Batman hunts a changed Killer Croc and readers get a glimpse of the new face of Gotham and the Dark Knight in Batman #1, written by Matt Fraction, drawn by Jorge Jimenez, colored by Tomeu Morey and lettered by Clayton Cowles.
Matt Lazorwitz: Oh, man, it’s the new issue of Batman. We have to deal with more “H2SH,” right?
Will Nevin: Not only do we get to read a brand new #1 with a mostly new creative team, but you also open up with a bit. What a great day for me.
Matt: I figured I could cue you up for something there, my friend, because I am in a pretty good mood with this week’s column.
Will: And here’s something to consider: There’s a not-zero chance we never have to read more “H2SH,” either because it never comes out or we say to hell with it. That should put a smile on anyone’s face.
A New Day in Gotham
Matt: I feel like we have a lot to cover with this issue. Not just the plot, not just the use of THAT character but just the general vibe that new writer Matt Fraction is bringing to Batman and what we get from this first issue from a thematic/story sense.
Will: It truly is a new day in Gotham — it’s literally brighter, but there’s also a sense of optimism. Dare I say it … maybe even whimsy? This run is already distinguishing itself from the Zdarsky era, which was action-action-action-more action. This was quieter. Mellower. And still every bit as science fictional, which I guess I can deal with.
Matt: I think this is well within the limits of big science rather than full science fiction. Fraction is playing with gadgets, sure, but we’re not going into space or anything. I know you prefer your “Year One”-era Batman, where the most tech he has is a fingerprint kit and a Batarang, but Batman has had weird high-tech gadgets from the early days. This is a bit more of a superhero Batman than a detective Batman, but it’s well within parameters for me.
Will: I’ll grant him a climbing rope and grappel. Maybe.
Matt: In the interview at the back of this week’s issue (and all of DC’s books this week), Fraction specifically says he is focusing on one-issue stories, that each issue is going to be a done-in-one with continuing subplots. And after, what, over a decade of every run being some magnum opus, I am very excited for this. I like the idea that we’ll be getting easily digestible bites of Batman. And that Batman himself is being written as wonderfully human. It feels like this is a Batman who learned the lessons of keeping his friends close after the Failsafe fiasco, and so he is stepping a bit more into the light.
Will: I too like the idea of a format change, although I can see you cursing the idea when we try to figure out how to read this for the show. As far as the subplots go, Officer Jim Gordon should make for some great stuff, including what should be an obvious end to Vandal Savage’s time as commissioner (although that seems like it’s going to get worse before it gets any better). I get the feeling that Fraction’s Batman is going to be less talkative, more of the type to let the world change and revolve around him without speechifying his way through it. So long as it’s not a grunty and cruel Batman, I think that’s a solid way to play it.
Now, which character should we take up first: Alfred or Croc?
Matt: Let’s start with Croc. The Alfred stuff is some big feels, man.
In the past, we have both said we prefer a more human Killer Croc, and I stand by that. However, if you’re going to do a monster Croc, it needs to be the point of what you’re doing. Having Croc devolve, having him turn into this childlike, monstrous figure, needs to be what drives the story, not just a convenience for what the writer is doing. And in that way, I think Fraction hits this pretty solidly.
Will: The emotion here was perfect, and it gave Bats a wonderful opportunity to display his not-Punisher-like qualities. But I can’t help but wonder if there was a better character to do this with. Admittedly, it would be hard if this truly is a one-off story, sure, but infantilizing a character with as deep a history as Waylon feels like we’re both giving up too much and waving too much away when we cloak it in his physiological organobabble and some sort of “cycle.” We could hit the same emotional beats with a more believable story, like some back catalog rogue (classic or invented!) experiencing dementia. Waylon, though, could be a subplot unto himself, so I’ll both reserve a tiny bit of judgment and the right to say “my bad” in a couple of months.
Matt: With this specifically being about a cycle, there is the chance that he will … revolve? Undevolve? And we’ll get a more traditional Croc back. But while I see what you’re saying, I think most writers want to put their stamp on established characters, and Croc’s portrayals are so varied that this is no weirder or more off than feral Croc. It’s a little more childlike than the one from the ’90s who was mostly an animal, but it’s more human than that one, too. And the design is fascinating. It’s not the most inhuman Croc we’ve ever seen; that’s probably the dragonlike one from the original “Hush,” but the teeth and things make it striking and definitely scary.
Will: It’s certainly different! Now, are you ready to talk about your big feels?
Matt: Yes. On Tuesday, ComicsXF Editor-in-Chief Dan Grote sent me a message saying he had read Batman #1 and that there was something in it that was very much something that this column was going to discuss. And the minute I saw Batman talking to his own mental projection of Alfred, I knew that was it.
Fraction clearly wants to play with all the toys, but he can’t because the edict from DC, the nonsensical one, is that Alfred is dead. And so we see Bruce imagining what it would be like to have him in his ear, providing commentary like he did when he was alive, through what seems to be an AI hologram Alfred. It’s both light and dark. Light because Fraction captures Alfred’s voice perfectly. Dark because of the sadness you feel realizing that Bruce is still not through mourning the man who raised him. It feels like we’re really going to deal with that now, and I’m all for it. When we reread “Joker War” for the pod, we saw Tynion dealing with this trauma somewhat, but it was wrapped up in a tidy little ball at the end. This doesn’t seem like something that would be so easily dealt with, and I’m glad we’re seeing it, and that we’re getting some kind of Alfred content one way or the other.
Will: I wouldn’t be surprised if this is both a way to get Alfred (or an Alfred simulacrum) into the book and give Fraction a chance to comment on/explore AI, which, you know, seems to be a big deal in this cursed hellscape. I want this to be more than just Alfred popping in to be the virtual man in the field — I want Bruce to bemoan the fact that he can’t quite get the program right, I want him to tinker, fight to get it more “perfect,” only for it to eventually be the idealized version of what Bruce wants him to be, not what he actually was. You know, something mirroring his own relationship with Thomas — and maybe Alfred’s relationship with Thomas, for that matter.
I think this has some potential to ask some interesting questions about grief and technology. Like The Shrouds, which I still haven’t seen.
Matt: I’m curious to see what happens when other members of the family see this. Tim, the most tech savvy of the lot with the possible exception of Barbara, pops up at the end here, and I want to see how he reacts to the “reborn” Alfred. Bruce’s response to AI Alfred when he takes a dig is “How I miss that Pennyworth wit.” Not missed. So he is admitting this isn’t perfect, that it’s still not quite right. And Tim has had a history of trying to resurrect lost loved ones, so there is definitely potential to see how much he has grown and realize that Bruce might be going down a bad path.
Will: Above anything else, I want this run — the next year or two or whatever of it — to say something. Batman hasn’t had a central idea since the “Batman can’t ever be happy” days of Bat/Cat, and while that was ultimately exhausting, at least it had a vision. Let Fraction cook. That’s what I want from this.
Matt: I concur.
I want to talk about the art for a moment, too. We are pretty guilty of not addressing art in these reviews, but it’s a common problem in a lot of comic book reviews. This is Jimenez’s 39th issue of Batman, having worked with three of the last four writers (he didn’t take part in the Joshua Williamson fill-in era). That’s an every-other-arc in most cases run, but it’s still more than most artists do on any particular book in modern times. And we’ve seen his style evolve. I think in the future this era might be remembered more as the Jimenez era than as any particular writer’s.
I really dig the new Batman costume he creates. It’s got the harder lines of a modern costume, but using the colors of the Bronze Age costume to create a nice hybrid of the two.
Will: Did you catch the license plate of the bus you just threw us under? Sheesh. To our credit, I will say in every Dark Patterns review we take time to point out how Hayden Sherman is not so much killing the art in that book as they are grinding its bones for marrow and sport. Here, it’s a different sort of excellence — Jimenez is quietly and conclusively defining house style for Batman, and that’s certainly an achievement.
Matt: His work is dynamic; you feel the movement of the still images, if that makes any sense. I look forward to seeing what else he might create or redesign for the rest of his run.
Will: The new Batmobile is solid. As is the cave’s new teeny tiny T-rex.
Matt: I want to see him develop the new cave. More trophies, a whole new vision of what we’re used to. I’m down for it.
Bat-miscellany
- This week’s BatChat podcast features three more Mr. Freeze stories, all of these from a busy time in the character’s history, 2003-06.
- Wayne Family Adventures is back on Webtoon with new strips! Hooray!
- A Creeper gang is, well, creepy.
- Vandal Savage unleashing militarized police on Gotham? Who could ever believe such fiction! Ugh, I need a drink…
- Speaking of Dark Patterns, listen to this week’s CXF Interview Podcast to hear guest Dan Watters talk about that book some, alongside a whole bunch of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles chat with co-guest Alex Paknadel.
Buy Batman #1 here. (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.
