Batman comes face to face with the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh. But wait, don’t they share a body? Not anymore! The lead story of Batman #141 is written by Chip Zdarsky, drawn by Jorge Jimenez, colored by Tomeu Morey and lettered by Clayton Cowles. In the backup, Zur must face a threat bigger than Batman: the Zurs of the Multiverse, in a story written by Zdarsky, drawn by Dustin Nguyen, colored by John Kalisz and lettered by Cowles.
Mystery Inc. has been called in because Haly’s Circus is haunted by … Deadman? And if Haly’s Circus is involved, you know Nightwing can’t be far behind. The new Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries #1 is written by Sholly Fisch, drawn by Dario Brizuela, colored by Franco Riesco and lettered by Saida Temofonte.
Bruce follows Damian into the most hellacious landscape ever: high school. Batman & Robin #5 is written by Joshua Williamson, drawn by Nikola Cizmesija, colored by Rex Locus and lettered by Steve Wands.
Matt Lazorwitz: First BatChat of 2024! And aside from what else we’ve got, Bat/Scoob is back, so you know I’m happy.
Will Nevin: You’re always happy, Matt. I’m the curmudgeonly grump. That’s the bit.
Matt: True. It’s like we’re the Odd Couple here at ComicsXF. Should people stay tuned for our sitcom?
Will: *applause sign lights up*
Zur Triumphant
Will: You know, I never would have guessed that Zdarsky’s run would be *this* action oriented. It’s like a dadgum Michael Bay picture every time out.
Matt: I sit back and I try to remember if there was quite this much action in his run on Daredevil. And while there was, it was never quite so widescreen and sci-fi. It was lots of ninja fighting, prison breaks and fighting the mob. Zdarksy is leaning into the wildest of Grant Morrison’s tendencies, but it seems like he’s playing with the Batman stuff they did on JLA and forgetting that the run on Batman was not quite as much a sci-fi epic, even when it became Batman Incorporated.
We really didn’t get anything in this issue that was new when you compare it to Batman fighting Failsafe in the first arc. Yes, he has a robot hand, but that’s window dressing. Here, Zur is using Failsafe’s body and Bruce is doing his best to beat him. But since he couldn’t beat either of them on their own in this run, the ending seems a bit like a foregone conclusion.
Will: And the last issue (which I suppose we can briefly cover here) was even more action! Bruce fighting Zur(s) in his mind while he fights Joker in the meat space. I didn’t think you could get that much action in a single story. And it’s all professionally done. Clean, crisp stuff. But I’d like to take a damned minute to breathe and think about 1) what’s going on and 2) what it means for Bruce and the Bat family. Somehow, I don’t think the upcoming “Joker: Year One” is the pause I’m looking for.
Matt: And that’s the thing: Zdarksy has been on this book since issue #125, so that’s 17 issues, and we have gotten a total of one downtime issue, one issue not a part of some bigger epic. I don’t necessarily need every fourth issue to be quiet and introspective, but every few issues being a one-off with smaller stakes so we can get some more character interaction would be nice. We get these glimmers of character moments in the run, but they are quickly swept away in the next big fight scene. The moment in a previous issue where Batman tells Zur that these aren’t soldiers, they’re his family. The moment where Damian is crushed by Bruce’s betrayal during “Gotham War.” Bruce dealing with coming face to face with an Alfred from another world. The scene with Nightwing and Oracle in this issue. All of these are moments that could be at least whole scenes, maybe even whole issues.But we never get that space.
I am the first person to complain when you get a Godzilla movie or a Transformers movie where you’re spending 75% of the time with the human characters talking and not enough time with big lizards or robots smashing stuff. But I also know that humans are necessary to give human stakes in those stories. If you came into this issue without having read any of the previous ones, do you even know why Batman and Zur are fighting? Why Zur is so bad? I know we write for the trade these days, but a little place setting each issue isn’t the worst thing.
Will: Especially with the last issue. Don’t you want to spend at least a little meaningful time with the Zurs from alternate Earths? Like, what is even the point of Vampire Zur? (Yes, I know, it’s to look cool and be scared by the Bible.) I don’t hate it, don’t hate any of it. But I guess I’m disappointed, which is what I’ve felt from the beginning of this run.
Matt: And it all looks so good. Jorge Jimenez absolutely kills the art in the main story. These are some gorgeous fight scenes, and it all flows so well. I was a little confused in the backup. That was Zur-Beyond that our Zur was fighting, yes? I thought it was the Zur-Knight Returns initially.
Will: I think Jimenez gets some of the blame (credit?) for that confusion. M’f’er *nailed* all those Zur variants in their original art styles, so when the backups get a little more … interpretive … I can see where you’d be confused. I’m confused all the time, so it was nothing new for me.
A Fine Night at the Circus
Will: In the world of Batman, nothing bad ever happens at the circus, right?
Matt: I was reading this issue before bed last night, and I said something about this comic, and my wife, Amber, just looked at me and wondered why circuses even come to Gotham anymore, and I didn’t have a good answer for her.
But aside from strange business decisions (or maybe because of them)? I am so glad this book is back.
Will: Maybe this is hoping for too much, but I was kinda thinking we might get a serialized story here. Alas, it was not to be (for now). But otherwise? No notes, fun time as usual. I figured it wasn’t actually going to be Deadman because I’m the smartest junior detective around, but the ride getting there was still enjoyable.
Matt: I loved that this issue found a way to actually touch on the serious topic of Dick Grayson and how he would react coming back to Haly’s, and how he would be affected by the circus being threatened, but still maintaining the generally light tone of a Bat/Scoob story. Batman ‘66 never really addressed Thomas and Martha’s deaths because of how much of a downer that stuff is. Here, Fisch strikes the balance nicely.
Will: My god, the last panel, Matt. *tears up*
Matt: Oh, the last panels got me too, and I was already primed for it from Bruce talking to Dick about why he let Dick handle this one on his own. Fisch absolutely gets the way these two should interact at this point in their lives.
Will: Oh, that was such a great exchange. I kept waiting for Batman to pop up, and yet I was surprised when he did. Is that a muscle suit? Is that Batman? Who can say for sure.
Matt: And in the category of hilarious, Scooby-based jokes, Fred realizing that just because he can build traps doesn’t mean he’s an expert in getting out of them? Priceless.
Buy The Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries #1 here.
Sons of Gotham
Matt: I think this issue finds a fascinating middle ground between our standard Batman comic and Wayne Family Adventures. And I could use more of that, especially in this comic.
Will: This had some exceedingly normal stuff going on, like Bruce volunteering at Damian’s school and the lil’ guy playing soccer. Adorable ass shit, Matt. But we still had the seriousness of a main line book with a last-page reveal that was … interesting.
Matt: I’m curious where that last page is going. I will put in one of my rare SPOILER WARNINGs for one of these columns, since the last page of this issue is a twist. Skip the next exchange if you don’t want to be spoiled.
The thing that has me most curious is if this kid is actually Zsasz’s kid or not. Zsasz was a rich cad before he went around the bend, so it wouldn’t be shocking for him to leave an illegitimate kid. But what if this kid is just obsessed? We see that with Joker all the time, but the idea that some of the other members of the Arkham set would develop cults of personality isn’t outside the realm of possibility.
Will: Building a shrine to Zsasz doesn’t exactly scream biological kid, does it? And this has to figure into Shush’s plan, right? What if her goal is to brainwash all of those kids (skills she could certainly have picked up from Ra’s) into believing they are the progeny of Gotham’s nastiest villains? I don’t know how or why that would be the plan, but it at least evokes the parts of the Hush story I have retained against my will.
Matt: I am trying to figure that out as well. It seems too easy for the principal to be Shush, right? I feel like she’s a red herring. Damian getting so focused on her that he isn’t seeing Shush for who she really is. Maybe the biology teacher? Then again, throughout “Hush” I kept assuming Hush couldn’t be Tommy Elliot because it was too obvious, and I was wrong there, too. So who knows?
Will: I. Know. Nothing! Say, do you think the original artist is off the book now? I’m not complaining if so, but — as you mentioned trades earlier — this is going to look super weird collected.
Matt: I was going to ask what you thought about the art. I always enjoy seeing Cizmesija on a Bat book, but his style, while not the most house style, is much closer to what we expect. It looks like, judging by solicits, he’s just on for this and the next issue before Simone Di Meo returns with issue #7. So the last two issues of the first trade will have wildly different art. I can’t think who you could get who is of a style with Di Meo, but it’s still going to be jarring if you’re reading this in one sitting.
Will: It’s impossibly unfair to editorial to Monday morning QB these sorts of things, but since I’m not friends with anyone over there, I’m going to do it anyway. It would have been a fun experiment to have Di Meo do all of the super-stylized action scenes but leave all those quiet normie moments to Cizmesija — and to carry that switching off and on for all seven issues. I don’t know if that would work, but it would be less weird than what we’re eventually going to get.
Bat-miscellany
- The BatChat podcast is joined by Patreon backer John Wickham this week to talk about Batman’s world interacting with the Suicide Squad.
- Like Bat/Scoob? Be sure to check out the recent WMQ&A: The ComicsXF Interview Podcast where Dan and Matt talk to writer Sholly Fisch.
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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.
