in a Batman book? Once you bring that character in, it becomes all about them regardless of whatever else is going on?
Matt: A valid point. Batman has a certain critical mass, and if he got involved in this war of Jokers, he would figure out what was going on and that would certainly put an end to things. So I guess you just donât talk about the Bat-shaped elephant in the room. Or is it an elephant-shaped bat? I donât think either could fly âŚ
Will: Theyâre both definitely pooping wherever they want, though.
Matt: I think the best scene was the one with Bruce Wayne. Just the completely unhinged Bruce Wayne tearing into a lobster like that made me laugh, especially because our pal Tony Thornley and I recently covered an issue of Wolverine where Beast did pretty much the same thing. There, it was symbolic of his embracing his darker and more bestial nature. Here? A comment on how truly uncultured the upper class is, maybe?
Will: I had a couple oâ thoughts about that scene. First, I am done, done, done with Killing Joke references. Textual, visual, any way you wanna slice it. Let that thing die already. Second, Joker tells Bruce specifically that he has a shellfish allergy, and thatâs the only thing on the menu. And the butlerâs name keeps changing. Itâs a nightmare, so itâs not supposed to make sense, but I thought those elements were particularly strange.
Matt: Thatâs all the social commentary, I think. Bruce, the wealthy, gives so little a care about his employees that he doesnât even think to check on the allergens, even if he provides them. And the same with the butler; he doesnât even know the name of his own body man. Itâs a bit on the nose, but itâs trying something, anyway.
Will: I think thatâs a good read on it. What did you think of the ending? Felt fairly rushed, but also ⌠how else are you going to end this story since itâs not continuing in the main Knight Terrors mini?
Matt: Yeah, thatâs about my read there. This just needed to end with everyone waking up. I saw a lot of commentary saying this is evidence that Faux Joker is the real Joker, since Insomnia is looking for his Nightmare Stone in the minds of heroes and villains, and since he was in Faux Jokerâs mind, he must be the real Joker. But if they both truly believe theyâre Joker, I doubt Insomnia would know the difference.
Will: Some people think way too hard about stuff, Matt. Me? Iâm all vibes.
Matt: And itâs funnier for a Joker to wake up on a grungy floor than in wherever the other Joker would be. And never let logic get in the way of a good joke.
Entering the Matrix
Matt: *sigh* One issue left. I never hold out hope for more of this book, but it usually winds up reappearing in some form, but I try not to get my hopes up to see them dashed.
Nonetheless, this remains a book that is just consistently enjoyable. And this might have the least amount of Batman in any issue of the series, and it still works really well.
Will: Itâs as funny as ever, isnât it? It helps when you can riff on intellectual property sibling The Matrix when youâre doing your âstuck in cyberspaceâ story. And, like, yeah, itâs entirely predictable once the green lines of code come out that the gang will be reimagined in shades and black trenchcoats, but itâs still cool to see it â just like itâs fun to see Fred do the mask-pulling gag.
Matt: I particularly enjoyed the panels of Velma and Oracle attempting to trace the Ghostâs IP address with Shaggy running past making some kind of groanworthy computer pun each time he passes through the panel. I may be childfree by choice, but never let it be said I donât enjoy a dad joke.
Will: And explaining what an IP address is was fun, too. Pulling off masks of fake IP addresses? That was good fun right there. And reimagining Bruce Wayne as a Tim Cook-style tech bro was also a good bit.
Matt: I kind of want to dig in and see if those IP addresses actually match the countries that theyâre reflecting, because that would be a whole extra layer to the gag. Iâll get around to it sometime.
Even though Babs has been using the Oracle name and role more in the mainstream DCU, she seems to switch into her Batgirl costume quite a bit, and so itâs rare to get a pure Oracle story anymore, so I was glad to see this didnât end with her costuming up to take out Calculator. And seeing Calculatorâs avatar wearing his early-appearances costume instead of just being a dude who looks like an accountant? Nice touch, which is what you expect from Sholly Fisch.
Will: I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but at least when using the sketchy free IP lookup I found on Google, the addresses do not seem to match the countries rattled off in the dialogue. At least theyâre real addresses? I wouldnât have known enough to even be able to do that.
Bat-miscellany
- This weekâs BatChat podcast features three stories that take Batman out of Gotham City.
- This week saw the print collection of the first 25 Webtoon Wayne Family Adventures strips. I am looking forward to covering these on the pod for our annual all-ages Thanksgiving.
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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.
