Two whole issues without a tie-in to a crossover? Someone pinch me. Or pull the Black Mercy off my chest. Whichever gets the job done.
Cover by Scott McDanielWritten by Ed Brubaker & Greg Rucka
Illustrated by Scott McDaniel & Rich Burchett
Inked by Andy Owens & Klaus Janson
Colored by Roberta Tewes & Lee Loughridge
Separated by Wildstorm FX
Lettered by John Costanza & Willie Schubert
At long last, after the death of Bruce Wayne’s friend Jeremy Samuels, the shooting of Lew Moxon and a handful of epic battles, it comes down to this: the final showdown between Batman and Zeiss.
The more I read of this era of “Batman,” the weirder it is to realize that “Detective Comics” was the actual driver of storylines and not the main-line Bat title. I may be biased, as I’m a huge fan of Rucka’s ‘New Gotham’ work, though it’s not hard to see where “Batman” is taking cues from “Detective Comics” rather than the other way around. The piecemeal use of his bodyguard/new sidekick Sasha, Vesper Fairchild being entirely absent, and the brief resolution to the Moxton/Zeiss conflict all indicate, to me at least, a title needing to conform to the whims of another book.
It’s weird. Maybe it’s because the “Batman” comic, while still selling, wasn’t as big a tentpole as it is now? Anyone reading these books contemporaneously, please let me know. I’d love to hear what the buzz was around the book and how people talked about it compared to other DC titles.
The other reason this is important, other than pure curiosity and situating the title in time, is it would explain why the next big “Batman” storyline – ‘Bruce Wayne – Murderer?’ and ‘Bruce Wayne – Fugitive’ – seems to come out of nowhere. I mean, sure, “Batman: The 10-Cent Adventure” sets the stage for any new readers but it’s following up on threads and characters who are primary to “Detective Comics,” not “Batman.” “Batman,” on the other hand, has to wrap up the storylines it’s been slowly building in order to be ready for Bruce Wayne to be framed for murder.
There’s good and bad to be found in “Batman” #597. By leaning into Batman as Detective, Brubaker is able to create a compelling mystery out of a case whose outcome we already knew. In fact, I’d forgotten about the guy Zeiss had killed when he got his glasses fixed so it took me until the reveal to put the pieces together. McDaniel also gets the chance to draw some very fun car chase scenes early on in the issue. But that’s about all there is to it.
There is a strong “we’re about to be canceled” vibe to “Batman” #597. Whatever the Moxon’s were up to is relegated to the background, all the messy details about Zeiss’s background are forgotten, and Zeiss is defeated; even the attempts to “save” Mallory from the life of crime is truncated to a short scene before the final Zeiss confrontation. It’s not quite a neat bow on everything that came before but it does enough. It creates a stable status quo from which something new can happen without it feeling like an interruption, as was the case three times in the previous year.
It’s a shame. I was looking forward to seeing Bruce navigate the difficulty of his childhood friend being a mob mover and shaker and the dual-treatment of Bruce vs Batman. I was also very engaged in Zeiss’s story, even if I thought his MO was kinda ill-defined. This ending makes both characters less interesting and deflates the whole run like a sad balloon.
“Batman” #598 is a Christmas adventure that I appreciate for being self-contained but was a real slog to get through. Much like the last appearance of Santa Klaus, it’s a pretty rough read for what he does, how the comic treats him, and how Batman treats him. It’s pretty callous, which isn’t a Batman I like, and to top it off, even the ending scene doesn’t have the usual grand lesson/heartwarming reconciliation/somber contemplation one of these Batman Christmas issues usually has.
Continued belowOh, and I especially didn’t love that one page of a Jewish guy getting attacked for not accepting one of his gifts. Why was he considered bad? Because he doesn’t celebrate Christmas? Real dud of an issue and a real dud of a scene.
As for the start of ‘Bruce Wayne – Murderer?’ and the only “Batman” part of it? They’re both pretty good! “10-Cent Adventure” is a primer for where Bruce is at through the eyes of Sasha and does it’s job remarkably well, setting the tone and giving just enough background details to catch everyone up to speed without overloading them. I know I said I’d only be reading main title “Batman” issues – and forwent “Batman: Our Worlds at War” #1 – but I made an exception here because it has “Batman” in the title and I knew it was an important starting issue.
“Batman” #599 is part 7 of the arc yet it reads just fine on its own. It’s a story of Bruce in jail and doubles down on the “Who is Bruce Wayne? The man or the mask?” idea. It also gives us a check-in on where they are following Vesper’s murder in “10-Cent Adventure,” the answer to which is “not great.” Having read this section before, I can say that the “arc” really is more like a status quo with each issue adding tiny details to the overall trajectory but not meaningfully changing things at each point.
It’s honestly kinda slow and the follow-up arc is even slower, likely because each book has its own focus within their ongoing narratives in addition to the arc’s mystery. I’m less frustrated by the lack of lead-in or resolution to “Batman” #599 in part because of “10-Cent Adventure” but also because Brubaker and Co. do a good job of conveying the information necessary and providing a complete experience to this one issue. It’s a tricky balance and of all the times he’s had to do it, this was the most successful.
Still, I can’t help but feel ambivalent about these and the next couple sets of issues, knowing what I know about where we go. I guess we’ll have to see if this experiment makes things better or worse for the cohesion of the run.
My money’s on weirder.
