Shush stands revealed as Damian learns the identity and origin of this new foe, while Batman remains the prisoner of the Cult of Man-Bat. Batman & Robin #9 is written by Joshua Williamson, drawn by Simone Di Meo and Nikola Cizmesija, colored by Rex Locus and lettered by Steve Wands.
Serial killer Christopher Killex is back from the dead and loose in Gotham City. The Joker regrets resurrecting him, and so he hires Dylan Dog to bring him in, and Batman and Dylan must team up again to stop the madman. Batman/Dylan Dog #3 is written by Roberto Recchioni, drawn by Gigi Cavenago and Werther DellâEdera, colored by Cavenago and Giovanna Niro and lettered by Pat Brosseau.
When she comes into some money, and gets annoyed that people donât think sheâs normal, Harley decides to do something normal people do: take a cruise. But can Harley go anywhere without chaos following? Especially a place where Zatanna is performing? Harley Quinn Annual 2024 is written, drawn and colored by Erica Henderson and lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou.
Will Nevin: Behold, Matt, The shittiest Batman-related clickbait headline Iâve ever seen: âThe Batman Returns in First Official Trailer for Upcoming Sequelâ with a still from âThe Batman,â a bunch of garbled nonsense body copy and an embedded YouTube clip of the trailer for ⌠a Batman VR game. What a garbage online world weâve created for ourselves.
Matt Lazorwitz: Wait! Who has ever heard of anyone on the internet creating a deceptive headline! Scandal! Scandal, I say!
We get the internet weâve earned, and we have clearly earned the worst. But we can try to be better. Itâs screaming into the hurricane, but I keep screaming.
Shush Revealed
Will: Well, Matt, we finally learned Shushâs identity. And, true to the original inspiration, it was stupid.
Matt: I donât think there was a satisfying way to make this reveal work. If Shush and Mistress Harsh had been the same character, it would have seemed forced. With them being different characters, you have two supervillains undercover working in the same school, and the same school Damian just happens to be enrolled in, which is contrived. And the secret, never-before-heard-of apprentice of Tommy Elliot is such a by-the-numbers origin. That is right out of âSuper Villain Origins 101.â
Will: But she wasnât even an apprentice in all of the evil stuff! She just covered for him when he had to, you know, walk out of the OR to do the evil stuff, which in turn implicated her in the evil stuff ⌠for reasons. It was all quite whelming.
Matt: It was explaining her entire villainous existence in four pages, and how quickly she has come around to not believing the thing that was driving her on shows just how poorly motivated she was.
This issue is a lot of forwarding the plot, and not a lot of time doing what this book has done best, which is relationship stuff between Bruce and Damian and Damian at school trying to be normal. I think now that the mystery is solved, I want more of Damian having to deal with his resentful former teacher who is now principal and is going to make his life difficult in petty ways, especially since he took down her prize pupil in, what, two blows?
Will: Yeah, I think the quicker we can wrap up this Man-Bat arc and move on to the next chapter, the better. At least weâre getting some momentum? You said this issue forwarded the plot, and I completely agree â it seemed like weâve been stuck in the same spot in this book for the last three or four months.
Matt: The problem is Man-Bat has not really done anything throughout this arc. He just shows up, pontificates, and then flies away. You can redefine a villain, or have a reformed villain return to his villainous roots, and thatâs fine, but this issue is the first time we have gotten any indication of why Man-Bat is a villain again after being on the Justice League Dark for a few years. I shouldnât have to wait nine issues to understand why the villain is doing what heâs doing.
Will: Man-Bat is mad and stuff!
Matt: This book has never been quite as good as it was during that two-issue intermission where we had Damian going to school for the first time and there was the classmate obsessed with Zsasz. That story had character beats, and it was also a story where Batman and Robin were interacting regularly. The title of this comic is Batman AND Robin, not Batman OR Robin, and itâs at its best when it leans into that.
Will: Man, that was a story that went all of nowhere. You know, when I say Williamson is mid, you always come back at me with âNailbiter,â and Iâm sure thatâs all well and good ⌠but Williamson is mid, and this series (to date) has not disabused me of that notion.
Matt: But Nailbiter is really good.
Dylan Dog in Gotham
Will: Three overstuffed issues is not a lot of room to tell a comprehensive crossover story, but you know what? I think this got the job done.
Matt: It really does. For a book from the writer of Dylan Dog, I give it a lot of credit for really getting Batman as a character. When Dylan asks what Batman is, and Bruce replies, âA protectorâ? Thatâs spot on.
Will: Batman beating Joker bloody is maybe a stretch, but hell, Iâll allow it here since so much else felt right. Was this basically the best someone in a Joker partnership could hope for? Him getting Batmanâs magical friend to go after you? This was an interesting insight into Jokerâs character â he looks for a kindred spirit in Killex but only finds someone without the same spark and zest he has in killing. So disappointing!
Matt: At least Batman didnât beat on Joker in cold blood. Joker did come at him with a bat with nails in it first. Yâknow, if there was one rogue in Gotham who I think Killex would have hit it off with, it would be Zsasz. They really have some striking similarities, but Zsasz isnât going to carry an entire crossover miniseries, huh?
Will: There are only so many poor NPCs who can be skinned and/or gutted in Gotham, Matt. But, absolutely, this book did not overstay its welcome, and Iâd love to see a second book â if for nothing else to get more Groucho Marx action.
Matt: More Gorucho was the one thing that was missing here, no doubt. But when you look at it, this series was structured really well. We start with Batman in Dylanâs London, then get Dylan interacting with the mystical world, and then Dylan in Batmanâs Gotham. It allowed for fans of either character to get a decent view into the otherâs world, but never in a way that slowed down the pace of the story. And after seeing that one page of all the Bat rogues, I could definitely use the team of Cavenago and DellâEdera doing a story with more of those villains.
Will: Hereâs a fun thought experiment: Letâs say the second book (if there is such a thing) is written (or co-written) by someone currently in-house at DC. Whoâs your pick?
Matt: Oh, thatâs a good question! Iâm thinking of a few factors here. I donât want to just cheat and say Ram V, as I could really have Ram V write anything and be happy. But you know what? Dan Watters I think would be a great choice. Imagine something akin to Sword of Azrael, with some globetrotting mystical/religious stuff, but with Batman and Dylan. I could definitely go for that.
Will: It feels strangely in Jason Aaronâs wheelhouse as well. Get weird and make it Southern gothic.
Harley & Zatannaâs Not Quite Excellent Adventure
Matt: I know you arenât reading the Harley Quinn ongoing, but I have and it has been leaving me pretty flat for a while. This annual, though, was the most fun a Harley Quinn comic has been in a while. Itâs not some big, multiversal threat story, like the past year of Harley stories were, or her once again trying to redefine her life. This is a simple, âHarley gets it into her head to try to do something normal, and hijinks ensue,â which is a tried and true Harley plot.
Will: Itâs hard to take a vacation from being a reformed(ish) super villain. At least the new Gotham City police commissioner could make an appearance!
Matt: Yâknow, I enjoyed Vandal Savage more here than I have in a while. And thatâs probably because he fits in this story. If I were an immortal caveman with centuriesâ worth of wealth hoarded, I would totally be taking cruises in between world domination bids. I would not try to be police commissioner of a city, even if I was trapped there.
Will: Which is, again, why itâs stupid and I hope it never, ever comes back up. (Unless this is a way to get Gordon back, which Iâm up for since we havenât done a damned thing with Gordon & Bullock P.I.s) As we say so often on the show, this was a trifle â not particularly substantive, and it passed without incident. Although it did not work all that well as a mystery, since I didnât have a clear sense of the clues or what even the hell happened.
Matt: No, this wasnât a mystery. It was a character piece, with Harley and Zatanna just having to interact. And it was good to see Henderson striking a balance between Zee being frustrated with Harley and having some fun with her. Stories where the character teaming up with Harley is just frustrated and annoyed and sniping at her constantly wear thin; the same can be said for Deadpool, who pioneered that kind of story.
I also have to give Henderson credit for finding a way to take Zatannaâs powers away that actually worked. Zee is a deus ex machina made flesh, so in any story where sheâs not fighting a mystical threat of some intense power level you have to find a way to remove that. And protecting her secret identity (which always struck me as something strange since she doesnât wear a mask or anything, but⌠comics) works, and shows the importance of a secret identity for storytelling in a superhero comics culture that has moved away from a lot of heroes having them.
Will: I can feel the Joe Kelly-ness of your hypothetical beginning to irritate me. But, no, this was ultimately fine. And, really, fits the definition of what an annual should be: interesting (if itâs your jam) but not critical reading.
Buy Harley Quinn Annual 2024 here.
Bat-miscellany
- This weekâs BatChat podcast features three Batman movie adaptations.
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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.
