Bruce, along with Anton, heads to Moscow to find a new mentor, a master of espionage and disguise, to take the next step toward becoming Batman in Batman: The Knight #5, written by Chip Zdarsky, drawn by Carmine di Giandomenico, colored by Ivan Plascencia and lettered by Pat Brosseau.
Batman and Superman race to help other heroes against the assaults of the villainous minions of the Devil Nezha as Robin and Supergirl try to find a way to stop him in Batman/Superman: Worldâs Finest #3, written by Mark Waid, drawn by Dan Mora, colored by Tamra Bonvillain and lettered by Aditya Bidikar.
Shadow War is focused on Batman, Deathstroke and Robin, but there are other players in this game. The Shadow War Zone one-shot takes readers through various short tales of how other heroes, villains and those in between are facing the unfolding chaos.
Will Nevin: Matt, you know me, I always like to talk current events in our intro space when we can â what did you think of the Batman: One Bad Day announcements? Like the concept? Any creative teams stick out to ya?
Matt Lazorwitz: I do like the concept. Batman rogues make for some solid villain protagonists in short form, so itâll be interesting to see the angle some of these creators take. The two that Iâm most curious about are probably Two-Face, since itâs a return to villainous form for olâ Harv and is written by Mariko Tamaki, whose âTec run we have both enjoyed, and Penguin, who as we talked about on a just-recorded but a ways off from release BatChat pod, is a character I feel like has potential that is untapped. Plus that one is by John Ridley, who has written some books Iâve loved, and has pencils by Giuseppe Camuncoli, who drew the last arc on The Joker, and whose art I have always loved. How about you?
Will: Rather than be a snot and run down the books Iâm not interested in, Iâll focus on the positive: The Freeze story by Gerry Duggan, Matteo Scalera and Dave Stewart should be fan-friggin-tastic.
From Russia with Love
Matt: So I know it varies from book to book, but what do you think the lead time has been on The Knight?
Will: Hmmm ⌠game theory suggests youâd only ask me this if it was an inordinate amount of time, so Iâm going to say itâs been off. How long, I canât say because time is a fluid concept, and my mind is riddled by the vagaries of old age.
Matt: Iâm just wondering if this story, set in Moscow, was conceived of and put to bed before, you know, the end of February, when Moscow became an even more hostile setting for a story than it had been before that. Itâs just idle speculation, but it seems youâd want to address some more of that if it had been conceived of after that.
Will: Ahhh, now Iâm picking up what youâre putting down. Whatever the lead time was, this wasnât the sort of thing you could easily fix in edits since it so heavily features mentions of the KGB â if it was just Moscow as a setting, you could probably change up the dialogue and it would be just fine (like the edits made to Dr. Strangelove after the Kennedy assassination!) but these were more substantive story points. I donât think anything was in poor taste, though â I didnât think of the current conflagration in the region until you mentioned it.
Matt: No, nothing in bad taste. I just thought it interesting how I Am Batman last week very much addressed money laundering oligarchs and this issue didnât even talk much about anything touching current events. Just a curious observation.
Anyway, onto the actual comic. I liked this issue. I am curious to read this series as a whole, because so far weâve had three one-offs and a two-parter, and I wish the two-parter had been more broken into two more distinct stories, because Zdarsky really shines when he is doing these quick, sharp one-offs. Avery Oblonsky is a new character, the first one of Bruceâs mentors who is completely new (Yes, Grey Shadow was technically new, but she was designed to be a cute riff on Catwoman and Ducard was also in that story), and I thought she was a good one.
Will: I particularly enjoyed her open-ended challenges: How Bruce got the book wasnât important. How he was able to adapt? Adjust? That was the key point of the lesson. And donât you love seeing the Man Who Would Be Bat find a way to win in the end?
Matt: And absolutely playing Ghost-Maker (because I am now more sure than ever that âAntonâ is Ghost-Maker in training) to pull it off. Itâs nice to see Bruce learn a lesson or two, and to turn the trick Anton was using on their mark against him. I also like seeing Bruce struggle a bit. I like watching Bruce adjust. And did you see the âYear Oneâ nod in his disguise?
Will: 1) Now that you remind me, it pains me to admit the chances of Ghost-Maker have rapidly increased given the obviously queer moment there toward the end, and 2) no, I sure did miss that. What was it?
Matt: On the bottom of Page 12, you see Bruce getting a scar applied to his face like he did in âYear One,â and on the panel below it, heâs in the knit cap and khaki jacket he wore on his disastrous night out in the first chapter of âYear One.â Itâs subtle, but itâs a nice tie to another story, and who knows? If that first night hadnât been such a disaster, this guy could have been another Matches Malone. But since he doesnât have the mustache, he would not have been anywhere near as cool.
Betrayal!
Will: Theory I want to run by ya: Mark Waid would be writing a Justice League series right now if the Justice League wasnât dead. For reasons. Because this isnât so much Batman/Superman as it is Batman/Superman/Doom Patrol/Flash/Wonder Woman/Green Lantern. Itâs got the stakes youâd see in a Justice League book. And Waid is certainly playing with all the toys in the toy box.
Matt: Oh, yes. Waid clearly wants to write a retro Justice League title, and heâs doing as much of that as he can here. And Iâm here for that. And this story remains fun, but letâs be honest: Waid is just giving Dan Mora the chance to go wild. Moraâs art is the star here.
Will: Jesus Jumpinâ Christ is it ever. What a beautiful lookinâ book. Almost a shame we didnât spend more time in âHell.â The *one* time Iâm going to argue for a more decompressed book.
Matt: Oh, Hell was gorgeous (which is a weird sentence to type), and the scenes in the past, where Robin and Supergirl are? Not only is the design of the setting gorgeous, but the designs on the Warriors of Ji are great, too. We donât know who they are, but their designs give a lot of impressions about their personality and powers. Thatâs good design work.
Will: Not only did we visit the fake underworld, but we also traveled in time ⌠because Supergirl can do that, I guess. This book is so wild. Iâm jealous that we only get this half the time.
Matt: Especially since next issue has to pay off that last page reveal! That was a big music sting moment right there!
Will: Hooboy, is it ever. No one is safe when youâre playing against the devil, Matt.
Matt: No, they are not. Nezha remains a fairly generic demonic villain, but itâs nice that, if weâre looking for a big bad who can go up against the entire League and justify it, we didnât go back to the same well of world beaters we always see: Darkseid, Eclipso, Trigon. I hope, now that Nezha is more in play, we get to see him doing things and interacting and it fleshes out his personality more. DC could use a couple more really major bads, and again, Mora knows how to design a demon.
Shadow War Zone
Matt: âShadow Warâ has not been our favorite event, but I have to say, while there was little here that was essential, I enjoyed much of this anthology. It helped give some context to all the tightly focused (yet still somehow meandering) events of the main event, and made it feel like an event, since we are seeing characters outside our series leads being involved.
Will: I donât think I actively hated anything? (Although the lettering in the Ghost-Maker/Clownhunter story almost got me there.) Where you looked at it like ânot essential but I enjoyed it,â I think my take was âI didnât enjoy it because it wasnât essential.â And maybe thatâs because âShadow Warâ has been so profoundly meh. Iâm also not sure what I think about Talia in what amounted to a YA setting.
Matt: I wonder how much of this seems nonessential now but will be setting up future events. I think all but the Talia story are actively setting things up, and the Talia story might be too if Nadia Shammas gets to write her more (Check out next weekâs WMQ&A to hear how passionate she is about the character). I think if this whole event had been more diffuse, if it had been three different arcs instead of one story over eight issues, this would have felt more natural. There is a world where Batman followed Batman trying to hunt Raâs killer, Deathstroke Inc. was Deathstroke and Respawn avoiding the Demonâs Shadow, and Robin was Robin hunting Deathstroke while on a road trip with Ravager, and all of them colliding in Shadow War: Omega.
Will: Matt, how come youâre better at planning an event than the Unknowable Mind of DC Editorial?
Matt: If theyâd just hand over the line, everything would be better.
But anyway, I think my favorite of these was the Black Canary story. I think Otto Schmidtâs art was great, the design on Angel Breaker was distinct, and I am curious to see what her past with Dinah is. Canary doesnât really have a rogues gallery, so maybe we have a new archenemy for a classic DC hero, and I am here for that.
Will: What can you tell the good content consumers about Angel Breaker, Matt? That was a new character to me.
Matt: There isnât anything to tell; she is a new character, who has only appeared in those group scenes with the Demonâs Shadow. Iâm pleased to see one of these cool looking but generic assassins get a personality. And her calling Canary sensei? I smell history, and I am there for it!
Will: Wait, a character where I know as much as you do?
Matt: Well, we both know the same amount about Ghost-Maker, too. Unfortunately.
Will: *vomiting emoji*
Matt: The Harley story here, since itâs written by series writer Stephanie Phillips, feels like itâs going to feed into the next arc on Harley after the current Verdict arc is over. And look at Luke Fox doing something other than being a jerk to his brother.
The Ghost-Maker and Clownhunter story felt like it was there to further their ongoing arc, and I think we might be nearer to a Batman/Ghost-Maker confrontation, since it seems our least favorite member of the extended Bat family isnât keeping to that whole âDonât killâ promise he made Bruce, unless that only extends to Gotham? We donât know exactly where this takes place, and maybe thatâs the loophole?
Will: I think Batmanâs only loophole (sometimes) is the âI donât have to save youâ bit â so his *one* rule has got to extend to wherever Batman Inc. is operating. But I certainly appreciate your creative thinking.
Matt: Yeah, I donât think that would fly if G-M actually said it to Bruce, but itâs his own justification, which wonât stop Batman from taking him in. And maybe taking his fortune, so we have the status quo back?
Will: The only way Iâll ever like Ghost-Maker is if heâs got a secret Alfred clone in his basement.
Bat-miscellany
- This week on the BatChat podcast, we have two deaths and one good day for Jason Todd. Plus: Matt goofs up! Find out how.
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.
