With the Bat family turned against him, Batman must work with other allies to make his stand against Hush. And by the end, not everyone will be left standing. The first part of “H2SH” concludes in Batman #163, written by Jeph Loeb, penciled by Jim Lee, inked by Scott Williams, colored by Alex Sinclair and lettered by Richard Starkings.
Matt Lazorwitz: OK, we skipped the previous issue of “H2SH,” but that was so long ago, even if we’d read it we’d feel like we were starting fresh, I think. And now the first half of this thing is over. What odds do you lay that we will see the back half?
Will Nevin: I’ll generously say 250-1, which is currently the worst odds for the lowliest of NFL franchises (Arizona Cardinals, Miami Dolphins and New York Jets) to win next year’s Super Bowl. I mean, considering editorial went ahead with the tease, it *could* happen, but I’m not putting down any of my hard-earned money.
And you know what? I actually went back and read the previous issue, and I don’t think we missed much, aside from one hint (repeated in the final issue) about what might actually be going on here.
From the Lazarus Pit with love
Matt: What is actually going on here, though? This last issue might be even busier, even messier, even more all over the place than any of the previous ones, and that, my friend, is saying something.
Will: So as we were talking on the show last night, there is *a lot* happening with the last page, and I’ll let you vent your spleen about that here in a second. But my thinking right now? And this was the thing from #162 that carried into #163: “Chess was never Tommy’s game.”
This, my man, is a Ra’s al Ghul plot. I don’t know if that makes this mess any more tolerable, but I don’t think there’s any other way to read that line, and the chess theme that goes all the way back to the teaser for this story.
Matt: We are on the same page there. Chess has always been Ra’s game, and Talia’s return makes it even more clear. Talia’s insistence that her father is dead, even as Ubu says he would not want Batman in a Lazarus Pit, makes me more sure that she is fighting against the idea that Ra’s is alive again. She doesn’t want to believe it. But the evidence is getting too clear, and she is fighting against whatever he is planning by interfering.
Anything to add before I rant?
Will: Is Ra’s merely pulling the strings, or is he actually under the bandages? Again, I don’t know if that makes it better or worse or a third thing, but I’m at least curious.
Matt: I assumed he was just pulling the strings, but that is based on the assumption that Batman would recognize Tommy’s body language and fighting style. And his petulant whining in this issue about why he’s doing what he’s doing, too.
Will: I forgot about all that whining. God, Hush sucks. Always has, always will. A’ight, hoss. Time for you to get all that bile out of your system.
Matt: While I am an avowed BatCat shipper, what I am about to say has little to do with that. These are fictional characters who lead fictional lives defined by real people who might not share my point of view. This issue makes clear that Jeph Loeb has made a cursory investigation of what has happened between “Hush” and now; this issue references the death of Ra’s al Ghul during “Shadow War” and “Heart of Hush.”
But this issue ends with Batman pulling Talia into an embrace and kissing her. I suppose we can chalk that up to Pit Madness, sure, but my God, does Batman having romantic feelings he would act upon completely ignore years of what was done to Talia as a character.
Will: I think this does some violence to the whole concept of Pit Madness(™), does it not? That was the strangest thing to me at first blush — the idea has consistently been enforced, and here, it was thrown away entirely. Almost seemed a bit like transwarp beaming.
Matt: Even if you can say she has somewhat redeemed herself since the end of Grant Morrison’s Batman Incorporated, she crossed a line there that you don’t come back from. She wasn’t a charming cat burglar, or even an assassin under her father’s thumb. She was a world-class supervillain who came close to destroying the world, who cloned their son and made that clone into a monster and, oh yes, was responsible for Damian’s death! In what world does Batman just forget about that and lock lips with Talia?
This feels like a moment the creators are orchestrating simply for shock value. “Hush” recemented BatCat as the central romantic relationship in Batman’s life, so now let’s pull the rug out from under that and set something else up, and watch the fanboys go apeshit, not thinking about how illogical it is.
And that’s not even getting into Batman dying like a punk, and Jason Todd reacting to Hush’s “death” as if Hush meant more to him than anyone else in the world. Those are whole other issues.
Will: Between Batman scrambling his brain with fear in Chip Zdarsky’s run and these out-of-character moments in this story, Jason is not having a good time here lately. But, hey, if that story can be ignored, so can this one, right?
Matt: It certainly seems like it has been, yes? Nothing Matt Fraction has done really reflects this. The family is getting along pretty well in those stories. I just don’t understand what Loeb is trying to get at here. Maybe because we just reread “Death of the Family” for the podcast we recorded last night, but this seems like the same basic concept, only drawn out and not as engaging.
The idea of isolating Batman this way is very Hush, so what does Ra’s get out of it, other than maybe weakening Batman for whatever he’s up to? This story is so decompressed, I feel like it’s just lost me from the second issue, not that the first was any great shakes.
Will: Could it be as simple as the one basic Ra’s plot (aside from genocide): getting Batman as an heir?
Matt: It has been a while since we had one of those, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not a possibility. Jeph Loeb does enjoy playing the greatest hits.
Will: Alas, none of them were here!
Matt: It’s sad that I finished this comic and I felt nothing. My rage isn’t even that much rage, it’s more befuddlement. I don’t understand what the point of this is. “Hush” might not be my favorite story, but it is iconic. But this sequel, like Dark Knight Strikes Again, does nothing to add to its predecessor; it just sits there and reminds you why the original was better.
Will: Do you think this ever had a chance? And I think I mean that in the “Man, the media landscape is fragmented to all hell as compared to when ‘Hush’ dropped” sort of way. Even if it had been good, even if it had been on time, would we have even paid attention to a “Hush” sequel?
Matt: We live in the era of the legacy sequel, at least in film and television. But I think it’s harder to do nostalgia when there has been a continuing epic by other people in between. If there had been a bunch of 28 Days Later spinoffs over the years, would 28 Years Later have hit as hard? Probably not? I can’t think of any sequel to a big classic comic story that has hit as hard as the original, and I think generally, they all have this same problem, be it Strikes Again, Sandman: Overture, Last Halloween or something else. They are all vanity projects from creators who are too busy doing other things to get them out on a reasonable schedule, so they all just fall apart. I’m just glad we get other creators telling more interesting stories, because if we existed in a world where this was the legacy sequel trying to bring attention back to a dormant franchise? We’d be going a few more years without Batman stories after this.
Will: *If* there is a “H2SH^2” — and I don’t know if I can put a bigger **if** in there — at least we know editorial won’t be handing the main Bat book over again. What an incredibly short-sighted idea. At least we’re renumbering like crazy (relatively speaking) these days.
Matt: I wanted to make a snarky comment about how unreal comics numbering is nowadays, but it’s reached that truth-is-stranger-than-fiction point, so I just have to shrug at it.
Will: Only a few years until we ignore all the details for Batman #1,000, Matt! Like most folks will ignore this story as we stumble off into the future.
Bat-miscellany
- This week’s BatChat podcast is much lighter, less frustrating fare than this. Check out an episode that teams up Batman with one of DC’s more fun characters, the stretchy sleuth, the Elongated Man.
Buy Batman #163 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.
