You know? I’m starting to understand why so many DC fans were frustrated with the company in the early 2000s. Sure we got new villains and interesting status quos but we also have the death of the editorial box and suddenly aliens.
Cover by Scott McDanielWritten by Ed Brubaker
Illustrated by Scott McDaniel
Inked by Karl Story
Colored by Roberta Tewes
Separated by Wildstorm FX
Lettered by John Costanza
Shot Through the Heart’ part 1! One of Batman’s deadliest foes—the assassin known as Deadshot—returns with his weapon trained directly on a big shot mafia mouthpiece.
One of the annoying things of how I structured this binge is I didn’t quite get the story-arcs to line up. Up till now there was enough of a buffer of single issue stories or nice groupings, like with our three-parter from Vaughan, but now things get weird with a two-parter and the first issue of another arc which is also a tie-in to an event ala ‘Officer Down,’ ‘Our Worlds at War.’ This time, though, it spans many series and not just the Bat-books. I, again, will not be reading it so prepare to be confused with me!
That’s one of the biggest downsides of these three issues. Despite Brubaker’s writing being much stronger than it was just four issues before, with a renewed focus and an intriguing mystery, there are a number of questions any reader of just “Batman” is left with. Is Jim Gordon dead? Why does Huntress hate Bruce more than usual? Who is this random lady following Bruce around? And, ultimately, where can I find the answers to these questions?
Now, I did not read the rest of ‘Officer Down’ and so it’s possible most, if not all, of those questions were answered there. However it is frustrating to not be given even a semblance of a summary or a few lines to explain it all. The random lady is Sasha, Bruce’s new bodyguard from “Detective Comics,” a fact I only know because I’ve read that excellent run before. But it took me nearly half an issue or more to place her and that’s not good.
McDaniel’s style isn’t the best at making regular people look distinct from each other and Brubaker doesn’t give any textual clues until much later. This is true of Batman’s conversation with Huntress and of Jim’s current status when Bruce is moping beneath a tree – an excellent scene even with the confusion. It’s even weirder when you consider Brubaker is able to summarize issue #591 at the start of #592 for us in an organic, if not a little redundant, manner.
DC’s house style, at least by this era, was different from Marvel and remains so to this day. While editorial boxes, indicating when a referenced event happened if it’s important and not fully explained in a particular issue, are back now at both companies, in the early 2000s, that was not the case. The same is true of the recap page, though DC still hates those with the fiery intensity of a thousand suns. It leads to things like me being baffled and confused by why there are suddenly aliens in a crime superhero story and having no context for it. I don’t need the whole deal all at once but, you know, a little bit more would be helpful.
Putting aside these (quite glaring) issues, “Batman” #591-593 does a lot as a statement of intent from Brubaker. This is a story about Bruce’s past coming back not to haunt him but to challenge him. I love the stories which plumb the depths of Bruce’s childhood directly post-alley scene. It’s a fertile time for drama and for showing both how he has not changed much or for showing the ways he has changed.
In the case of “Batman” #591-592, Brubaker makes the case that Bruce is less angry at the world for his parents death. He isn’t lashing out at his former friends and has learned the value of building a family. Brubaker is laying the groundwork for an argument for the extended Bat family’s continued and valuable presence as well as for his embrace of said extended network. Batman is not a loner and is at his worst when he thinks he is.
Continued belowHowever, he’s also arguing that Bruce is very, very bad at internalizing this and falls back on his brooding loner schtick anytime he gets in over his head. Bruce and Batman are not infallible nor are they particularly good with people. Playing the “billionaire playboy” routine is a convenient excuse for not actually learning how to deal with people deeply. While it’s well established that he is great at reading people – and it’s even done here as he tries to profile deadshot – when it comes to personal relationships, he really isn’t.
In “Batman” #591 & 592, a woman from Bruce’s past, Mallory Maxon resurfaces, bringing with her memories Bruce had long ignored because they were either inconvenient – him happy with his parents – or from a time he’d rather forget – the year right after. It highlights the blind spots Bruce has, the damage his inability to reckon with his past continues to cause, and how human he really is. Not just the “sad boy in the alley” or the angsty embodiment of vengeance but a fuller person with failings and successes that affects him even now.
I love how Brubaker uses this to peel back the layers of Mallory too. Because we’re seeing the world through Bruce’s eyes, at first she’s a random person from his past, resurfacing because her father is a “former” mobster and political hopeful. Then she’s a dear friend he feels guilty for hurting and who represents an innocent time in his history. Then she is a symbol of innocence corrupted once he discovers she’s working with her father as a member of the mob.
Bruce is coming to terms with this person being, well, a person and not just this image of the past frozen in amber. It hurts him and while it’s couched in the language of “crime corrupts all,” the greater tragedy is of Bruce once again falling back on his cynicism and feelings of loneliness; that is what ultimately causes him to make the mistakes which gets her backhanded by Deadshot – a panel that sits quite poorly with me – her father shot and Zeiss in the wind.
There’s a lot to dig into in these issues and we’re only at the start. I still don’t know who hired Zeiss or what his deal is. What is Penguin’s stake in the game? How will these incidents snowball out of control and how will Mallory’s inevitably blaming of Batman play out? Will Bruce spiral out more or will he find himself? And what about the alien who looked for sanctuary (not that one) at the end of “Batman” #593?
Next time, all is revealed! Or at least we’ll finally move past the sudden alien.
