One of the men who trained Batman has decided it’s time to train his opposite number, so the Joker has a new mentor. Batman and Gordon continue to pursue the Red Hood Gang. And in the future, Joker and Batman barrel toward a final confrontation. “Joker: Year One” continues in Batman #143, written by Chip Zdarsky, penciled by Giuseppe Camuncoli and Andrea Sorrentino, inked by Stefano Nesi and Sorrentino, colored by Alejandro Sanchez and Dave Stewart, and lettered by Clayton Cowles.
One of Damian’s classmates has an unhealthy fixation with Zsasz, and Batman and Robin have to stop him from freeing the killer. Plus, even stranger, Bruce and Damian have a heart-to-heart. Batman and Robin #6 is written by Joshua Williamson, drawn by Nikola Cizmesija, colored by Rex Locus and lettered by Steve Wands.
There’s nothing like a camping trip to serve as a bonding exercise between father and son. But when that father and son are Batman and Robin, of course it’s going to turn into something a lot more dangerous. Batman and Robin Annual 2024 is written by Joshua Williamson, drawn by Howard Porter, colored by Rain Beredo and lettered by Steve Wands.
Will Nevin: Two questions: (1) How do you feel about the decision to reprint the DC vs. Marvel and Amalgam books and (2) What do you think about these reprints only being available in omnibus form?
Matt Lazorwitz: Well, (A) I am glad to see it, because there are some really fun books in there, and (B) That is truly irritating because it makes it such a cash grab and keeps them out of the reach of a lot of people. But Warner and Disney absolutely need that money. They’re struggling small companies, after all.
Will: Gotta help small business out, Matt. The real bummer here — aside from the price as you alluded to — is that the omnibus format makes it seem likely that they won’t be released digitally. And we all know that physical omnibuses are shit formats for actual reading. This is a win for collectors, but a big loss for readers.
Joker’s Lessons
Will: So you got a hankerin’ for this Joker origin story yet? We’ve only got one more chapter to go.
Matt: I feel about this issue almost exactly how I felt about the last. This doesn’t feel necessary. Having someone teach Batman how to create the Zur persona takes away some of the cool of it. I do like the Gordon scenes and want more of that.
Will: Pro tip there: Don’t teach Joker anything. Because once he’s learned your trick, you’re expendable as fuck. And, yeah, where the hell is our “Lt. Gordon climbing up a mountain of corruption” story? Give me three parts of that. And I loved Gordon *instantly* knowing the score. He’s too smart for the scum of the GCPD.
Matt: Although, I will say, while not necessary, the idea that the Three Jokers are in fact three personas within the one body? I can actually get behind that as an idea only because it means we don’t have multiple Jokers running around the DCU, which is overkill to the nth degree. It is the closest thing to an elegant solution to that plot thread that we have gotten yet, and far more elegant than the miniseries of that name.
Will: I do not look forward to having to read that book for the show, no, sir. Not at all. So the Gordon stuff is great. No complaints there. But the future plague/last showdown part of this feels so derivative. I mean, between Dark Knight Returns, DCeased and any number of Black Label books, I feel like we’ve seen this before. And, yes, we could get something next week that totally shifts that evaluation, but we’re running out of runway for that.
Matt: Not to mention the Snyder “Endgame” story, that Batman actually references here when he says Joker has Jokerized all of Gotham in the past. There is nothing new there. The transmission by laugh is … whatever. I’d ask how that works, but it’s glorious comic book nonsense, so I will just have to accept it.
And this is just an art note, and a nerdy art note at that, but here’s a tip for other artists who might want to draw a Catwoman variant.
Will: She shouldn’t look like Black Widow?
Matt: Black Widow? Oh my sweet summer child who has not read much Marvel. She should not look like the character Black Cat, a cat-themed cat burglar from Spider-Man who no one has ever accused of just being knock-off Catwoman with luck powers.
Will: Same thing, same thing!
Matt: Seriously.
It’s kind of ridiculous and threw me right the heck out of the book.
Will: Marvel is certainly presenting some … assets there. Ooof.
Matt: I like Sorrentino’s art on the horror comics he does with Jeff Lemire over at Image, Gideon Falls and the Bone Orchard Mythos. But so much of that is about atmosphere as much as it is about action. And I fear that, when we get the big fight between Batman and the Jokerized Bat family next issue, we’re going to lose track of what’s going on in the scenes because of all that atmosphere.
Will: Speaking of that upcoming fight, three chapters seems like such an odd choice, especially considering that you’re telling two stories here. Maybe it will all make sense next week … but that seems doubtful.
Matt: Three Chapters. Three Jokers. That’s all I got.
Will: BOO THIS MAN.
The Art of Parenthood
Matt: There is a kind of Batman fan who is going to hate a scene toward the end of this issue, and probably the annual we’ll be talking about in a minute. This is the kind of fan who wants their Batman grim, cold and the warrior of the night who keeps everyone at arm’s length because he’s edgy.
But there’s a scene at the end of this issue where Bruce is looking at some of the comics Damian has been making, and he smiles. He’s supportive. And I like that. I like that a lot. It finally feels like Bruce has learned something from the at least 13 years of being a parent he has had between all the Robins.
Will: This comic is at its best when it’s treading the line between Wayne Family Adventures and basically the rest of the Bat family line. I’ll tell you a really humanizing thing that stuck out to me in Damian’s opening narration: He says that Zach’s “blocking” skills have led his soccer team to an “undefeated streak.” Instead of assuming that Williamson is one of those “eww, sportsball” nerds, I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt and say that was intentional — Damian simply doesn’t have the vocabulary that other kids would. And that’s kind of sad and sweet.
(For the record, it should have been “goalkeeping” and “winning,” respectively.)
Matt: It is also telling that Damian is saying that it’s not a team effort, but that the only reason the team is doing so well is because one player is that good. That is absolutely in line with how Damian was raised: that it is all about the individual, and the one is always more important than the team.
Will: Again, kinda sad and humanizing. This was another good chapter, even if I’m not sold on the overall Shush drama. Sure seems like the principal is not going to be the bad guy here, doesn’t it? Not with how Robin is so damned sure it’s her.
Matt: No way. It would be way too easy. There is definitely a swerve coming, although it’s hard to call it a swerve when it’s so obvious we’re being set up for one.
We touched on this a little when we got to the end of the last issue, but I do love the parallels between Zach and Damian. One is the son of a hero, and one is the broken kid who wants to be the son of a villain. Despite him saying he was Zsasz’s son at the end of issue #5, I was pretty sure that was going to turn out to be in his head, and I’m glad that paid off. We already have Penguin kids running the Iceberg Lounge. I don’t think we need Arkham: The Next Generation building throughout the Bat books. Add in the tragedy of the reveal of why he’s obsessed with Zsasz, and we get another taste of the darkness that poisons people in Gotham.
Will: And I liked how we didn’t draw out that mystery or tell the story with a bunch of flashbacks. Just some quick, tidy exposition.
Matt: And a spotlight on the cruelty of Zsasz. Zsasz isn’t like Joker or Scarecrow, who love to monologue, or Two-Face, who will give you a chance. When you fall into the sights of Victor Zsasz, you are dead. And the tears streaming down Zach’s face as Zsasz renounces him hurt, especially because he was grinning madly when Zsasz was going to use him as a hostage and threatened to kill him. That was fine, as long as Zsasz was his father. I don’t think I want to see Zach back as a villain, but Damian trying to connect with him as someone who understands the pain of indoctrination might be an interesting story beat to explore.
Will: Yeah, I think there’s more to be explored with him — both in who was training him and his recovery. And maybe in how he might be bullied upon his return to school and how Damian might relate to that? Plenty of potential there.
A Night in the Woods
Will: What’s the most dangerous game, Matt?
Matt: For me? Any card game with my wife. Because if she loses, I sleep on the couch (I kid, I kid. Sort of. Even Amber admits she is not the most gracious loser). But for Batman and Robin here, it’s a good old-fashioned manhunt.
Will: Fuck losing, Matt. WE PLAY TO WIN THE GAMES. Yeah, this was a fun little bottle story, even if Porter’s art rendered the thing a bit sloppy.
Matt: Porter needs an inker. His best work, his work on JLA with Grant Morrison, was inked by John Dell, and if I went back and looked at his other work that I have enjoyed, I would lay money it was inked by someone who was able to tighten up his lines. Without that, and with Rain Beredo’s darker colors in the hunt scenes, it does get muddled.
Will: Muddled to the point where it’s literally hard to understand what’s going on and what shapes are supposed to be what. Not everything has to go for realism, but goldarnit, I have to be able to understand what’s happening on the page if I’m going to read the book. What’s the primer on Bloodsport?
Matt: Not much more than the origin recap we get in here. He’s a minor Superman villain who got a glow-up when he replaced Deadshot in The Suicide Squad and was played by the great Idris Elba. And Roulette is a JSA villain who runs a superpowered underworld casino and who used to wear a very appropriative kimono as her costume, leading her to be played by actresses of Asian descent on Smallville and in the Arrowverse, so changing her costume to hunting gear was a good decision.
Will: Oh, god, yeah, that was the right call there. So I’m kind of struck by this thought: This was by no means a bad story (my problems with the art aside), but it doesn’t seem like it made good use of the plus-sized format. But then also, I can’t pick any spots where this really dragged?
Matt: I think it’s a case of it didn’t need to be a plus-sized story, but it used the extra length. You probably could have cut out Bloodsport and a couple of the traps, but them being in there didn’t hurt the pacing or flow of the book. It’s an action movie; you can trim most action movies by a third if you cut out some of the action scenes that don’t impact the plot, but you’re buying the ticket for those scenes, so you ride along.
Will: Matt, if you try to cut a second from The Rock, I’ll gut you like a trout.
Buy Batman and Robin Annual 2024 here.
Bat-miscellany
- Tony Thornley joins us for BatChat this week to talk about three stories where Nightwing hangs out with the people closest to him who aren’t Batman.
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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.
