Hush is back, and he has a new scheme to take out Batman. The sequel to the classic tale “Hush” begins here. Batman #158 is written by Jeph Loeb, penciled by Jim Lee, inked by Scott Williams, colored by Alex Sinclair and lettered by Richard Starkings.
Will Nevin: You excited to hear that Jeff Lemire is getting another Robin and Batman book?
Matt Lazorwitz: Oh, ever so much. Lemire: king of the sad dad comics. But let me give him this: If this book is about a Batman who learned his lesson about being a psychotic hardass toward Robin with Dick Grayson, but has to reevaluate his parenting because Jason Todd isn’t the same kind of kid? There is potential. I just don’t want drill sergeant/CIA Director Batman again.
Will: Here’s some bad mojo to put out into the world: Maybe Lemire gets another book after this one — a Tim Drake story to complete a trilogy.
H2SH: The Hushening
Will: Before we get into this thing proper, I want to ask you something first. We joke on the show about how I hate Hush the villain (which, you know, I do because he sucks), but I’m genuinely perplexed about the staying power “Hush” seems to have. I mean, is it all Jim Lee’s art? What was there in the original story that made it such a touchstone?
Matt: I think the Jim Lee art is a big part of it. When you think about it, at the time, Lee hadn’t done anything more than a short or a one-shot in about five years. So one of the modern legends coming back to do arguably comics’ most popular superhero as his first major DC work? That’s a huge deal.
I also think that “Hush” is perfect starter Batman in a lot of ways. I’ve tried to think of a comparison in other media, and I haven’t come up with a good one, but if you hadn’t read Batman before? This has most of the major characters, both heroes and villains, and it has a plot that doesn’t rely a ton on existing continuity (for good and ill). It is The Da Vinci Code of comics. Do you remember the way people who don’t “read books” would go on about reading that? It’s because it was short chapters that played to a very mass audience. And that is a lot of what “Hush” is.
Will: I thought calling “White Knight” the Ready Player One of Batman stories was mean, but I think you just topped that. It’s funny that you mention continuity — you don’t seem to have to know anything to pick up this issue we’re gabbing about today.
Matt: Not in the least. As a matter of fact, it might even be more new-reader friendly since you have Barbara Gordon in the Batgirl costume, and don’t have to explain why she’s called Oracle and in a wheelchair.
And I also want to be clear: I wasn’t a fan of The Da Vinci Code, but that kind of mass audience appeal does have its place. But no one is putting that book up there with Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy as a true classic of genre literature, and that’s sort of the thing. If anyone else had drawn “Hush,” it would be looked at as another Jeph Loeb joint, like Dark Victory. But the Lee art makes it a “classic.”
Now to discuss the actual comic we’re here to talk about, huh?
Will: Let’s do it. Were you as surprised as I was that basically nothing happens in this issue?
Matt: I was quite surprised. This feels like the first issue of a standard 12-issue Loeb story, where you get off to a slow start and build momentum over a year. “Hush” starts with a lot of action that has very little to do with the overall plot, and the first part ends with something that really gets the ball rolling. Here we have a random Joker fight that Hush intervenes in, and a bunch of Hush machiavellian planning, but there’s no real interaction between any of these characters. Batman barely interacts with anyone in the issue.
Will: He says two words or so to Talia, an appearance that feels oddly out of place — as does the narration, which seems awfully dated.
Matt: Batman seemed pretty confused by Talia showing up, and I’m glad, because I was, too. Out of place is exactly how that whole thing felt. Loeb has these sprawling casts for his stories, and that’s fine when you have 12 issues. But I feel like trying to cram the same volume of characters into six is going to lead to a lot of these characters popping up and not making sense until a big parlor scene at the end.
Will: The more I think about it, the more that has to be a hamfisted way of telegraphing her upcoming role in whatever the central plot is going to be.
Matt: Is it? Or is it a red herring? Loeb loves to throw those into his mysteries. Is Batman going to be suspicious of Talia just to turn out it was all a coincidence?
Will: I want no part of those mental gymnastics. We know there are at least five more (and possibly 11 more) issues to this story, but so far, it seems like Loeb and Lee are playing the hits without showing off anything new to the catalog. I mean, I was expecting something addressing the sans-Alfred status quo at least, but we didn’t even get that here. If you want to get technical about it, this is starting off without the central mystery of “Hush” since Batman instantly deduces Tommy Elliot is once again back to torment him for … reasons.
Matt: Well, no one else understands Batman’s motivations and knows his secret identity but Hush. And Ra’s al Ghul, who is dead but not at all known for returning. Or Bane. Or Riddler at the end of the original story.
I am really torn on this, because I don’t know exactly what would have worked better for me here. You’re right, this plays like a greatest hits album, but so did “Hush.” This is the first part of a big superhero epic, so it can’t be a quiet, introspective comic. But none of the action here feels all that engaging. Batman nearly drowns and fights his way through a funhouse. It’s not sweeping vistas and breakneck pace. It’s just another Batman story.
Will: And just another story with an intentional nod to “The Killing Joke” like so many other stories. Since you bring up the idea of sameness, do you think that Loeb and Lee were ahead of their time with the original “Hush” and the Bat books have simply caught up to them with epics like “Court of Owls” and “Joker War”?
Matt: I think the Bat books have always done epics, but they were different. They weren’t the creator-focused epic, but the line/character-focused ones. “Knightfall,” “Cataclysm” and “No Man’s Land” all predate “Hush.” But they were designed to drive sales across the line and were crossovers, while now we get these central stories that might touch other books in a tangential way, but are more miniseries within an ongoing.
We talked about this elsewhere, but can we talk about the ending of this issue? Batman is put in the position of saving the Joker’s life or just letting him die. Is there any more overplayed trope in the Bat line at this point? I don’t even have to think hard, and I can come up with three stories that did that, and I’m sure if I thought harder I could come up with a dozen more. It’s not even novel, because we know what he’s going to do! Hell, Tom Taylor had a whole discussion about why the One Rule is important last week in Detective Comics.
Will: The pearls might be the only thing we see more often than The Final Temptation of The Bat(™). And would you believe I even saw a headline from some no-account comics blog about how Joker is going to die? Puh-leeze.
Matt: I would do anything for clicks, but I won’t do THAT. What a BS headline.
Will: Here’s a theory. Let’s say this story is going to be as trite as possible. Hush tells all of Gotham how Batman saved Joker’s life. “Hush” is the story of trying to physically and mentally break the Bat. “Hush 2” is breaking the Bat in the eyes of the public. Ta da.
Matt: If you’re not, check out Mark Waid and Bryan Hitch’s Superman: The Last Days of Lex Luthor. There is nothing new under the sun, my friend.
I don’t think I’m spoiling anything by saying that Red Hood shows up next issue, since he’s on the cover. Maybe this is about Tommy trying to strip away all of Batman’s allies and family? Because Jason has been pissed about Bruce not offing Joker for years, and adding in him actively saving Joker? That might push Jason to just flip Bruce the bird. A robin, mayhap. See what I did there?
Will: There’s the door, Matt. Get the fuck out.
Bat-miscellany
- March is Women’s History Month, so this week’s BatChat celebrates some of the tragically few women writers who have worked on Bat titles.
- We didn’t cover Detective Comics this month, but I just want to thank Mikel Janin for remembering that Leslie Thompkins was a friend of Bruce’s father, and drawing her accordingly.
Buy Batman #158 here. (Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, ComicsXF may earn from qualifying purchases.)
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.
