Matt Lazorwitz: Weāre back. My apologies to everyone who counts on these columns to keep you informed on the goings on in and around Gotham City. Some personal life stuff and some work stuff have all conspired to keep me away, but thatās settled and weāre back!
Will Nevin: Reunited and it feels so good! Except that weāve still been recording new episodes of the show. We have, havenāt we? I didnāt imagine all of those?
Matt: Nope, they were real, and they are still coming out! But we thought, instead of doing a more standard issue-by-issue as we have, weāre just going to give a state of the line here, one section on the three main ongoings and then one on a couple of the other books that weāre interested in. These are the books we will definitely be covering for a while, and we will be doing some others too, but weāre playing catchup as it is.
Main ongoings
Matt: I feel like weāre back to three core Bat ongoings, all of which weāve covered here and will continue to cover: Batman, Detective Comics and Batman and Robin.
Will: All of which are in some very different places.
Matt: Are they ever. It really doesnāt feel like these books can exist in continuity with each other, or at least not in the same time period.
Will: We know that Batman and Batman and Robin are at least in conversation with each other, as both continue to deal with the fallout of āGotham War.ā But, hell, even āTec made mention of that. So, yeah, itās best to shrug and not think too hard about fitting these stories together. I guess we start with Batman since itās the beginning of a new arc?
Matt: The beginning of a new arc that seems to be paying off all the stuff Zdarksy has built over his previous arcs. And as expected, that payoff comes with it turning out that, yes, Zur-En-Arrh has been manipulating Bruce since his multiversal sojourn, which might not completely absolve him of the shit he did during āGotham War,ā but certainly lowers his culpability. Which we anticipated, but it doesnāt make it any more satisfying.
Will: At least weāre not being forced to dwell on what he did? Although maybe we should. Thereās a lot to like in the first issue of āMind Bombā ā including an emphasis on a grounded, stripped-bare Batman in addition to following up on the seeds planted to date as you said. But weāve also got enough to give us pause, like *yet* another return of the Joker, renewed attention on the Three Jokers nonsense and casual mentions of ultraviolence without enough focus on Zur-En-Arrh as the root cause. A Batman who can shrug off breaking someoneās legs is not a good Batman, Matt.
Matt: No, but again, we can chalk that up to Zurās influence. Iām a little more OK with Joker here (not Three Jokers, but just Joker) because this is the first time in continuity Batman and Joker have met in over two years, and itās also stripped down. This isnāt a Gotham destroying plot, this is just Joker screwing with Batman. And also him having an angle: he recently went through a crisis of identity in The Man Who Stopped Laughing, so he wanted to give Batman one too, and that plays into Zurās own agenda. I like the more intimate Batman and Joker confrontation, and we havenāt gotten one of those in a long time, and even those were part of bigger stories.
Will: How did you feel about Joker apparently knowing the answer to The Question? And when did he come across that particular nugget of information?
Matt: That is an interesting question. There were hints of it going back as far as āA Death in the Familyā and Arkham Asylum, but it was more or less cemented in Snyderās run in āDeath of the Familyā and then in āJoker War.ā And Iām fine with it. In Arkham Asylum, when some of the other rogues want to unmask him, Joker says not to, because their fight isnāt with the guy under the mask, itās with Batman. And I think as long as you keep that in mind? It works. Here, Joker is going after the people who helped make Batman. Heās not just screwing with Wayne Enterprises or Bruce Wayneās neighbors. No, this is about Batman still. And to Joker, thatās what matters.
Will: But itās more than The Question, too. Joker apparently knows all of Bruceās overseas trainers ā¦ which seems like a lot of information for him to wrangle. But, he *is* the Joker and all *hand waives clownishly*. If Batman is more or less a grounded story at the moment, āTec is, what, the complete opposite of whatever that means? Making it some high-concept, anxiety-fueled fever dream?
Matt: āTec has become a combination of the occult horror Batman story and a heist movie, which is a combination I never knew I needed until I got it. Detective remains probably my favorite ongoing series on the stands right now. As I figured, we were using an operatic structure for this story, so weāre in the intermezzo, the small theatrical piece performed in between acts of the larger piece. And what we have is Catwoman pulling the ultimate heist: stealing Batman out from under the Orghams. We get the crew, we get the scheme, we get the turn; itās Leverage, Gotham style. And while Jorge Jimenezās art over on Batman remains superhero chic, Jason Shawn Alexander keeps up the horror vibes of the other artists on āTec while still providing the vibrancy of movement you need in a heist.
Will: And what a cliffhanger, amirite?
Matt: Ram V has not forgotten any of the stuff he has built up over this run. Itās so intricate. Throwing in Talia and the League at the end here? Such an amazing moment. I also love the choice of putting Talia in all white, against everyone else in these stories in all their dark colors. Itās just a great visual.
Will: This run has been nothing but great visuals. Such an artistic treat. As for Batman and Robin, while I appreciated the Mikel Janin pages, I donāt know if editorial could have picked a more awkward fill-in. Talk about jarring, jeeze. But, again, I much preferred having Janin here since I could, you know, follow the story without getting a sense of motion sickness.
Matt: I agree it was a strange choice, especially with a handful of pages from Simone Di Meo sandwiched in between. If Janin had just done the flashback and the epilogue, it would have felt more natural, but it just felt like Di Meo ran out of time, or the script changed and they needed someone else to draw the changed pages since Di Meo had moved on to the next issue? I canāt think of why it would have such an odd breakdown otherwise.
This remains the lightest of the core Bat books, very much a swashbuckling adventure comic with big supervillains, focusing on the father/son dynamic and not on the deep dark psychology. Itās a nice change of pace, anyway. And while Di Meo might not be to your taste, and not always to mine depending on what is going on with a particular page, he does draw a hell of a Man-Bat.
Worldās Finest and Minis
Matt: So for todayās exercise, outside the main Bat books, weāre going to be checking in on Worldās Finest, Batman ā89: Echoes and Batman: Off World. And again, I donāt think we could get three more different comics.
Will: Two of them are following up legendary stories. And one is Jason Aaronās first Bat book. Yeah, not much of a cohesive theme there. I know you explained to me the last time we talked about it why āourā Superman would be mad at the āKingdom Comeā Superman, but ā¦ uhh ā¦ explain it again for the benefit of the readers.
Matt: When Batman and Superman first dropped on Earth-22 (Kingdom Come Earth) they saw a vision of the aftermath of the big battle at the end of the original, so they saw all the death. āOurā Superman canāt believe any version of him would let that happen. This is a Superman who is a Year ā¦ Four or Five era Superman. He hasnāt suffered the losses of Doomsday and Coast City, he hasnāt had to bury any other heroes yet. He is hopelessly, almost sweetly, naive. He really believes he can save everyone. I wonder how much of that innocence will be lost by the end of this, when Thunder Man becomes Magog.
Will: I donāt think Bats and Supes are going to get along with Magog, no, sir. But speaking of naivete, Earth-22 heroes sure seemed ready to believe whatever Thunder Man wanted them to.
Matt: Yeah, seeing Superman and ESPECIALLY Batman take a knee in front of Gog makes me think there is some aspect of The Whammy being put on everyone. Otherwise, we are going to definitely need to fill in some blanks here. Because Batman does not bow to anyone.
Will: As with so many things, the details of āKingdom Comeā are a little hazy, but I always took the baddie there to be another metahuman/alien type. But he seems like a literal deity here.
Matt: Gog is a character from the surrounding materials/other sequels of Kingdom Come; he doesnāt actually appear in the book, just Magog, his ā¦ disciple, for want of a better word. And Magog, when he has appeared, is some kind of cosmic force. So you didnāt forget anything this time, we just havenāt read that stuff because Batman isnāt in it.
Will: Thank god Mark Waid is able to keep all this straight, because I canāt. Something else thatās starting to get a little confusing? The timeline of the now-extended Batman ā89 universe. So we had Batman, which I have to assume is set in the present day, which made it 1989. Returns, as weāve discussed, was not long after, and the first miniseries couldnāt have been too far after Returns. This new mini, Echoes, is now two years after the previous one. All of that to say, I donāt think weāre in an era of email yet, no matter what writer Sam Hamm seems to think.
Matt: Commercial email was not widespread at this point, but the first commercial email service was launched in 1989, and educational institutions had been using it since the early ā80s. So, while it is mildly anachronistic, itās not impossible.
What is spot-on for the late ā80s/early ā90s is Harley appearing as a TV shrink. They were all over daytime talk shows at that time. Now, to be fair, The Batman did that with Harley in the early ā00s, but since that was a kids cartoon, it couldnāt highlight just how lascivious it could get. Although when it comes to timelines, I am a bit perplexed by the appearance of Carl Grissom/Jack Napierās moll, Alicia. Joker told Vicki Vale she committed suicide. I guess that can just be chalked up to Joker being the most unreliable of narrators, though.
Will: That was my thought there. If she escaped Jokerās influence, of course heād lie about what happened to her. We didnāt get a whole lot of action in this first issue, but I think Iām OK with that? Itās interesting enough to see Hamm build out this world, but the absence of Robin was notable here, especially given how much time he was given in the first series.
Matt: I hope that character isnāt shuffled off to the side; aside from Dent, he was the most interesting character in that first volume. I feel like Joe Quinones did a better job of capturing likeness in this volume. Maybe it was just removing the mustache, but Alfred looked more like Michael Gough this time around. And Jonathan Crane could not be more Jeff Goldblum if he was wearing an open shirt and posing seductively. Harley is apparently supposed to be modeled on Madonna, which I see less, but the variability of Madonnaās look might be throwing me there.
Will: I had to look back over it, but if you catch the right panel, itās 100% Madonna. And the television guy is Harvey Fierstein. Nobody asked my opinion ā and this is certainly not the first book to do this sort of artistic fancasting ā but this is some legally questionable stuff. You canāt drop Madonna in your comic just because you think it looks cool, and she has a right to control these elements of her likeness. I canāt believe DC legal signed off on this.
Matt: Maybe there is something in the background we donāt know about; I canāt imagine DC is paying likeness rights to anyone they donāt have to, but we could be wrong.
And finally thereās Off-World. Let it never be said Batman wonāt go to extreme measures to learn what he needs to when it comes to protecting Gotham and not ask ANYONE for help, even if it means abandoning Gotham for some indeterminate amount of time.
Will: You know me, Matt, I am a curmudgeonly old man who typically doesnāt like science fiction to bleed on over into Batman. But this? This shit was great.
Matt: Oh, Iām not saying itās not enjoyable. Just that the jumping off point to get to this story is using one of the aspects of Batman as a character I can find frustrating.
Will: That was one of my favorite parts of the story! (That and the masochistic sparring robot. What a little weirdo.) The only place where you can learn to beat an alien is in space where all the aliens live. Perfect Bat logic there.
Matt: Yes, the masochistic robot was hilarious. I want a one-shot in the middle of the miniseries that just follows him around.
Will: What we need is a Rick and Morty crossover. Meeseeks vs. the Punchbot.
Matt: Throw in Marvin the Depressed Android from Hitchhikerās Guide to the Galaxy just being drily sarcastic at both of them, and Iām sold.
Will: Weāve got a great AO3 story brewing, Matt. Iām sure it will get sexual at some point.
Matt: I canāt type any of the things I am thinking and keep this anywhere near a PG-13.
I love Doug Mahnkeās designs in this book. Aside from the Tamaranean, these are all new alien species, as far as I can tell, and Mahnke just goes hog on designing big, beefy and creepy aliens. And while the stubborn streak of how Batman got out there may bug me a bit; his resolute mindset on learning how to beat these guys once heās there? Iām all about that.
Will: Since thereās no letterer credited, who do I get to blame? You donāt need to give me a different balloon color and font for me to know that an alien might sound different. And when different aliens have different colors? No, none of that.
Matt: According to internet research, you can take that up with Troy Peteri. Just so you know.
Will: 1) Iām bummed they didnāt get credited in the book. That aināt right. 2) They can kiss my ass.
Matt: And on that note, well, itās good to be back. Iām hoping we can get back to at least two books a week, because we still have Batman Beyond and Brave and the Bold to cover, plus a new volume of Bat/Scoob. Thatās a Christmas present for me right there.
Will: Dear god, thereās so much Brave and the Bold to read.
Matt: And Nightwing. And Catwoman. And Penguin. And Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy. And City of Madness. And Gargoyle of Gotham.
Yeah, looks like that Bat-drought is clearing up, huh?
Bat-miscellany
- The podcast has kept chugging along, and this week, we have an episode about the Court of Owls and the Talon turned hero, Calvin Rose.
- Have no fear, we will be covering Batman/Santa Claus: Silent Knight in its entirety the week in between Christmas and New Yearās to keep that holiday spirit going.
Matt Lazorwitz read his first comic at the age of 5. 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 podcasts BatChat with Matt & Will and The ComicsXF Interview Podcast.
Will Nevin loves bourbon and AP style and gets paid to teach one of those things. He is on Twitter far too often.
