Daphne has won a chance to perform in a televised talent show in Gotham City, but all the contestants are disappearing! It’s up to Mystery Inc. and contest judge Bruce Wayne, with a little help from his costumed alter ego, to find out who’s behind it in The Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries #7, written by Sholly Fisch, drawn by Dario Brizuela, colored by Franco Riesco and lettered by Saida Temofonte.
The origin of the Joker’s newest henchman, Straightman, comes to light as Joker tries to get him under control and the Suicide Squad comes a calling. Batman: The Adventures Continue Season Three #3-4 are written by Alan Burnett and Paul Dini, drawn by Ty Templeton, colored by Monica Kubina and lettered by Josh Reed.
Edward Nashton digs deeper into the corruption of Gotham and learns there is no one he can trust, and that even those who need help won’t take it for fear of the corruption in the system. Riddler: Year One #3 is written by Paul Dano, drawn and colored by Stevan Subic and lettered by Clayton Cowles.
Matt Lazorwitz: So, with this week, we’re caught up after our personal hiatus and the site being down hiatus.
Will Nevin: Too many hiatuses! But I’m not one to talk since we’re at seven or eight weeks now with the indie Leftovers column (which is coming back soon!). Feels nice to be on top of stuff again.
Gotham’s Got Talent
Matt: There is not an issue of The Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries I have not enjoyed to one degree or another.
Will: This one right here? Good enough to get the top billing treatment.
Matt: I never have a problem when Batman and Mystery Inc. just sort of meet when they’re both looking into a case, but I like it even more when there’s a particular narrative hook to get them together. And here, with Daphne doing a martial arts demonstration on Gotham’s Got Talent, a show where Bruce Wayne is a judge? It’s a good way to get them all together without it just being, “Look, it’s another mystery.”
Will: And it’s got plenty of fun gags and legitimately funny laugh-out-loud moments. Velma tap dancing her way through a chemistry demonstration? Scoob’s “Don’t ruin ris for me, Red” line? Fuckin’ hilarious.
Matt: Absolutely. Having this whole talent show’s worth of fodder to slowly disappear gives you some funny moments. And the big unmasking is perfect. Of course the Joker would think he should win the show, and if he can’t, he’ll get rid of the competition. It’s a plot that has been done, specifically in the Animated Series episode “Make ’Em Laugh” (best remembered as the first appearance of Condiment King), but it’s played much lighter here, as a Scooby-Doo story usually is. That blend of tones is what makes this book work so well.
Will: Another bit I liked was comparing Gotham’s pizza (presumably traditional NYC style) to Metropolis’ deep dish. I sure hope the Daily Planet is not feeding its staff that Chicago pizza casserole shit on election night.
Matt: This issue sees Dario Brizuela return on art, and he’s my favorite of the rotating artists on this book. He feels to me like the one with the most comic book style. Erich Owens is a good artist, but his work often feels like animation cells on comic book paper. Brizuela has a fluidity to his work that I like, and he can deliver a joke. The panels of Shaggy and Scooby running away from the villain, as they stumble through a clothing rack and wind up on stage doing an impromptu interpretive dance/speed eating act? Loved it.
Will: But wouldn’t that be a choking hazard?
Matt: There’s a gag reflex joke in there, but this is a kids comic, so I’ll just let that go and we’ll move on, yes?
Joker’s Got Straightman
Will: The tradition of terrible names for new Bat-characters (OK, new as of 2020) continues with Straightman, but I gotta say, he’s got an intriguing story and some complex characters fighting for him.
Matt: Every time I see the name, I read it like it’s pronounced like a last name, like Goldman. I get why he’s called that, but even if it was “Straight-Man” it would just look better.
I love the fact that this is Captain America if Captain America was created by the real US government and not the idealized one of the 1940s. Sure, they’d create a super soldier. And even more sure, they’d build in every psychological trigger they could to keep him under their control.
Will: And of course Hugo Strange is involved. And even more of course-y, Joker would find a way to fuck it all up to hell. This is continuing the best of The Animated Series tradition in making a nominally kid-friendly story but giving it some real depth. I mean, I care more about the plight of Straightman than just about any other villain or side character in the main books. The Orghams are interesting in Detective, sure, but not all that compelling. Red Mask in Batman is a fleeting amusement. I’m not saying Straightman is some sort of legendary deal, but it’s at least *a* deal for readers to care about.
Matt: The fact that there are characters around him who care helps. Both Colonel Haslett and Gretchen Gallway doing anything they can to try to get him away from the army, the Joker or both makes a compelling case for him being someone we should care about, too. And while it’s not a swerve that will go down in the books, the fact that our mysterious armored woman, using a prototype suit that absolutely will become the Batman Beyond suit, is Gallway and not Haslett works, and the fact that they were drawn to look similar but still distinguishable makes so much sense when you get to that point. Ty Templeton is too good an artist for that to have been a lazy choice, and I should have known that.
Will: It was a clever enough twist to get me, and I’m big enough to admit it. I’m interested to see where this story goes — and whether Batman, Gallway and Haslett will all end up on slightly different sides of this.
Matt: Because on top of Joker looking to use Straightman for his usual brand of mischief, he’s also being pursued by the only person in the DCU who is as scary as Mr. J: Amanda Waller. And The Wall has brought along Task Force X.
It’s a good lineup for the Squad: Deadshot, Katana, King Shark, Captain Boomerang and Muscle (speaking of awful codenames. I’ll take Straightman any day over Muscle), and they wind up recruiting Harley in the new issue, in a scene that shows just how ruthless Waller is, and not in Joker’s homicidal way. She controls the levers of power and will use them in any way she can to get her way. I do feel like we need more from this part of the story, though. So far they feel like they’re there to raise the stakes in a story where the stakes are high enough without them.
Will: And is the government after Straightman only to destroy what’s left of the failed super soldier program? I feel like I answered my own question there, but there always seems to be a plot within a plot with Waller. What if it’s to recover the asset? The program’s only success?
Matt: Either option is possible with Waller. I think the latter would be preferable for her, but if Straightman started to show signs of the same psychotic break as the other failed super soldiers? I’d say she’d put the bullet in his brain herself, but that’s what she has Deadshot for.
Riddler’s Got Problems
Matt: So, if BatScoob is the book I have to talk about no matter what, Riddler: Year One is yours, yes?
Will: I mean, yeah? What of it? Way to make me feel seen, Matt.
Matt: I see you, my man. I see right into your soul. Like Eddie Nashton is seeing into the soul of the corrupt Gotham of The Batman.
Will: So, just a *few* reasons why this book is great since we haven’t talked about it in a while: 1) It is a logical prelude to The Batman, as you said, 2) Dano’s ability to flourish in the medium of comics continues to make me angry, 3) the art — especially as we get deeper into Nashton’s mania and depression — is amazing and 4) I don’t know that any story has quite explored the corrupt side of Gotham like this one has.
It’s not that there are bad institutions or bad people in this particular version of Gotham. The whole city is corrupt. The very foundation of civic life is built on fraud and drugs. I don’t think we’ve seen a Gotham quite this bleak — at least one that has a Batman.
Matt: It’s an ugly Gotham, and Stevan Subic’s art is so gritty it suits that. He’s got the same grit as a Michael Lark, but he takes it just a little further with how abstract his work is. It’s a bit more surreal, and his layouts are less rigid. Lark does amazing work with layouts, don’t get me wrong, but he is an inherently realistic artist. Subic’s pages mostly use a solid grid, but he packs in lots of horizontal panels to build a sense of claustrophobia, and when he breaks non-gridded panels, you feel the impact.
Will: And I *love* when layouts are used as storytelling devices. Some of the strongest pages in the issue are when Nashton starts to unravel and the layouts, art and lettering all reflect that. If there’s any complaint to be had with this book — and man, am I searching for one — it’s that this does seem a bit on the decompressed side. I can’t point to any real major plot development in this issue aside from the-man-who-would-be-Riddler getting a bit down the road in figuring out the tangled, corrupt knot that is Gotham.
Matt: Yes, this book feels a bit more like a poem than a strict narrative in places, I agree. But while it is decompressed, I haven’t felt like it’s dragging.
Will: A poem is a great point of comparison.
Matt: I was also happy to see that Edward didn’t go too far down a hole of obsession with the daughter of Mr. Joon, the man he discovered was being used by the criminal conspiracy in the last issue. We still might go down that alley, but keeping the incel vibes away from Edward helps me keep this away from the comparisons to Joker that I talked about last time.
Will: You get the sense that Nashton’s breaking point — and his turn toward murder — will be his perceived lack of help from Batman, something like, “This city is broken, and its supposed savior does not care.
“We will bring it all down.”
Bat-miscellany
- This week’s BatChat podcast explores stories of the main members of the GCPD, and while it’s still a good time, we reckon with reading copaganda in the year 2023.
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.
