Batman continues to investigate the citizen criminals, Riddler continues to broadcast and Deb Donovan remains the best new addition to the Bat cast in years in Detective Comics #1,060, written by Mariko Tamaki and Nadia Shammas, penciled by Ivan Reis, inked by Danny Miki, colored by Brad Anderson and lettered by Ariana Maher. In the backup, Gotham Girl investigates the death of her friend and makes some odd new ones in a story written by Sina Grace, drawn by David Lapham, colored by Trish Mulvihill and lettered by Rob Leigh.
Task Force Z fights Batman as Red Hood confronts the rest of the Bat family in a confrontation that is more violent than the superhero/supervillain clash in Task Force Z #8, written by Matthew Rosenberg; drawn by Jesus Merino, Jack Herbert and Vincente Cifuentes; colored by Adriano Lucas and lettered by Rob Leigh.
As a blackout spreads worldwide, Batman must first protect Gotham before gathering the Justice League to answer the question: Where is the man who can stop a seeming alien invasion, Superman? in Batman: Fortress #1, written by Gary Whitta, penciled by Darick Robertson, inked by Diego Rodriguez, colored by Arif Prianto and lettered by Simon Bowland.
Will Nevin: Matt, weâve got another issue of Beyond the White Knight this week, but youâre telling me we donât have to read it?! My birthdayâs not until September. You really shouldnât have.
Matt Lazorwitz: Itâs more a reprieve than a release, but for one week we can pretend we donât have to deal with it anymore and enjoy some good Batman content.
Will: So weâre reading it for next week?
Matt: Unfortunately, yes.
Will: Well, shit.
Citizen Criminals United
Matt: This is the midpoint in this three-issue arc, and while we have a lot to discuss, I think one of the main things that I really am enjoying here is the use of Riddler. Sure, heâs still the unctuous jerk that the best Riddler stories make him, but by using him so sparingly, I never get to that point where Iâm sick of him and his talking in circles. Here, he is a presence and a puppet master, which is a great role for a villain who shouldnât be a physical threat.
Will: We just had us a major motion picture that proved Riddler could be an effective social media weirdo; while heâs less moody and more traditionally Riddler-y here, I agree with you that this is a great use of the character. But how do you feel about our hard-charginâ and hard-drinkinâ reporter Deb Donovan becoming the middle of some kind of conspiracy by way of her daughter?
Matt: If Debâs daughter wasnât a judge? Wasnât someone Eddie would target? It would be more of a stretch. But I think giving Deb some personal investment in the case does something new for the character. Weâve seen her take cases personally before, but now she actually has a stake in the case, so it adds a layer there. And we have to see what Carolineâs secret is, because that could give Deb something else to contemplate, as she missed her daughter hiding something from her reporter sense.
Will: Yeah, this next issue has a lot of explaining to do for that last page reveal â Riddler must really be holding something over Caroline.
Matt: This issue also takes up one of my frequent complaints about Bat books of the past ⌠decade or so. We get a really solid Bruce Wayne scene. Bruce going out with Caroline and using his Bruce Wayne-ness to get information, or try anyway? Good use of the character.
Will: The complaint being that Bruce feels like an appendage tacked on to Batman without any use of his own? Just want to clarify, for my sake.
Matt: Exactly. That Bruce gets minimal use because he serves no purpose/writers arenât interested in him, so he is used minimally if at all.
And the Gotham Girl backup continues to be the best use of that character, well, ever.
Will: Grounded, personal stories with stakes. Amazing what they can do for a character, huh?
Matt: Meanwhile, I found the inclusion of Talia a bit confusing. I know Nadia Shammas loves the character, and I can completely understand adding a favorite character to your story (You know if I got to write a Batman story, it would definitely have Tim Drake as primary sidekick), but I donât know why Talia was the go-to for information on Darby Turner. Talia hasnât been running in social circles since she was CEO of LexCorp in the early â00s. And Darby didnât strike me as a professional assassin or master criminal, which ARE the circles Talia has been running in. I would have been fine with using her if we had a bit more of a reason given. Unless I missed something?
Will: I also found it confusing since Talia should be fairly well tied up with âShadow Warâ business at the moment. Yes, I know these books donât all take place at the same time, but my brain thinks that they should.
Matt: But outside that minor quibble? This is one of the best arcs of a truly good run on a Bat title, and I look forward to seeing if the arc, and thus the run, sticks its landing next issue.
As the Crowbar Flies
Matt: One of the things that I find most impressive about Matthew Rosenberg as a writer is he has a great way of mixing character with action, and this issue? This issue is a great example of that.
Will: That was a real Bat family âcome to Jesusâ moment, wasnât it? What did you think of Jason pointing out the fact that, unlike what every author since Death in the Family has tried to retcon, he died via a bomb and not a crowbar. I thought it walked right up to the line of too meta but didnât cross it.
Matt: Absolutely. I like that Jasonâs reasoning for using the crowbars is BECAUSE everyone remembers the crowbar and it gives him an edge when fighting someone who knows his history. It proves that he is more like Bruce than others give him credit for. Tim might share Bruceâs mind, Cass his fighting skills and Dick his empathy (although Bruce himself would probably deny that), but Jason? Jason shares that edge, that ability to instill fear and to get into the heads of his opponents (which I think Jason would normally deny).
Will: This is not really a substantive question, but since it strangely doesnât come up all that often on the show or here: Who âwinsâ in a Bat family fight? I think youâd have to concede that Jason won the fight in this issue.
Matt: Well, thatâs a good question. I think there are two different ways for this to go. If weâre going with a fight like this, where the Bat family isnât trying to completely take out their opponent, just to really subdue them and not do a ton of damage? Then it is absolutely Jason, because he fights dirty. If weâre in a no-holds-barred fight, where a character can go right up to the line of killing but not cross it? Cass all the way. She is the deadliest fighter in the DC Universe.
And thatâs assuming Bruce isnât directly involved. Because he wins every time, because he has plans on plans on plans for taking out each of his apprentices just in case.
Will: Just like Nick Saban. Usually.
Matt: On an unrelated note, I wager the content of this issue somehow shifted, since the cover has zero to do with what is going on inside. Bane doesnât appear at all in this issue.
Will: Wow â I hadnât considered that until you pointed it out, but youâre right. There is not a drop of âteaâ âspilledâ by Bane in this issue. Side note: That was a dumbass idea for a cover.
Matt: Despite that not being addressed, there is a lot of other stuff here. The Bat family stuff is the juiciest piece of the issue, but we have a fun Two-Face-and-Grundy against Batman fight, and Mr. Bloom going further down the Dr. Frank-N-Furter path of camp villainy. Thatâs a lot for a 20-page comic that doesnât feel rushed or too crowded.
Will: Bloom feels like the one wrong note here â at least if you ever want him to have menace in the future. I guess he was pretty deep on the bench anyway, eh?
Matt: True, he was. But if the various X-writers have proven anything with their reinterpretation of Mr. Sinister, itâs that camp and menace can go hand in hand if itâs handled right. I think we need to see more of the truly heinous shit Bloom might be up to if we want to re-establish him as a threat, and not just a freaky looking â66-type villain.
Wow, That Was Nearly a Fight
Matt: Iâm gonna start off with a simple thesis for how I felt reading this book: good plot, good concept, next to none of these characters sound like the characters I am used to reading.
Will: Hmmmm ⌠I need more of this thesis before I pollute it with my own take. Explain yourself, good sir!
Matt: OK, so the idea here, that there is some existential threat to Earth and the biggest of the big guns is missing, so it falls to the biggest of big brains to both deal with it and to find said big gun? Thatâs a great concept for a Batman story. And starting off grounded with him dealing with a breakout from Arkham before having to go off to the big Justice League adventure? A great way to start off and to show the different sides of Batman in one story.
But when you get to particular dialogue? âPut down the stuff you took and get outta hereâ doesnât sound like a thing the upper-crust Bruce Wayne would say. Jim Gordon is called âchief.â Gordon uses the colloquial âlemme.â Whitta is a Brit, and heâs writing these characters like a Brit trying to capture American slang and cadence.
Also, there are two very out-of-character moments. Bruce Wayne would never confront those home invaders the way he did. The way he took the first one out, with stealth? Absolutely. But confronting them and then fighting them? That breaks the mask. And Penguin is not the guy who randomly drowns victims. He doesnât get his hands dirty that way.
End of rant.
Will: Youâre taking my bits of obsessing over dialogue and sticking it to colonizers who try to write Batman. Unacceptable, Matthew! But this does remind me that I forgot to give Tom Taylor the business for suggesting Black Lightning was âholidayingâ rather than âvacationingâ in Injustice. And we recorded that episode weeks ago! I can hold a grudge with the best of âem. That being said, I did not pick up on these moments and rolled with everything Fortress gave me. I really enjoyed this book. I donât think this qualifies as a fight, right?
Matt: I donât think so. I feel like my quibbles are with the details, while I really liked the overall book. This is more a discussion of stylistic impressions. But it does prove we donât agree on everything.
Will: I tell you what Iâm worried about: Iâm afraid that everything that worked here â the grounded nature of the story, the manageable stakes of a Gotham blackout â goes kaput when you put Bruce in space trying to fight off aliens. I donât know that it absolutely canât work, but Iâm certainly skeptical. At least they wisely took Clark off the board because, I mean, come on â thatâs definitely who you call when the aliens show up.
Matt: I know how you feel about sci-fi Batman. I think this can stay grounded if you lean into Batman the planner and the stealth fighter. He can organize the JLA. He can sneak onto the alien ship and stealth his way through it like an urban environment.
Will: I see your love of JLA: New World Order shining through there.
Matt: No denying that, but that is a good use of Batman in a sci-fi environment, and I think Whitta can use that concept to good effect. And, by the way, I wouldnât want to be anyone but an unkillable DC icon when that alien battle starts. If Rogue One taught us anything, itâs that Whitta has no problem killing his cast.
Will: Rebel spies going up against the Empire? I think those are great odds. (I have not seen Rogue One.)
Bat-miscellany
- Letâs get ready to ruuuuuuuuumble! This weekâs BatChat podcast features three stories of Batman Vs. Superman.
- Donât worry, those who enjoy our suffering. Beyond the White Knight will be discussed next week; itâs a fifth week, so we need more grist for the grievance mill.
- Thatâs gross, Matt.
- Gotham Geography Watch: Task Force Zâs corner of [artist Don] Newton and [writer Gerry] Conway, the co-creators of Jason Todd.
- The half-page panel on Page 11 of Task Force Z, of Grundy and Batman fighting, is an homage to the cover of DC Special Stars #27, better known as âBatman Vs. The Incredible Hulkâ
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.
