BaTorpedoes are a go!

There is a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson that a teacher in middle school once taught me that I've always come back to and I believe Batman #637 is an unusually apt case to apply it. "For everything you have missed, you have gained something else." This isn't an issue that does a lot of heavy lifting. On a narrative level, there isn't all that much movement, nor are we given a wealth of new insight into the inner workings of our protagonist. What it does offer in abundance is action and .

PREVIOUSLY: Batman was busy brooding his way through a steak out, and was joined by Nightwing, aka Dick Grayson the first Robin, who rightly thought that his best friend could use some emotional caregiving. Meanwhile the current criminal kingpin in Gotham has a thorn in his side in the form of the mysterious Red Hood, who has been interfering with his operation. To combat this nuisance, Black Mask has taken on the services of unstable Arkham frequent flyer, Mister Freeze. Batman and Nightwing's mission takes them to Gotham Harbor where Black Mask's men are expecting a pretty large delivery. The freighter delivering it blows up and our heroes spot the incendiary, Red Hood, who leads them deftly on a chase across the rooftops of Gotham until they find themselves inside a warehouse. There, they are confronted with Black Mask's absconded delivery: A.M.A.Z.O., a homicidal android with the powers of seven members of the Justice League.

Which brings us to the top of this issue. This issue's cover rectifies all my complaints with issue #636. The image depicted actually reflects what happens in the issue. Again, the proportions are off, however this time it is quite clearly an intentional choice to emphasize the physical threat posed by our issue's obstacle. The obvious nature of playing with the proportions creates a heightened realism that both plays into the fantastic nature of DC superhero comics but contrasts with the pulpy realism of a Batman detective story. Overall, this cover feels incredibly dynamic and quite possibly the best so far in this run of Batman.

We open with a preamble in villain HQ. We won't see much of Black Mask this issue, but he basically book-ends this chapter in the story. In this overall story arc, he'll prove to be our tritagonist. However, in the first leg of the story, there really isn't all that much room for him since it is devoted to really showcasing how Red Hood is three steps ahead of everybody. And while it is admirable to attempt to keep all your important characters threaded throughout the entire narrative it is a bit of a problem that this first scene with him is a slight variation of what we saw in his appearance last issue. In case you didn't read that particular installment, it basically fell into the category of "wacky hijinks." Except this time the same basic bullet points are hit with Black Mask's latest hire in the room with him instead of down the hall.

Black Mask is sitting across a desk from Mister Freeze, flanked by his superego with a pulse, David Li  some nameless craggy-faced mafioso. Spoilers: do not  get attached. This scene really reads as an human resources or employee rights compliance manager's worst nightmare. Mask is playing it as cool as a cucumber, trying to play the role of the understanding authority figure in the hopes of keeping a modicum of control over Freeze, but Victor is clearly not on the same wave length. He's that guy who has read the manual inside and out, wants to do his job, and is pretty intolerant of the bullshit of workplace pleasantries.

This "Mr. Nice Boss" attitude adopts really rings true, not only to the readers who recently saw him essentially torture one of the Bat-Family nearly to the brink of death, but also to Freeze who really doesn't like being talked down to and has already gone through at least two of Black Mask's tech guys while they were constructing his cryo-suit because of perceived slights.

I think, "ghaaaah!!!!" sums up my reaction nicely.

With that in mind, we can conclude that the rando on Black Mask's left was born utterly without a sense of self preservation, when he opens his mouth to delivery a pretty snippy retort with all the bitchiness of an inter-office e-mail about properly labeling food in the break room fridge.
For his efforts, he is promptly and surprisingly unexpectedly turned into a mobcicle, courtesy of Freeze's brand spanking new mafia-issue cryo-gun. Because Freeze is a True Neutral gamer who gives absolutely 0 fucks (or 32 fuck Fahrenheit).

Now, as horrifying a way to go as being frozen to death in the span of a heartbeat, the art takes it one step further by lingering on this sight of our brand new human ice sculpture long enough for the guy's face to crack into a dozen pieces and fall to the ground. I'm not sure if it's come up in the blog thus far, but I really don't do well with body horror. It makes me squirm in my seat and makes me eagerly wish to be elsewhere.

So, as much as these Black Mask/Mister Freeze scenes feel like a big, blinking arrow pointed at the back burner of your stove, it does a neat little bit of character work establishing our villains' different temperaments and objectives.

Speaking of objectives. now that the sense of symmetry behind Black Mask's has been ruined, Li finally remembers to mention why he's in this scene. Apparently, Amazon's tracking number never confirmed the delivery on that giant killer robot-sized package they ordered, and I suppose opening a live chat to request a re-delivery still was a pain in the neck way back in 2005. Well, good thing they just acquired the services of an unfeeling, unstable, easily instigated cryomancer...

The bulk of the remainder of the issue depicts Batman and Nightwing's struggle against  Amazo. I'm going to forego a play by play of the fight, because it really defeats the purpose of a visual medium. Instead, I am aching to talk about what this kind of fight scene represents.

The first thing that becomes apparent when reading these pages is that instead of the sticking with Batman's internal monologue, as it was last issue, this time we are in Nightwing's head. Were this an ensemble title, switching between the various POV's of our characters would feel absolutely normal, but this feels like an odd choice to be proverbially guided through a solo title by someone other than the eponymous hero.

Still, reading the two issues back-to-back, there is a sense that Batman and Nightwing's internal monologue's complement each other. Last issue expressed a melancholy nostalgia, longing for the simpler days back when Dick was Robin and his constant companion. In contrast, Nightwing's narration implies both a sense of unceasing wonder at as well as a keen understanding of Batman. Nightwing has forged his own path and become quite a different hero and leader than Bruce, but his internal monologue all but states that he grew into the man he is today because even under Batman's fairly rigid supervision, he did allow space for him to be his own person.

In fact, I think Batman has lasted as long as he has because of it. If Batman hadn't allowed for Dick-as-Robin to be a buoyant quipster took the edge off Batman, allowed him to appear more as the more disciplined adult to Dick's boisterous child instead of the very alienating Batman who lives on a steady diet of brooding, tactics, and a thirst for justice. Batman molded Robin/Nightwing into one of the most socially/emotionally connected heroes in the DCU simply by allowing for Dick's personality to shine through, while Robin/Nightwing tempered Batman into the more... "friendly" isn't the right word, um... cooperative and morally accountable man who would end up not only the crux of his own local network of crime fighters, but also the master strategist of various iterations of the Justice League. Even in modern stories, when they team up together in the hands of a good writer, they still mostly only ever seem to bolster each other's strengths, and rarely ever diminish one another.

Batman's a badass, lest we forget... 

Last time, I mentioned that a character like Amazo exists to give a super-powered team like the Justice League a challenge to use their powers creatively or team up in unexpected way, being that he is a character who can do anything they can do. However, when a character like Amazo faces off against one or two heroes, neither of whom have superhuman abilities, you get to see a different type of fight that you don't get to see often-- no holds barred.  Heroes generally fight to subdue, not kill or maim. But that's with living, sentient foes. With a an android, particularly one that is programmed specifically to kill heroes  and is singularly equipped to do so, heroes don't need to pull their punches and what would come across as sociopathic violence against, oh, say the Riddler or Deathstroke is actually pretty satisfying when done against a kill-bot.

It's kind of like watching the X-Men rip a sentinel to shreds. It's a great way to demonstrate how utterly effective combatants our heroes can be while side-stepping the general taboo against heroes killing. And yes, Batman is that good. He throws a bunch of flash-bang grenades right in Amazo's face just so that he'll be too distracted to notice the exploding batarang Batman lodged in his leg. Which detonates and destroying all but the cybernetic framework of his leg.

Admit it, you feel ill just looking at that.

Nightwing stabs his fighting escrima into it's ears and Batman even stuffs his eyes with plastic explosives, so when Amazo accesses Superman's heat vision, he effectively burns out his own eyes. Again, this would be ruthless behavior if Batman used these kind of tactics on another living being, but because Amazo is a heartless murder droid, it negates those concerns and allows the reader to marvel at Batman and Nightwing's battle prowess and general badassery.

Of course being a R.O.D.O.K. [Robotic Obstruction Designed Only For Killing], all this does is slow him down. That's when it comes time for Batman to call in the the big gun. That's actually an odd yet apt word choice because Batman famously doesn't fight with guns. With the tap of a key fob, the Batmobile hones in on their location and reaches their destination. I'm sure it's using the same technology that UBER is beta testing. Now, of all the numerous toys built into the Batmobile, you'd think there would be EMP guns (actually according to the wiki, there's one of those on the utility belt, but I guess they needed the fight to last the length of the issue), flame throwers, or some other specific weapon designed specifically to target artificial threats (I imagine he has to take out a lot of gun turrets). Instead, do you want to know what we get? A torpedo bay mounted with four torpedoes pops out from the roof of the Batmobile. I told you he was bringing out the big guns. Torpedoes: they're the difference between a smart car and the ultimate BFG.

KIT never seemed the same after joining the NRA.

And yes, it's excessive, but boy is it satisfying for Batman to actually have a good time instead of standing around moping like he'd been doing in the first two issues of this story. We don't see the body, but he doesn't come back up for another round, which usually means in ongoing editorially driven narratives that he'll be back... eventually. But for now though, they have the ultimate question of who was that delivery, including a large cache of super villain weapons and a killer robot, meant for.

However, I can't help but view this less as a battle against a villain than as an obstacle du jour to be overcome. Amazo basically comes across as simply being the wind up murder toy this issue needs to occupy its heroes for the length of the issue. He doesn't have any clear objective other than, "destroy, destroy!" I'm not saying that a arch villain shouldn't utilize catspaws and underlings to carry out their aims, but Amazo is such a tabula rasa within the context of the story who doesn't even seem like he was a deliberate choice, but just an all purpose bad guy who popped out of the random villain generator. Our heroes could have been hitting a weeble for 22 pages, for all the impact Amazo has on the narrative.

Elsewhere, Black Mask is on the line with his supplier, presumably trying to get a refund or replacement for his order. However, the Amazon Customer Service Rep is being less than helpful. Granted, it's hard to justify re-crediting a buyer when the merchandise in questions has been stolen and/or destroyed, but it isn't as though Black Mask was culpable. Surely they had the tracking number, undoubtedly. They should know that he is not liable for the loss.

Supply and demand's a bitch, ain't it?

This all-too-familiar exercise in frustration is cut short when Black Mask gets a call from who else but the fly in seemingly everyone's ointment, Red Hood. This is such a clever reversal from the first scene, where we saw Mask being affable and patronizing of Mister Freeze as he conducted a business transaction, but is now on the receiving end of Hood who is being snarky and confident, knowing that he holds all the cards. And in these last few moments, we find out about something else Masky was expecting in that shipment that is absolutely a game changer: an entire shipping crate of kryptonite.

As I stated earlier, this isn't exactly a plot intensive installment in the story. If you pick up this issue hoping for heavy character work or a story that keeps you guessing, this isn't going to satisfy you. However, if you were looking for an issue that is a one big, fun extended fight scene that shows off just why Batman is a force to be reckoned with, this is exactly what you've been looking for.

Next week, we'll be checking in with Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur again. It's getting really hairy in that book. Thanks in no small part to the number of cave men in the story.

There's always room for Dick

A normal Tuesday in Gotham...

I vaguely recall the trade paperback of Batman: A Death in the Family being capped with the introduction of Tim Drake, who insists that Batman needs a Robin in order to keep him from getting too dark and crossing moral lines he oughtn't. On that note, Batman issue #636 opens up with Batman hanging a mook upside down.


Oh, I guess I ought to supply some context. Today we are returning to the pages of Batman with issue #636, the second installment of the "Under the Red Hood" story arc. We have mostly the same creative team returning, with Judd Winick writing, Doug Mahnke on pencils, Tom Nguyen on inks, colors by Alex Sinclair, and this time Pat Brosseau providing lettering. Additionally, the cover art was provided by Matt Wagner.

Once again, the art is amazing on the cover, even if I do have some problem with the proportions and perspective. He is dominating one half of the page, Facing and pointing his handgun directly at the reader. The other side of the page features Batman's cowl affixed to the wall with a knife. Below we see the sub-heading "The KING of Gotham City!"

It's striking to say the least, but I can't help but wonder if this is supposed to be seen from the point of view of someone with depth perception issues. The wall is supposed to be behind Black Mask and yet the cowl actually about as close as Black Mask. In fact the cowl looks larger than his own head. Also, his body language is a little off. He seems to be slouching his shoulders, which are at an odd angle, or maybe leaning over with his elbow tucked back but his forearm cheating forward so that it is facing smack center of the page. I can't help but feel like the artistic direction of this cover was changed mid-stream. The arm feels like a hastily inserted afterthought and Batman's cowl feels like an idea that could have been better on a different cover, but here is a bit of a square peg in a round hole.

My biggest problem with the cover however, is that in general I believe that a cover ought to offer the reader a hint at what they are going to see inside a given issue. Yes, Black Mask appears in this issue, but there is no confrontation between Batman and Black Mask. In fact, he very much takes a back seat in this issue. His scene is more or less limited to a discussion with his office manager. Not exactly the most engaging of scenarios, understandably. Considering what other fun things this issue has going on (Batman teaming up with an old friend, a thrilling chase scene, Mr. Freeze-related hijinks), the fact that this cover very falsely advertises what's in store feels like a misdirect and a bit of a cheat.

If you'll recall from last time we checked in on this arc, Batman got into a hissy fit after the events of War Games and kicked every one of his associates out of the Bat Cave and put a moratorium on costumed vigilantes other than himself in Gotham. Oh, and some foreign company bought out the R&D department, cutting off Batman's access to all those wonderful toys. Factor in the fact that a mysterious new figure styling himself as the Red Hood is currently muscling in on current kingpin of crime, Black Mask's territory and Masky has sought out the assistance of chaos gamer-turned-villain, Mr. Freeze to rectify the problem and Batman might have a few problems on his hands.

But like I said before, Batman works alone.

Once he is done playing a rousing game of human yo-yo with our nameless mook, he dwells on this newly-reasserted solitude. However, being Batman and having a chronic tendency to sublimate anything resembling affection by doubling down on being a Type-A personality, a pathological strategist, and frequent paranoid (it could seriously be argued that he's as effective as he is because of these three traits), he instead focuses on how exiling Barbara Gordon from the Batcave from Batcave is a blow to the operation, but one he finds necessary since he no longer finds he can trust his close-knit network of costumed crime fighters.

I've only read 2/3 of the preceding story arc, War Games story, but I can tell you it does hinge on a severe breech of trust by one of his allies... that was arguably instigated by Batman denying trust in the first place. It's also a story where Batman pushes his cohorts to the breaking point, particularly Barbara, so I wouldn't be surprised if things were said that couldn't be easily taken back, though presumably will by the next company wide crossover event.

Despite how impersonally he frames it, focusing on Barbara, who still has a larger role as a hero independently of Batman or even the Gotham vigilante scene in general. Whereas, Tim Drake and Cassandra Cain, the current Robin and Batgirl, respectively, both have closer ties to the operation. They were both trained by Batman before they took their mantles (Barbara's Batgirl tenure was far more independent), were explicitly trained to operate in tandem and subordinate to Batman in the field, and have costumed identities that are inherently tethered to the iconography and mythology of Batman.

Although, Batman's inner monologue focuses only on what her absence means to his crime fighting. Because thinking about what it means to have alienated a long-time friend would mean having to deal with emotions and Batman really sucks at them, especially when he can't contextualize them in terms of the mission.

However, Barbara Gordon feels like the right fit for him to focus on because while Tim is probably a more central role as Robin, Barbara has a longer history with Batman, is the only one to have truly suffered loss on account of being part of the heroism machine and managed to come back stronger for it. (Prior to the New 52) Contemporary DC has a much better track record than Marvel about letting its Golden and Silver Age teen characters mature into adulthood and Barbara is about on par with Dick Grayson. No, she slightly edges him out. For not only does Batman acknowledge her as a peer, but she makes him acknowledge him as an equal. I guess that's the benefit of fighting alongside Batman all these years without being ward/adoptive child/primary protege/all of the above. You get to come into your own on your own terms without dealing with Bruce's senior partner/junior partner bullshit.

Now that I have gone off on a Barbara Gordon tangent (it probably won't be the last time on this blog), I really need to get this ship back on course. Like Batman said before. He works alone.

Understatement: Batman kind of has the tunnel vision thing going on.

Oh, wait. Did I say he works alone? Yeah, apparently I was just joshing you because apparently, Dick Grayson is exempt from Batman's injunction. There's always room for Dick. He's like Jell-o, that way. He's in his guise as Nightwing, with a knee brace on from injuries sustained during War Games.

He's clearly trying to reach out to Bruce, not Batman, but Batman turns the most neutral of weather-related small talk into a reason to talk about the criminal element. Dick comments how easily Bruce made the connection between "warm night" and crime, but he has the wherewithal not to point out that his former legal guardian tends to retreat even further than usual into the Batman persona when confronted with trauma and complicated negative emotions.

Both in-universe and from a publication stand-point, Dick has always been a presence who serves to soften Batman's more off-putting traits. He was expressly introduced with the intent to make Batman less intimidating and get more kids reading. Tim was onto something when he said that Batman needs Robin because Dick set a good precedent of Batman's sidekicks being the ones who keep him from getting too dark. Tim was something of a morality pet, Jason was a lost soul in need of saving, Damian tends to accomplish it by completely inverting the dynamic, but Dick Grayson was the Boy Wonder who kept things light He moreso than the other Robins would be the one prone to crack wise and pun during their adventures. He defuses something in Batman that doesn't necessarily make him lighter in tone, but does make him ever so slightly less of a hardass.

Just like old times...

Batman acknowledges that Dick is here to check in on his emotional well-being, but doesn't vocalize thanks or rejection of his presence. Instead, he tells Nightwing he's working a case and won't stop him if he comes along. As they swing away on grappling hooks, Batman makes a slight joke (and a reversal of their initial dialogue, but when Dick expresses his amusement, Batman tells him to cork it, and he immediately responds "yes, sir." Remember when I mentioned that Babs generally does a better job at making Batman acknowledge her as an equal. Yeah, immediately falling into the big brother/little brother dynamic is probably why he generally has to move to a different major metropolitan area in order to assert his autonomy.

Sassy office banter can only lead to one thing...

Across town in the Black Mask's headquarters at Hanover Tower, the lab tech assigned to equipping Mister Freeze with a new cryo-suit makes the mistake of insulting Freeze's intelligence when he expressed concerns about how thin the armor feels. And while his reaction to the unintended insult is humorous, it is also telegraphed to the reader that this nameless tech is not long for this world.

That being casual murder. 

Sure enough, while the scene cuts to the other room where Black Mask and his number two guy, David Li, hash out the pros and cons of keeping a volatile psychotic (who has a tendency towards indiscriminatory destruction) in their employ when they are interrupted with word that Freeze has killed the lab tech. He stabbed him right in the chest with his own tool (soldering iron? sonic screwdriver?). And he isn't the first. As far as I can tell, this can't have been too long since the previous issue, maybe a day or two. How many can he have gone through?

Mask is amused by this, and calls him "spunky." He's already defending the hiring of an undoubtedly unstable element, citing that Freeze brings down destruction on all sides of him and that includes them, but I think Black Mask is only half listening to him because while he acknowledges that Freeze is a problem, they just need to make sure he is someone else's problem. Of course, you can't fault him for not listening to what Li says, considering he doesn't have ears, as far as I can tell.

I feel like this is Winick's attempt at infusing some humor into the book, but there are some tone issues here that don't quite work. Especially considering just in the previous arc, Black Mask pretty graphically tortured and killed a member of the Bat Family, depicting him as this riff on Dr. Evil complete with a silly plan and unmanageable henchmen seems like a really poor fit.

Li isn't too pleased with this, but also has some information on the new thorn in their side in the red helmet. It almost seems like this is when we're going to check in on our C plot, but instead we check back in with the Bat and the Bird on a docked cargo ship at the harbor, who are easily taking down a small contingent on armed goons in riot gear, interrupting their delivery. Batman's narration tells us something big was coming. Sure enough, it does look like it's about four square meters. I don't know what it is about that crate that makes me wish it was a velociraptor in there, but my knowledge of narrative convention in the DC universe makes me fairly certain it's not. So anything in there can only be a disappointment.

Batman might be my spirit animal.

This is the one section in which we get some of Batman's more personal internal monologue. You get the sense of not just camaraderie with Nightwing but kinship. Dick was the only Robin (before Damian, anyway) that Batman treated not only as a protege but also a surrogate son/younger sibling. He has seen Dick grow up, and certainly molded him into the man he is today. Whenever the the two have a latter-day team-up, there is a certain magic in the atmosphere, seeing just how well they click together. It must be magic even for Batman because even he gets the twinge of the nostalgic, thinking back to yo

Sidenote: Like Oracle, Nightwing grew up to be one of the linchpins of the DCU, albeit instead of IT prowess, his is due to his ability to form lasting friendships and loyalties. Ma and Pa Grayson must have really taught young Dick how to be a person because he sure didn't pick that up from the brooding Batman or the delightfully sardonic Alfred.

Once all the goons are either knocked out and/or hogtied with gatling wire, they get the crate to the ground and sadly I'm horrible at eyeing up measurements because this thing barely comes up to his waist. My guess is that it it shrunk because having had multiple jobs that involve loading and unloading things on pallets I knew what the dimensions are and they are not lining up. Oh! New theory! This box was inside the box on the pallet. It's like a Russian nesting doll.

Inside they find a vast array of multiple supervillains' accoutrements. Dick jokes about having some new trophies for the cave (actually, that's probably not a joke, just him chattering to make up for Batman's lack of chatter) when suddenly a "BREEEEEEEN' comes from the crate and they know what time it is: Get the hell out of Dodge time! A bomb planted in the crate blows the cargo ship up just in time for them to reach the safety of the dock, wet, albeit unharmed.

Cue the Benny Hill Theme!

It seems that the bomb wasn't something they triggered it was set off remotely by a figure whom Batman spots on a nearby warehouse rooftop.

And the art makes no bones about who the star of this issue is. Red Hood is absolutely gangbusters in this scene. Without him having a line of dialogue, the sense of movement and dynamism in his depiction. At one point we see him do a somersault that is downright Kirbyesque. It makes me really feel like this is someone a cut above the usual costumed crook. Also, the Kirby approach to depicting movement shows in a single panel all the nuances of a character's movement by using partially rendered figures for each motion, almost the way

Simone Biles level skill

They grappling hook their way up there and begin a wild goose chase over the rooftops of Gotham. Just like the flash forward fight sequence from last time, the chase itself gives the reader a chance to see Red Hood in action. But whereas last time, it was very combat specific, this time we see him in motion. He's acrobatic, and a natural at navigating the rooftops of Gotham, even managing to prevent Batman from snagging him with a batarang snare by slicing the cord before it manages to go taut. Something about him is very familiar to Batman.

Red Hood is a B.A.M.F.

Sidebar: the script has the word "taught" instead of "taut." Let that be a lesson to you kids, Spellcheck is your friend, but even friends let you do stupid things if it sounds okay on paper.

They ultimately track Red Hood down crashing down through the overhead windows of a warehouse. Do warehouses actually have overhead windows or is this just a convention of the medium? I will make allowances for Rule of Cool because I know how impressive it looks when heroes descend upon us from above, but I just want to know what to expect if I ever find myself exploring a warehouse.

It's dark inside, but only for a moment until the lights flicker on and Batman and Nightwing find themselves face to face with the real delivery they wanted to obstruct. Except it seems Red Hood has already taken Black Mask's new toy out of the box and wound it up, leaving our heroes to deal with Amazo.

Did you know steroids work on Androids?
#TheMoreYouKnow

If Amazo sounds like a very stupid Silver Age name, that's because you have ears and taste. Amazo doesn't really do the character justice, but on the other hand there isn't much to him either. Amazo is an android. Visually, at least in this instance, he resembles Namor the Submariner if he were a 'roided up gym rat. What he's capable is pretty much something that you saw a lot of super teams face in the Silver Age. He's the character who can take on the powers of an entire team of powered superheroes, forcing the team to get creative and show some ingenuity, demonstrating how a group can use their powers in creative ways in order to win the day. However, in case I didn't make it clear, he possesses the super-powered abilities of seven Justice League members. And Batman and Nightwing, highly trained and skilled or not, are baseline humans. This might be a little beyond their ken at the moment. And that's where the issue draws to a close.

So, now that we are two issues in, I'm noticing that this is well written, but a fairly light meal. Maybe it's because I'm typically drawn to very character driven narratives, but I'm not getting a sense of a lot to really sink my teeth into. Granted, usually what I mean by "sink my teeth into" generally means either "deconstruct and analyze" or "heckle mercilessly."

I guess it's part of the problem with decompressed story telling and a protagonist who goes the extra mile to compartmentalize, but I do find it troubling that even when we are in Batman's perspective, he is still a bit too emotionally detached for us to connect with. I think there is a strong temptation when writing Batman to make him just unrealistically adept at all things.  I do like this that tendency, but only when it is mitigated by one of two things: The first is to play up the argument that Batman's perfectionist tendencies might be the by-product of being a bit of a psychiatric case. The second would be to show a contrast between what he says and how he acts. One of the narrative functions unique to comics is the ability to line up thoughts and deeds next to each other and create a more nuanced understanding of the character.

The Black Mask and Mr. Freeze story is coming along, but for such significant threats, the writing doesn't seems to be certain whether they are serious or comedic foes. Yes, Mr. Freeze kills at a hat drop, but the fact that Black Mask thinks it's a hoot. I'm all for having fun, comical villains, but I question whether this was the authorial intent. Or whether it earns its place in the narrative. They're not here to move their sub-plot along, just to remind you it exists. I'm honestly wondering how much of their scene we could cut without losing any narrative cohesion. My guess is quite a lot.

Overall, this issue keeps the ball rolling from last issue, albeit slowly. The story definitely took things up a notch with Red Hood, which I am all for. Last issue we saw how he one-ups the criminals, this time we saw just what a wild goose chase he can give our heroes. He's shaping into quite a classic trickster god figure, like Loki, or Hermes, or Malcolm Reynolds.

Next week, we're heading back to Marvel for another installment of mutant dinosaurs, evil cavemen, and girl geniuses in the pages of Moon Girl & Devil Dinosaur.

It sucks to be Bruce

Okay, I had an opportunity to recharge after finishing up the twelve-issue see-saw of quality that was DC's Crisis on Infinite Earths. I had some fun with a one-and-done read, but now I need to return to my primary objective with this blog: deep dives into DC's often puzzling approach to continuity. When I first embarked upon this project, I threw myself into the deep end, but I'm making a bit more of a measured move with the next project. After all, huge company-wide crossovers don't always represent how continuity works quite the way that the individual long-running flagship titles do. Additionally, we must ask ourselves, what is the nature of the beast born from adapting one of their flagship character's original stories? Yes, friends, it is time for us to look at the exploits of Batman as he gets beaten over the head with his own complex continuity. Join me as I explore Batman: Under the Red Hood.

Batman #535 is written by Judd Winick, pencils by Doug Mahnke, inks by Tom Nguyen, and colors by Alex Sinclair. Additionally, cover art was provided by Matt Wagner.

Admittedly, I have a bias going into this because it was written by Judd Winick. Best known as an old school alumnus of The Real World, his experiences there opened his journey into comics when he penned an autobiographical graphic novel Pedro and Me, about friendship with his late housemate on the show, AIDS educator Pedro Zemora. It was widely acclaimed and garnered him several awards, including the Eisner and a GLAAD Media Award for best Comic Book. However, it is admittedly not why I'm going to have trouble staying objective (even though I think it's important). No, that honor goes to Marvel's Exiles. It was effectively X-Men meets Sliders, but that doesn't do it justice. The feel and tone of the book was more akin to a late teens/early 20's roadtrip, which tends to be one of my favorite story frameworks in comics. He also tends to fall into the Joss Whedon school of storytelling, in that he is more concerned with writing an emotionally satisfying narrative than anything else. So going into this, I know that Winick can hit all the right emotional buttons. I'm going to try to remain objective, but I want own up to that before we begin.

Issue number 635 starts us off and I have to say Mark Wagner's cover art is beautiful. It hearkens back to the art deco style of Batman TAS, which by 2005 had no doubt had brought in a whole generation of lifetime readers. It's actually basic in concept: Batman fighting a foe. Simple. Effective. It's interesting to note that he is facing down the Red Hood, but not the Red Hood we will be dealing with in this story. Like I said, this story is an interesting exploration of Batman's own history and I'm sure this little tidbit will pay off in the long run.

In typical noir superhero fashion, we start out with an introduction not of our characters, but of our harsh world. Ah, Gotham... it's basically the lovechild of Al Capone-era Chicago and 70's/80's New York City. How the fuck does its department of tourism earn its keep? We zoom in on one of its most downtrodden citizens just to personalize what a horrible place this is... because eco terrorists, clay monsters, and psychotic killer clowns who regularly poison the water supply wasn't sufficient evidence. David "Tipper" Coates is a runaway who has been living on the streets after leaving an abandoned homelife and things have only gotten worse for him since then, He is either the witness of, victim of, or perpetrator of beatings, drugs, and various forms of prostitution. The coup de grace in this boy's personal sack of shit is that the pulpy narration thinks he'd be even worse off if he had a better vantage point of the city.

At the risk of shooting their wad early, they gave us exactly
what they promised in this story straight away.

On that note, we cut to a huge two-page splash of our titular hero in close combat with our eponymous foe. Batman vs the Red Hood. Remember how I said that we wouldn't be dealing with the same Red Hood that appeared on the cover? Well, at least sartorially speaking, the one we end up with in the actual story is a downgrade. On the cover, we are promised the original one. DC's continuity is kind of wonky, so we will definitely talk about who that is at a later date, but suffice to say the original cut a figure. Okay, his helmet is kind of ridiculous, but look at that tux. Look at that dazzling cape! The Red Hood we'll come to know sports more of a casual biker ensemble. But at least his helmet is less... phallic.

It was that or the Adidas.

And we get this fantastic blow by blow fight scene between the two of them, I don't know if "impressed" is something Batman is capable of, but at the very least, he acknowledges that Red has skills. Using his twisted dagger, he slices through Batman's suit. Most first time hoods are a little sketchy on whether Batman is an urban legend or not, but this guy just happens to be armed with a blade capable of cutting through Batman's beyond state of the art battle suit. That shouldn't be possible.

Quick side note: for a guy supposedly straddling the line between man and myth, Batman is probably not helping to maintain his mystique by wearing boots with bat symbols in the treads.

Red Hood even manages to unmask the Caped Crusader. Just for a sense of significance, the only other for that I know of who has managed to see him unmasked broke his freaking back, so that's a huge deal. 

Of course, our adversary is not without a sense of fair play, so he too unmasks, though we don't see the reveal. Batman however is shocked and does the patented "no... It can't be" reaction. Being a lifelong X-fan, I'm just going to assume it's Erik the Red.

And then we smashcut to five weeks ago.

Yes, I know you were expecting to find out who is under the red hood, but then again where would the mystery be?

The POV shifts to Alfred, who is left with the task of tidying up some of the recent events for readers just hopping on with this story.

Alfred is generally one of my favorite members of the Batman ensemble. He's one of the best surrogate father figures in Western Pop Culture and at least in my book is on par with Rupert Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I always find it funny that my read of him shifts from that of a doting if sardonic uncle who is proud of Bruce's commitment to bettering the world, to that of a man who has to snark constantly in order to cope with the fact his best friends' son is so messed up that now he gallivants around the city dressed like a bat.

And in an ideal version I think he's kind of both.

He sees Bruce Wayne in a way that I don't think Bruce even does (partially because I think Bruce is arguably the mask, but that's a ramble for another time). Other heroes, villains, and even the other members of the Bat family see Batman as this larger than life figure, a methodical general among men who is not to be trifled with. The world at large sees Bruce Wayne as a care free, over-indulgent multi-billionaire trust fund baby. But Alfred still sees the little boy who has been robbed of the two people who mean the most to him in the world, a boy in pain and in need of an outlet and support. Of course, when Thomas and Martha Wayne were laid to rest, I highly suspect that supporting Bruce would eventually lead to suturing Bruce's wounds on the regular.

A huge Bat-family crossover called "War Games" just wrapped up, and it dealt quite a blow to the Bat books, so the book does its best to use the tragedies of "War Games" as a springboard for this story. What you need to know: someone died and Batman's ties to his typical partners in Gotham have been severed. Later we will find out that he actually issued a fiat to all the other crime fighters in Gotham, ordering them out of his city, with the exceptions of Catwoman, who he only has a marginal ability to influence on the regular and another character we'll be meeting in the near future. Considering Batman is a character whose coping skills, at least in terms of loss and grief, crystalized when he was 10, shutting out his nearest and dearest actually sounds pretty consistent with his character. I bet he also has a plush toy he cuddles with and to whom he confides all his secrets.

So, everything sucks to be Batman these days. What about Bruce Wayne? On cue, Lucius Fox shows up and despite Alfred assuring that Bruce is unavailable, he isn't going anywhere until he's had some facetime. Batman has to take some time away from his intensified brooding schedule to put on the Bruce Wayne mask and heads topside. Lucius informs him that Wayne Industries entire R&D department has been bought out from under their noses. For Bruce Wayne, it's a financial pebble in his shoe. For Batman however, it's a critical loss. It means that at best, the equipment he already has will end up getting outstripped eventually. At worst, it means that the same calibre of cutting edge combat equipment he has been embezzling for years are now going to be available to crazies thanks to that damn free market capitalism I keep hearing about. Of course, it's different if you're the type of crazy that involves dressing up like a bat. That's the kind of crazy we encourage to have armored cars, stealth planes, and shark repellent.

Where is he going to get all those wonderful toys now?

Of course, my beloved, stalwart Alfred has the best response to Bruce's true, if a bit self-important appraisal.

Truth.

Now, riddle me this: can you think of a time where both Batman and Bruce Wayne both got the short end of the stick? Yes, Batman has been through the wringer before but has Bruce ever been dealt a hand that caused such a setback both for himself and his alter ego? Hell, Bruce isn't even having any success at feigning his usual persona. He was caught with his pants down when his latest beard was reported actually dating someone else out of town. He is failing so hard on all fronts and the weird thing is the art doesn't reflect a man out of sorts. He looks like he almost expects this sort of shit in his life. No wonder he can emotionally cope with evicting the other capes from the city-- even the ones he has legally adopted. He has been prepared to be a failure as a person for ages it seems.

Elsewhere, we find ourselves across town in a warehouse after hours where we have a meeting of the minds among the heads of several drug cartels, none of whom know who sent out the invite. These gangs all are under the thumb of Black Mask, Gotham's current mafia kingpin. As it turns out, they meet their host when Red Hood calls the meeting to order. He makes them an offer to earn their loyalty which is better than what they presently have under Black Mask and would offer protection from both Batman and Black Mask. His only stipulation would be that selling on schools or to minors in general is strictly verboten.

When questioned why they should do business with him, Red Hood throws down a duffel bag and everyone is aghast at its contents. The severed heads of all their capos are inside. Red tells them that he tracked down and collected their heads in the span of two hours and that he could do a whole lot worse over the course of a whole night. He makes it clear that his business offer was not a request as he pulls out a semi and goes to town on the duffel of severed heads. Everyone is on board. Yeah. A+ for intimidation.

Here and I thought Eight Heads in a Duffel Bag would be funny...

Sometime later, Black Mask, whose head is a blackened skull for reasons that I'm sure will make not the slightest difference to the narrative, should I ever find out, is being told about this development by his own number two guy. Black Mask is very affable, more of a mogul than your typical Bat baddie. He doesn't rage over it. He doesn't even kill random henchmen as a coping mechanism. This is not the type of Bat-foe I'm accustomed to. Or at least not the gimmicky Bat foe, anyway. He's closer to Carmine Falcone or Rupert Thorne. Except with a skull for a face because by the mid '00s, even the crime bosses had to be as weird as the actual Arkhamites. Observe the results of escalation, folks.

Mr Freeze cannot pull off they Jersey Shore
look. No cheeto tan.

His solution is quite simple. Hire a crazy person who uses freeze guns. Yup. We have a final page reveal of Mr, Freeze, who seems to be down on his luck, looking worse for wear. He's been reduced to living in a walk-in freezer and wearing a torn up tank top. And he's looking forward to the opportunity to having more cash flow and the opportunity to amass a body count.

As far as the first issue of a new arc goes, this one is actually pretty good. I mean yeah, the timejump start kind of bugs me, especially how tired that particular narrative device is in 2016. However, it does have the virtue of being pretty a well executed fight scene. That aside, once we start dealing with characters we get excellent character work. Batman is challenged in a way he typically doesn't, as is Bruce Wayne which I find interesting. Meanwhile, our villain is clearly setting a lot of wheels in motion without ever entangling directly either characters who he sets up as his chosen adversaries. Red Hood is so obviously a chaos gamer. He's setting up dominoes and waiting for others with more clout to knock them down for him. Well played.

I want to ping pong between the Big Two and hopefully a third option a bit more regularly, so next week we're going to take a look at Marvel's latest spin on the "A Boy And His X" Narrative. It's a story 65 million years in the making, folks.