While Damian and Flatline confront her sister, who it turns out has decided to go into the family business of crime, Batman teams up with Shush to put an end to Man-Bat’s reign of terror. But there is more than one betrayal before this issue is out. Batman & Robin #8 is written by Joshua Williamson, drawn by Nikola Cizmesija, colored by Rex Locus and lettered by Steve Wands.
Someone has organized and empowered the evil Mites of the 5th Dimension, and Bat-Mite and Mr. Mxyzptlk have come to Batman and Superman for help. But can the heroes face villains with their powers augmented by their Mite counterparts and figure out what the mastermind behind all this is after? Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #26 is written by Mark Waid, drawn by Dan Mora, colored by Tamra Bonvillain and lettered by Steve Wands.
It’s Dick Grayson’s birthday, and so he is checking in on friends and loved ones, while also investigating some crimes, because you should follow your heart on your big day. But something darker is lurking behind the scenes that will soon bring darkness to Dick’s doorstep. The main story of Nightwing #113 (LEGACY #300!!!) is written by Tom Taylor with Marv Wolfman, drawn by Daniele Di Nicuolo with Bruno Redondo, colored by Adriano Lucas and lettered by Wes Abbott. And in the backup, Dick has five minutes to stop a bomb on a train in a silent story written by Michael W. Conrad, drawn by Howard Porter, colored by Hi-Fi and lettered by Abbott.
Will Nevin: Scott Snyder’s Absolute Comics, as brought to you by Detective Comics Comics. How do we feel about that?
Matt Lazorwitz: Well, as it is sourced through Bleeding Cool, I take it with a grain of salt.
Will: OK, fair, they’re some shit kickers over there. But they do have a track record of getting these sorts of things right.
Matt: Also true. I think, if I’m reading this correctly, this has potential. A new Earth that is starting from the ground up, that is part of the Multiverse, and stands beside the existing continuity, so you don’t have to throw out everything you know and lose that universe, while getting some new visions? Potential there. I just hope we don’t get what we got on both the “All-Star” and “Earth One” lines, which is a lot of creators who have bigger things going on elsewhere who lose interest and leave these new projects languishing, since the projects themselves are so creator driven.
Will: Oh god. I just felt like late-stage Frank Miller and Geoff Johns were walking over my grave. I’m not gonna lie, I’m interested to see how this shakes out. But I feel like it’s not going to be anything nearly as cool as *****Jonathan Hickman’s***** Aliens vs. Avengers.
Matt: We will be covering Batman vs. Aliens on the pod the week that drops. Counter programming, baby!
Can You Just Shush Already?
Matt: So, while this is still a perfectly fine comic, I feel like the whole Man-Bat/Shush plot has now gone on a bit too long. There doesn’t feel like there’s enough “there” there for this to support the title for this long, and it remains way less interesting than Damian and Bruce interacting or Damian’s high school drama. The character stuff is what I care about the most. Shush does not hold my interest.
Will: Tommy_Lee_Jones_I_don’t_care.gif
Batman asked point blank, “What’s your connection to Tommy Elliot? What’s your connection to Hush?” And did we get an answer? No, of course not. The longer this drags on, the less interested I am. And for a Man-Bat story, where’s the dadgum body horror? I ain’t seen nobody transform into nothin’ in this issue. What a bummer.
Matt: Shush remains a character actually less interesting than Punchline. At least, for all her Poochy-ness, Punchline had a personality; it wasn’t one I cared for, but it was there. Shush is a cipher.
Will: I think it’s generous to call her even that — at this point, there’s not going to be a payoff that’s worth it. And speaking of Punchline, we’re not covering her backups from Joker when we record next week, right? If so, I object on moral principles.
Matt: Nope. Separate story, not in that recording. But yes, that’s a sneak peek: We will be covering the James Tynion IV Joker series in a BatChat that will drop sometime in the next decade, since we record that far in advance.
While I don’t know how well it hit for you, at least the stuff with Damian, Flatline and her sister was fun. That was a solid little punchy action sequence, with a chase scene and double (or would it be triple) crosses. While I generally have leaned toward the fan theories of Damian being asexual, he’s also 13, so he’s growing into himself and that can change, but giving him a perky, Goth, somewhat villainous love interest is fun for someone who is so out of touch with those kind of emotions.
Will: Yeah, a lot of that business was some Damian deep cuts, but it was fun. No complaints there.
Matt: We’ve talked about this before, but the art on this book remains inconsistent in that you are trading off between two artists with wildly different styles. When Simone Di Meo came back last issue, I figured he would do this arc, then Nikola Cizmesija would be back for the next arc, and they’d trade off. But the two of them alternating issues in the same arc is some artistic whiplash.
Will: You’re not wrong there, but this is the style (in this issue) that works for me. So I ain’t complaining. I’ll save those gripes for next time.
They Mite Be Giants
Matt: I don’t think I ever expected any writer to try to get pathos out of Bat-Mite. He’s not a character who lends himself to that. But bless Mark Waid for trying.
Will: That was a really interesting sequence! Bat-Mite is staring at his fallen imp friend, and he says, “He was harmless. He was fun.” I read that as Waid himself making a point that these characters made comics fun when he was reading them as a kid. It’s not a beat that really lingers, but I really liked it.
Matt: Throughout so much of this run, Waid has found ways to balance the absolute, pedal-to-metal kookiness of Silver Age storytelling with real character work and logical motivations. And this issue is just filled with so many great moments. The whole sequence of Robin learning exactly what it means to have the powers of Superman is another great one. It’s the kind of thing most people won’t think about, but the vision and hearing powers are not something I would ever want to deal with.
Will: And the imps were so helpful here! Finally, Superman has an anti-magic suit. It’s only taken 86 years for him to get it!
Matt: Dan Mora is absolutely having a blast with this issue. Waid, as is his way, is playing to his artist’s strength. The design of the anti-magic suit, the opening splash of all our heroes walking away from an explosion right out of your best action movie and Super-Robin’s costume are all epic, memorable moments. And the design on the villain Mites are just wild.
Will: And, you know, this is a mystery that I’m interested in. Do you have any ideas based on what we’ve already seen? Waid working through some of that continuity porn stash we know he has?
Matt: I would expect that he is, but he’s got me stumped on who so far.
Will: Matt stumped? What hope is there for mere mortals such as the rest of us?
Matt: Waid also has his fun, bringing back one of his own pet characters with Kadabra, a fairly B-list Silver Age Flash villain that he elevated to top tier during his long run on the Wally West series. Just fun to see him take that character back out for another spin.
Will: A guy from the future passing off advanced science as magic. Yeah, that sounds like some shit I’d do. “Behold, cavemen, as I make a picture appear on this glass that’s definitely not an iPad. Wait, no, put down the rocks and clubs!”
Happy Birthday, Dick Grayson!
Matt: Aw, Nightwing had a really good day! That means that everything is about to go absolutely off the rails for him. But it doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy that one nice day, right?
Will: Ahhh, but you see, Matt, Nightwing doesn’t know that shit is about to go down, so he can absolutely have the time of his life in this legacy milestone issue.
Matt: There aren’t that many books that even make it to a legacy 300 nowadays, and fewer still that have a volume in the three digits, which is just nice to see.
We’ve talked about it on the pod, and occasionally here when we’ve dipped our toes into Nightwing before, but Tom Taylor is at his best when he is doing one of two things: alternate universe stories where he can inflict as much chaos as he can and small character moments. He falls flat usually when he is trying to do social commentary, as he has the nuance of a rhino in a china shop (that’s a degree of magnitude higher than a bull). And this issue leans heavily into the latter of those strengths.
Will: And this did meta in such a good way. It was wonderful to see Marv Wolfman talking about the history of the character … and heartbreaking to see George Perez’s picture on the wall.
Matt: And getting Bruno Redondo to draw those pages was a plus. Di Nicuolo does a fine job, with some fun and dynamic art, but for a scene like that you want someone to be way closer to photorealistic.
This issue touches on all the aspects of Dick Grayson: son, brother, romantic partner, friend and hero. The scenes with him and the Robins are great. The panel, outside the Marv Wolfman stuff, that really got me was when Dick and Babs are given the key to the city for their good works in Bludhaven, and you see Jim and Bruce out in the audience, and them just sharing a moment of paternal pride. Man, that was good!
Will: We can have a few nice things. As a treat.
Matt: I also dug the backup story, although as we said with his work over in the Batman and Robin Annual recently, Howard Porter could really use an inker. I like a silent story when done right, and this was a cool use of that, and the end just again shows you how much of a hero Dick is: Clutching a bomb he thinks is about to go off to try to protect people? It takes a big heart to be that guy.
Will: Really, really, really, really, *really* needs an inker. That was a swirly mess of a story, Matt.
Matt: Artistically, yes, but I like what it had to say about Nightwing as a character.
Will: Point taken, fella! How long you reckon until we get issue #600?
Matt: Who knows? Legacy numbering makes my brain hurt.
Will: It could be worse. We could be covering Marvel books.
Bat-miscellany
- This week’s BatChat podcast discusses the work of comics legend John Ostrander, who turns 75 this Saturday. Happy birthday, John!
- Because there are five Wednesdays this month, and the final Wednesday has no real marquee Bat titles, we will be distributing some of the miniseries over the next couple weeks, so we will be covering the new issues of Off-World, First Knight and Dylan Dog. Stay tuned.
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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.
