Bad Seeds spreads its branches to more Bat-books

Kate Kane comes back to Gotham just in time to join the rest of the Bat family in combating Poison Ivy’s prehistoric plants. Given a specific mission by Batman, Batwoman must dodge Vandal Savage’s TUCO troops. But Kate’s a real soldier, so she decides these weekend warriors need a lesson. Batwoman #7 is written by Greg Rucka, drawn by DaNi, colored by Matt Hollingsworth and lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou.

Batman faces Savage and his plan to use weed killer to destroy all of Ivy’s plants. The only problem: the thousands of possible civilian casualties. Detective Comics #1,113 is written by Tom Taylor, drawn and colored by Jeff Spokes and lettered by Wes Abbott.

Catwoman is using Ivy’s attack as cover for a heist in Catwoman #91, written by Torunn Grønbekk, penciled by Danilo Beyruth, inked by Joe Prado, colored by Patricio Delpeche and lettered by Steve Wands.

After a truck full of TNT is stolen from a Blüdhaven construction yard, Nightwing learns it’s headed toward Gotham as a form of righteous vengeance for everything the city has done to Blüdhaven, and only he might be fast enough to stop it before things get explosive. Nightwing #142 is written by Dan Watters, drawn by David Lapham, colored by Francesco Segala and lettered by Wes Abbott.

Will Nevin: It’s one heckuva busy week (night?) in the Gotham metropolitan area, innit?

Matt Lazorwitz: Yeah, from one part of the crossover last week (well, one released, with the second being delayed) to four this week. This feels like the most old school Bat crossover in ages. I really am getting a “Contagion” or “Cataclysm” vibe with it. It’s sprawling, but it really feels like all of the creators are all in on it.

Will: And I think functionally these books are a bit different, with two really being of and concerning the event and two (while dealing with “Bad Seeds,” of course) more focused on their own ongoing stories.

Bad Seeds Week 4: The Widening Gyre

For Week 1 of Bad Seeds, click here!

For Week 2, click here!

For Week 3, click here!

Matt: Despite it being technically part 2 for the week, I want to start with Detective.

Will: I think that’s allowed. We can stop and get a ruling from Boss Man Dan if necessary.

Dan Grote: Proceed.

Matt: I had assumed, since this was an event masterminded by Matt Fraction and G. Willow Wilson, that Batman and Poison Ivy were going to be the core of this story, and the other books would be side stories. But this is very clearly a central part of the narrative, as it picks up right where the last issue of Batman left off.

Will: That was surprising to me as well, especially given the difference in tone and approach between the last chapter in Batman and this one here. It’s a continuation of the same story, yes, but it is readily apparent that this was written by two different authors. Can you imagine stacking Batman and ’Tec next to each other in a trade? Tonal whiplash. Not that this was bad. But it’s not helped that Fraction’s work was so good.

Matt: These are both big action issues, but Fraction knows when to be quiet and let the art speak for itself. Tom Taylor is a fine writer, but he does like to talk and narrate, doesn’t he? Jeff Spokes does a really good job drawing this issue (although Bruno Redondo, who is the series artist, is missed), and I think we didn’t need as much talking here and the art could have carried more of the weight once Bruce is fighting TUCOs in blimps.

Will: Batman talking about “spineless warmongers” was when I really noticed the Taylor-ing. As always, we agree in principle, my Australian friend, but we need to say less. My one thought about the ’Tec art is that, once again, most folks aren’t Hayden Sherman: When you monkey around too much with the layouts, you inevitably hurt the reading experience. Not only did that bomb-on-the-chest layout sequence not do much visually, it also didn’t logically flow with the narrative.

Matt: OK, but it is satisfying to see Vanadal Savage fall a bunch of stories down to the ground and crash into a police car.

Will: And I’m guessing Batman planted only enough explosives to knock him back? Or maybe his chest is super duper tough.

Matt: Batman has actively seen Savage torn to shreds and recover over the years. As long as it’s a limited enough explosion that it’s not going to hit someone else, he knows Savage can survive it. Short of being at ground zero of an active nuclear explosion, Savage will regenerate from pretty much anything, and Bruce knows it. He says as much. It’s the equivalent of Superman cutting loose fighting Darkseid or Doomsday; when you know the guy can’t die, you get to bend the rules.

Will: Oh, I get all of that. I was merely remarking as to the lack of blood or visible damage to Savage’s chest aside from a ruined shirt. I want more gore in my dang mainstream comics!

Matt: Fair. 

But, yes, this issue drives the plot forward, and we have some very Tom Taylor moments as a member of the GCPD stands up to the TUCOs and won’t let them disperse what seems to me to be the equivalent of Agent Orange over Gotham. No one has ever accused Taylor of being subtle, have they? You said it above with the warmongers line, but as much as I agree with what Taylor believes, he really clubs you over the head with it.

Will: At this point, it’s almost charming. Generally, I liked ’Tec — the ticking clock trope really helped. 

Matt: It sets up month 2 of the event, as well. Batman is going to need some help, and when you’re dealing with plants that need hot weather, who better than Mr. Freeze?

Will: Super “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie…” vibes. Who’s Batman going to call when Gotham gets too cold? Time to move on to Batwoman, good sir?

Matt: Yes, indeed. So we’re picking up from where we left off a couple issues ago, before the flashback issue, with Beth now secreted in the sanitarium, and Kate out and about. And as we expect, Beth killing a couple guys in the costume and being recorded doing it doesn’t make Kate’s life easy, huh?

Will: This is one of the few Bat family stories that really seems based in the media landscape of 2026. Or, you know, post 2015 or so. If Batwoman is seen on camera executing someone in Greece, that video would absolutely be shared all over the world and watched by most Gothamites. And I like how that’s integrated into the story here — it’s not the tired “talking heads on TV” stuff we’ve seen done a thousand times. No, it’s ordinary Gotham residents discussing the video — all while Kate has to sit there and be quiet. Awkward!

Matt: And you can tell Rucka is venting just a little about the way people have talked about Kate as a character over the years. The dude calls her “Too derivative, way too performative.” I’m sure Rucka’s heard that (and worse) since he introduced the character 20 years ago.

Will: And “woke” to boot. See, no long rants needed. This was one of the stories I grouped in the “this is about ‘Bad Seeds’” camp because, while it certainly brings up some of the consequences from the last arc, this very much felt driven by the event. Kate gets to Gotham; shit goes sideways; she goes to Batman, and we’re off from there. Not many detours.

Matt: Kate has a job to do from Batman, and she does it. Yes, this is more entrenched in the arc, and is serving what I think will be another important aspect of what’s to come by setting up Batman’s backup communication network.

It is also the first book I can think of that has spent any time humanizing the TUCOs. And while it shows they’re people, it sure as heck doesn’t do anything to make them sympathetic. These are the kind of guys we’ve expected them to be; weekend warriors and wannabes who have been given power and are now perfectly happy to use it to get their rocks off. Rucka has spent much of his career pointing out the foibles of those in power, and I think you could pretty easily scratch the sticker that says TUCO off these guys’ suits and find a label that says ICE underneath.

Will: “Gravy SEALs” was a nice burn. And, as always, the art here was stellar.

Matt: Heck yeah it was. The two-page spread of Kate dodging the vines as they break into her penthouse was stunning. And the Cathedral of St. Dumas was a gorgeous design. Only Gotham has cathedrals to fake saints worshipped by weird cults, but, well, that is to be expected in Gotham.

Will: That’s what passes for normal in that cursed berg. Anything else in Batwoman?

Matt: I don’t think so. Shall we move onto Catwoman, then?

Will: Aye! And this is Will’s “lost as fuck” face. Selina … in league with Carmine Falcone?

Matt: Yeah, that’s been slowly building over the past year or so of this book. It’s a strange hybrid continuity thing, because we’re working under the Long Halloween/Dark Victory continuity where Selina is Carmine’s daughter (which he now knows, although he won’t say it out loud), but he’s alive like he was in Batman: Eternal rather than killed by Two-Face like at the end of Long Halloween and where she’s the daughter of the don he usurped and not Carmine.

The short version is that Selina wound up working for him because she had run afoul of some other crime families in Europe who really wanted her dead, and he was helping her out of some paternal feelings, and when she got back to Gotham she continued to work with him because Black Mask is back and that mofo wants her dead and started working with said Eastern European mobsters to get her gone, and she’s helping him rise back to power because better the devil you know than the devil you also know but is a sadistic torture monster.

There is really no explanation of any of that here, though, and it probably could have used a little help making it more accessible if you’re a Bat reader who doesn’t follow all the books but knows the broad strokes of continuity. 

Will: Continuity shockers aside (at least Carmine still has the scars!), to me, this story didn’t have any flow or clarity to it. We just lurched from scene to scene without any real direction, which was a problem made more apparent by the other issues with such a clear focus.

Matt: The fact that it’s being intentionally vague about what exactly Catwoman is doing for Carmine here doesn’t help. I suppose there will be some payoff next issue, but there’s a lot going on here that doesn’t connect: Selina’s mysterious mission, Carmine sending his boys to find the DA’s missing kid, the note Selina delivers to another guy. And it’s always nice to see Selina and Holly (now that everyone is ignoring what Tom King turned Holly into during his run), but that’s three pages in the middle of an already crowded comic that just stops dead. There are ways to show what is happening to the everyday citizen or the supporting cast without steering so far from everything else.

Will: I’m glad when your reading of a book matches up with mine — that way I know it’s not just me being stupid. The stuff with the DA would have been helped if he had been a recurring character anywhere else. In theory, though, it’s an interesting subplot. Carmine won’t do something like that for free.

Matt: I’m sure that will be important for the Catwoman series, but setting it up at this point was a little too much if you’re only gonna spend about a page on it.

Meanwhile, Nightwing has a very clear focus, and while it doesn’t go out of its way to explain the status quo in Bludhaven right now, it all seems pretty clear.

Will: Apparently, Blüdhaven, like Gotham, only has two types of mayors: corrupt or incompetent. And hey, it was nice to see Maggie Sawyer! Can’t remember the last place I saw her.

Matt: Probably when we read the first arc of Tom Taylor’s Nightwing for the pod when she became Blüdhaven commissioner. 

Dick has been having a hard time with a competent, corrupt mayor using urban planning to make the downtrodden of Blüdhaven even more downtrodden (that’s a Dan Watters concept if there ever was one), and he’s walking right along the edge, so a Gotham problem coming upwind to Blüdhaven sure isn’t helping all the bad stuff going on for him.

Will: Goes hand in Bat gauntlet with what we saw in Dark Patterns, doesn’t it? I thought the story was hurt by the art in at least one key scene — where two people are talking on the radio, facial expressions really have to carry a heavy load. And when those expressions are flat, the story comes off as flat.

Matt: David Lapham has a very distinct style, and while I wouldn’t call it flat, I would say it’s not an overly realistic style, and especially our bomber looks a bit putty faced throughout. 

Will: I was going to go with “plastic,” but “putty faced” is a great description. Various plastiques aside, this is a great Dick story, isn’t it?

Matt: It absolutely is. Watters gets that, even when pushed to his limit, Dick Grayson may be the most empathetic person in the world. This guy is about to kill a bunch of people with a bomb, but he is still trying to get him to stop by reasoning with him.

Will: I liked how everyone is making choices that fit their character. Dick, as you said, obviously feels for this guy. The guy is acting out of rage and grief and a lifetime of getting fucked by Gotham. And Mayor Slimy Corrupt-erson is only thinking about the city’s reputation in a time of crisis.

Matt: And in the end, we get Damian with the save. I am looking forward to the next issue seeing Dick and Damian partnering up again, a dynamic that is always a lot of fun.

And just to say it, I’m glad someone in the world of the comic is pointing out yet again what a bad idea Arkham Tower is. Yes, let’s give the supervillains a highrise tower right in the middle of the city. That’s a great idea.

Will: Supervillains are people too, Matt! Unless they’re some kind of weird monster things. Then they’re monsters.

Bat-miscellany

• This week’s BatChat podcast brings us back to No Man’s Land and Knightquest: The Crusade.
• The backup in this week’s Detective introduces Rhetoric, a new villain who was the product of a create-a-villain contest tied in with Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight.

Buy Detective Comics #1,113 here.
Buy Batwoman #7 here.
Buy Catwoman #91 here.
Buy Nightwing #142 here.
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