As Alfred’s niece and replacement, Verity Pennyworth, joins Batman’s crusade, a group of assassins arrive in Gotham competing for the contract on Bruce Wayne’s head. Never a dull moment for the Dark Knight. Batman #12 is written by Matt Fraction, drawn by Jorge Jimenez, colored by Tomeu Morey and lettered by Clayton Cowles.
As Batman sinks deeper into paranoia, an encounter with the Robins leads to tragedy. Absolute Batman #23 is written by Scott Snyder, drawn by Nick Dragotta, colored by Frank Martin and lettered by Clayton Cowles.
Will Nevin: Let’s start with something no one will see coming in a Batman column. Whatcha think of the recently announced Star Wars/Marvel crossover as penned by lauded and critically acclaimed Batman writer Kevin Smith?
Matt Lazorwitz: I have long said Marvel was holding off on doing that crossover until they were in dire straits. And as they have fallen so far behind DC in market share, that seems accurate. I figure we’ll get those five issues over, at minimum, 12 months, but that might just be cynicism based on Smith’s previous ability to keep on a schedule when not working with a co-writer.
Will: Here’s another thing I wonder: Do you think he was the first person who was asked? I mean, we’re pretty removed from his salad days, both in comics and on the big screen at this point. Honestly, I’d be more jazzed if this was Charles Soule’s book. But if this is a play for lapsed fans, the kind who *feel* that Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back only came out a couple of years ago, well, then maybe Smith is your first call.
Matt: I think he is still a name outside comics that is an avowed Star Wars and Marvel fan and his recent Jay & Silent Bob/Marvel crossover did shockingly strong numbers. I think he was, if not first, very high on their call list.
Meet Verity Pennyworth
Matt: No one is ever going to replace Alfred Pennyworth, but one issue in, at least as someone to fill his role? Verity Pennyworth is a good character. We have a lot more to learn about her, obviously, but her rapport with Bruce and Damian and competence make her a character I want to know more about.
Will: One page in, and I was already sold. Bruce’s mental projection of Alfred explaining how it was all explained in paperwork, but Bruce saying that was still on his desk, waiting to be read? (Which does raise the question: How did Bruce know about it, because this is Alfred in his head, after all. Maybe he’s just guessing it’s all in the pile of papers?) Matt. My heart.
Matt: I had the same thought, but I think, as the world’s greatest detective, he could put 2 and 2 together on that one. And I desperately want a miniseries, if not an ongoing, about The Society of the Midnight Key. A whole organization of, I assume, butlers, maids, cabbies and whatever else who serve as the right hands of adventurers and vigilantes? What a damn cool idea.
Will: Like the executive assistants who keep any office running but with, like, a thousand percent more danger and death.
Matt: Jimmy Olsen as an honorary member. It writes itself!
We are talking today about the two possibly busiest comics on the market right now. Both of these books are ridiculously compressed, with more happening in a six-page sequence than we get over six issues of other comics. And here, in six pages, we meet five new super assassins, now competing with Lady Ojo for the price on Bruce Wayne’s head. And they are all distinct and cool looking. I know someone could say, well, why not use Deathstroke, Deadshot, Cheshire and whoever else, but Fraction is very careful to lay out why. And I am never going to fault someone for new toys. Remember Batman #666, where Grant Morrison just drops single-panel appearances of Flamingo, Jackanapes and Professor Pyg? This is how you introduce new characters. Give the reader a taste and see who gets some attention!
Will: And thank god we’re beyond the nominative determinism era of new characters. These deadly weirdos look like they will be a hoot while they come after Bruce.
Matt: And with Ojo having pissed off Minotaur, and Penguin doing his best to take out Gotham’s new underworld banker, problems are going to keep multiplying. I was sort of figuring that Vandal Savage was out with “Bad Seeds,” but there is so much there, I’m no longer sure. It feels like all these other pieces become so much easier to wrangle with, let’s face it, Jim back as commissioner, that leaving all this set up just for Savage to be out of the game makes it almost too easy. I say almost because there is a lot for Batman to deal with.
Will: And *someone* decided to drop in on bacta tank Joker, which does not seem like a great development!
Matt: I think that was Bruce. I read it as him showing up and reminding Joker that, no matter what the press and Vandal Savage are saying, he’s not leaving Gotham, he’s going to be here, so Joker better not try anything … funny (insert David Caruso sunglass gif here).
Will: Ha. Ha. Ha.
Batman’s Conspiracy Corner
Matt: I am going to sit this review out in protest. I will be in the corner, arms folded, looking perturbed. BIG SPOILERS AHEAD in this review, everyone.
Will: Matt, buddy, it’s not the real Tim Drake. It’s not the one you really know and love. Think of it like a wonky copy.
Matt: I know, I know, and it’s not like he was anything more than a name and a couple appearances. There would have been more emotional resonance if it had been Grayson or Todd; they at least have had some page space. It felt like the whole bit at the beginning with the approval poll of the Robins was just to get them to talk some and give us a baseline before the rug was torn out from under us.
Will: And, as we said off air last night, this book has a history of 1) killing main-universe characters but also 2) not wasting a lot of space on those characters before they get shuffled off into the eternal gutter.
Matt: Yes, and he now can sit in said eternal gutter with Jim Gordon, so it’s not bad company.
I said it above, but boy, there are few if any books on the market who cram more into an issue than this one. Batman going full on Charlie from It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia with his conspiracy board isn’t something I expected. I’m curious how much of that turns out to be real and how much of it is Bruce desperately grasping for a pattern.
Will: Batman is always sifting through … dark patterns, wouldn’t you say? (That was for you, Dan Watters and Hayden Sherman.) I think that scene would have more heft if he was actually wrong, wouldn’t it? I mean, the zoo stuff is *probably* wrong, and his dad is *probably* dead, so he’s *mostly* wrong, but he’s right in the sense that Scarecrow and/or Joker are trying super, duper hard to fuck with him. And it’s working.
Matt: It very much is. Batman has basically driven off everyone he works with or cares about. And Martha’s sudden return has me scratching my head. That seems a bit … simple, yes? The last we saw her the Owls were going to kill her, and now she’s back just being Bruce’s mom. Something big happened that is going to pay off there soon.
Will: How many times have we seen it play out: Batman is crazy paranoid and distrustful, everyone tells him he’s wrong, but he’s actually correct. That trope and your observation seem to suggest that Martha’s return will not be a positive development.
Matt: I think Bruce is going to hit bottom at the earliest issue #25 and at the latest the end of the next arc, and then is going to have to build himself back up. Rebuild what alliances he can and try to go at Joker and his organization in a more stable way. All of that is going to be so much harder based on whatever Clayface is going to do in his name and whatever else Scarecrow has planned.
Will: So, speaking of Clayface, what does the body horror book do with the already body horror character? Make a terrible situation worse, of course, by apparently taking away his mind! Quite clever. Seems like this version is little more than a mimic, which, while limiting his powers somewhat, does make it a more depressing take on the character.
Matt: Snyder finds ways to make all the rogues just a little bit more f’ed up, huh? And that little spice of Scarecrow, just showing up to poke at Bruce as he cradles the dead teenager who he is already blaming himself about? I too want more of this Scarecrow, but at the same time, using him like the shark from Jaws really works, too. When he shows up, you know something awful is about to happen, or just has.
Will: Bruce’s patchwork of clues evoking (matching?) the Scarecrow was a nice touch. It’s funny you mention the shark from Jaws — the classic case of getting more from less. I’m still not convinced that this book wouldn’t hold *my* attention better with a whole heap of that fucked up character. But you keep promising there’s going to be more, so I’m going to hold you to that.
Matt: Before we go, I want to talk about the flashbacks. I think the idea of Bruce working for Falcone has been engaging, and getting to the point where he realizes he can’t do it anymore means we’re due some resolution, and how he’s going to get out from under Falcone. Watching Bruce develop in this new world, how he got to be Batman without the resources is something I’ve really enjoyed, but I want the timeline to be caught up so we can be moving entirely forward and not looking back anymore. It’s time.
Will: What does any Batman in any universe do (eventually) when he’s squared up against Gotham’s untouchable crime lord? He goes to war. But you’re right about getting moving in the right direction. Seeing Matches pop up again was probably unnecessary, but you didn’t have enough space for Bruce to suddenly grow a conscience, and Matches was shorthand for that, I reckon.
Matt: Sounds about right. September and October are going to be big months for what is probably the biggest book in comics. We have the wrap-up of this arc, the Batman of Two Worlds one-shot and then the big issue #25 where Batman and Joker finally throw down. I’m hoping we see some payoff. And I am really interested to discuss that team-up, just to see how this Bruce reacts to his older, wiser and richer counterpart.
Will: And how the old man reacts to learning a version of him grew up with Penguin, Joker, Riddler and Two-Face.
Bat-miscellany
- This week’s BatChat podcast features three stories set during the late stages of the romance (and I use that term loosely) between Harley Quinn and the Joker.
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.
