Batman faces down Hush and his cronies with Robin and an odd ally: Bane. Nightwing and Red Hood deal with Joker. And Batgirl goes to talk to her dad, which leads to a confrontation with Batman. Batman #161 is written by Jeph Loeb, penciled by Jim Lee, inked by Scott Williams, colored by Alex Sinclair and lettered by Richard Starkings.
Matt Lazorwitz: Hey, they took a month off in between issues of “H2SH.” That must mean they were retooling to address all the problems we’ve run across so far, right?
Will Nevin: Oh, yeah, Matt, I have full faith that this story will finally be a cohesive whole and not a nonsensical series of vignettes. Also, I bet there won’t be any embarrassing art mistakes in this issue. Finally, everything is looking good for “H2SH!” We’re going to forget all about how Dark Patterns even exists.
H2SH: The Batgirl Strikes Back
Matt: So, where to begin? Let’s begin with the Bane of it all. Damian has decided to recruit Bane to help him because Bane owes Damian a debt for, you know, killing Alfred in front of him. Props for addressing the elephant in the room, I suppose, but it’s still nonsense. You’re breaking one of the more wily rogues out of Blackgate. Yes, Bane is honorable, but the minute he feels he’s fulfilled said debt, he’s going to run for the hills. That’s Damian carrying the idiot ball, man!
And why go to Bane when your best friend is the son of Superman, who could be in Gotham at superspeed to help? I know that’s a common leap of logic you have to avoid thinking about (Why not just always call Superman?), but when he’s calling Bane in instead, you’re basically pointing out the plot hole.
Will: The really baffling thing is that — because this story steadfastly refuses to stop and think about a single fuckin’ thing — we leave Damian and Bane (the theoretical cliffhanger from the last issue) after, what, two pages? Completely unresolved and unexamined. And while it was the closest to something I could like in this story so far, Batman clocking Bane for what he did had a taste of shittiness to it. To this point, it’s been Damian bearing the emotional labor for Alfred’s death. For him to make peace with it (for the conveniences of this story) only for Batman to bigfoot him seems obnoxious.
Matt: It felt like what this whole book feels like: a moment that has no bearing on any of the other moments. And I guess we’re to assume Damian dragged the 400 pounds of dead weight that is an unconscious Bane back to Blackgate before showing up at the end of the issue, right?
Will: Your guess is as good as mine, my dude. Did you spot what has to be the absolute artistic nadir of this and maybe any other Jim Lee book?
Matt: Oh, I must have missed it. Do tell.
Will: OK, I’m going to describe it, and then I want you to take a look at it. It also may be digital only, which makes it even funnier.
Matt: OK…
Will: In the bottom panel of the third page, Batman has a bleeding right shoulder wound. What do you see on the next page?
Matt: There is a red splotch on his right shoulder in the print edition.
Will: What I see, and the way I’m putting this together by looking at the coloring on pages 3, 4 and 6, is that someone forgot Batman was wounded and went back and added MS Paint-level colors on 4 and 6. Yikes.
Matt: OK, yes, it absolutely looks like that. I put that on the colorist as much if not more so than Lee. There is a similar blob on the big two-page spread of Batgirl grabbing Batman in the middle of the book, too. I think that is all absolutely editorial playing catchup and the colorist just having to deal with it.
Will: You can forgive forgetting about the wound. But man, going back and adding that in that way … woof.
Matt: What I can’t wrap my head around is the characterization of Batgirl in that fight scene at the end. Bruce points out Hush is manipulating things, and her response is, “Listen to yourself. It’s Hush. It’s the Joker! There comes a time when you have to accept responsibility for your own actions, Bruce!”
I’m far from saying Bruce is perfect, but that makes minimal sense. Hush IS playing games with them. He did all of this to, I guess, get the family to turn on Batman. Barbara is a highly rational
person. She should logically compartmentalize this, worry about taking out Hush, and then read Bruce the riot act, instead of playing right into Hush’s scheme. Please respond to this before I give you a theory that I am beginning to get more and more behind as this train barrels closer to a cliff.
Will: This issue has an unusually acute case of “superheroes must always punch out their disputes,” and it was especially tiresome after what seems like five issues of this. Let me guess: Barbara’s a clone, right?
Matt: I think I mentioned this as a theory last issue, but it’s been two months and I don’t recall if it was last issue or the one before. I think this is all in Bruce’s head. Yes, we have a couple scenes across these issues taking place away from him, but there is dream or nightmare logic to all of this. The way people appear and disappear. The way everyone is turning on him. And which member of Hush’s conspiracy from the original story haven’t we seen yet, despite all these other characters popping up? Scarecrow. Could this all be Hush and Scarecrow exposing Batman to some fear toxin variant, and this is Bruce’s nightmare?
Will: Well, that would be one way to take a trite, tired story and against all odds make it more terrible. I … just don’t know how you rescue this aside from slotting “prevent ‘H2SH’” on your time machine to-do list after killing Hitler and stopping 9/11.
Matt: I just hate reading something I can’t find anything redeeming in. And yes, Batman gets to deck Bane, so that’s the closest I’ve come to enjoying this in any of the four issues, but I just want to find something here that makes sense and makes all of this cohesive. And I just can’t.
Will: I don’t know if there have been any issues of Batman we’ve skipped in this here column of ours, but we’ve avoided and/or given up on many a miniseries. Two more issues of this, and we can say goodbye forever.
Bat-miscellany
- This week’s BatChat fills in one of the bigger holes in our coverage. For all the times he’s popped up in other themed episodes, this is our first episode focused on The Penguin.
Buy Batman #161 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.
