Reviews 

“Batman” #606-607

By | August 26th, 2022
Posted in Reviews | % Comments

‘Fugitive’ is technically over but don’t tell “Batman” that. It still needs to spend two more issues dealing with the aftermath that really should have been happening in the pages of “Batgirl.” It’s also the most Geoff Johns-iest of Geoff Johns’ comics I’ve ever read.

Cover by Scott McDaniel

Written by Ed Brubaker & Geoff Johns
Illustrated by Scott McDaniel
Inked by Andy Owens
Colored by Gregory Wright
Separated by Wildstorm FX
Lettered by John Costanza

Just when Batman thought it was safe to swing through the streets of Gotham City again, Deadshot returns with an assignment to take out a key figure in a political cover-up that could rock the DCU. And for Deadshot, this isn’t just a job—it’s another chance to take Batman down.

I want to get it out of the way first: I didn’t really like these issues. At first, I couldn’t put my finger on why. The more I thought about it, the more things clicked into place.

‘Death-Wish for Two’ is pretty dull, even with McDaniel trying his hardest to bring the action, which, to be fair, he does bring quite well. I love that bridge sequence. Oh, and the continued motif of those colored swirls representing memory/dream/imagined reality. I wish more “Batman” comics kept that idea. Where was I again? Oh. Right. Dull Batman.

#606 & 607 are way too decompressed, splitting what could have been a tight, single issue wrap-up into a bloated two-parter. Deadshot being hired to kill David Cain to prevent him from speaking is pretty cool! Spending 4-5 pages with him at a bar gathering intel to make that reveal? Less cool. Even worse is how there’s a lot of weird plot and character choices, most of which I place firmly on the shoulders of co-writer Geoff Johns.

I’ll get into specifics in a moment re: plot & character choices. First, let’s talk Johns.

I’ve got mixed feelings about his work as a writer and decidedly even more mixed on him as a person (and continuing to be a part of DC.) He’s done great stuff, he’s done some real stinkers, and you can always tell when he’s on a project. In the case of “Batman” #606 & 607, it’s pretty clear he was driving the ship more than Brubaker.

One of the big giveaways is the dialog. Brubaker’s dialog has been pretty direct and more conversational than dramatic. He leans into noir/crime/detective genre patterns and modifies them for the superhero genre. It’s not always successful, of course. Johns, on the other hand, is melodramatic and operatic. Big scenes and big emotions. That’s what we get here. It’s not an issue in and of itself. It is, however, at odds with what we’d been getting without adding anything to the narrative.

OK. This was funny but emblematic of the flattening in this arc.

What’s worse is there’s a sense of characters being forced to match a pre-set goal and story rather than the other way around. This is a big problem with Johns’ work, even in his best stuff like “Blackest Night.” In pursuit of an outcome, and to make this specific story work, anything is fair game to ignore or change and pretend it’s been that way the whole time. You see this in how he didn’t seem to care about what Brubaker had done before in his run – with Deadshot, even – and ignored the themes that underpinned Bruce’s journey during ‘Murderer’ and ‘Fugitive.’

Like, the central arc of “Batman” #606-607 is about David Cain’s death wish. It, frankly, comes out of nowhere, which could be a function of Cain having been in exactly one “Batman” comic before – his debut issue back in 1999: “Batman” #567. As such, it could be true, having been established in a different part of the event, but I have my doubts. It reeks of only being there to potentially kick-start a redemption arc.

Batman’s attempts to save Cain and convince him to live, on the other hand, are very much in his wheelhouse. He’s Batman. Of course, he’d try to save Cain. His reasoning, though, is suspect. Batman says that he’s doing it for Cassandra, who still cares about Cain.

Continued below

As with Cain’s death wish, I don’t know if this is true. It could be a lie, as Batman simply wanted the deaths to stop and to keep Cain alive to testify or it could be this was established in the “Batgirl” book. We just have to take Batman’s word.

This is a bad way to tell a story for a couple reasons. The first is leaving out scenes that actually show this reasoning to be true (or false) cheapens the narrative and makes it feel self-serving rather than organic. It’s Johns (and Brubaker) creating an emotional arc where there was once none. It serves a narrative purpose that works on a surface level but falls apart upon closer scrutiny.

Deadshot having his own death wish is another example of this. It’s great within the two-parter, acting as a bit of narrative symmetry for Cain, but dig even a tiny bit beneath the surface and it reveals itself to be kinda pointless and like it came out of nowhere. There’s little evidence that Deadshot has, or had, a death wish beyond being a supervillain with a target on his chest. But now that Cain needs a thematic shadow to fight, here Deadshot is.

Is it an interesting reading? 100% and I’d have loved a real exploration of it, but he’s mostly there to be a narrative device, which is super weird considering these twin death wishes are the title of the arc. Furthermore, it fails to capitalize on Deadshot’s previous appearance in Brubaker’s run when he tries to assassinate Moxton and fights with Zeiss.

The second reason is, for my money, a far more damning one and the major problem with the whole emotional journey of ‘Death-Wish for Two.’ This isn’t Batman’s motivation: it’s Cassandra Cain’s. Invoking her, not doing the bare minimum to show why she supposedly came to that decision, and then leaving her out of the narrative entirely is bonkers.

You want a meaningful emotional core to this two-parter? Either have Batman’s arguments to Cain focus on his embrace of the whole Bat-family with Cain’s (twisted) love for Cassandra as his point of connection, or just have Batgirl be the narrative driver. Why these ‘Fugitive’ aftermath issues didn’t happen in the pages of “Batgirl” is beyond me. Absent the presence of Batman, there is little here that couldn’t have been done more effectively and for the proper audience over on that title.

As someone only reading “Batman,” it’s a pretty baffling choice to have this be the end of both ‘Fugitive’ AND Brubaker’s run too. Instead of getting a satisfying cap on the journey Brubaker has crafted for Bruce through ‘Fugitive,’ as faltering as it may have been, we get a mess of an exit that leaves no one happy. Yes, I know one might argue his run simply moved to “Detective Comics” with issue #777 in order for ‘Hush’ to run in “Batman” but I won’t, and neither, it seems, will DC.

It’s a shame, too, because I enjoyed the back half of the ‘Fugitive’ “Batman” issues. I had hoped things would close out strong and instead they limp along for an additional two issues that took out all the things I liked about Brubaker’s voice on the title and thinned it out to almost nothing. These issues were not Batman’s. They were not even Batgirl’s. They were David Cain’s.

What a waste.

Thanks Batman

And thus, we reach the end. From Hama to Brubaker, with a couple pit stops along the way, and held together by McDaniel, Wildstorm FX, Costanza, Tewes/Wright, and Story/Owens, thank you for joining me on this journey through a very strange era in DC comics and an extra strange era of “Batman.” Serious kudos to Scott McDaniel for doing nearly every issue for two and a half years. That doesn’t happen nearly as much as it should anymore at the Big 2. I may not have always loved the style but when it worked, it worked.

I’m glad I was able to dig into these issues, even if there were WAY more duds in this run than I expected. Now I know what was opposite the ‘New Gotham’ stuff and who that weird dude on the “Batman by Ed Brubaker” trade actually is. Turns out he’s not a speedster and not Robin. Speaking of, anyone else find it weird and so, so refreshing that Tim Drake’s Robin spoke like a regular person and not the perpetually angry gremlin that is Damian? No? Just me?

Anyway, it was a lot of fun, even with issues like these, and I kinda hope the Moxtons and Zeiss show up again. Who would’ve thought I’d say that? That’s the magic of revisiting an overlooked era. You never know what’ll captivate your mind and turn you into a mobile ophthalmologist’s tool set.


//TAGS | 2022 Summer Comics Binge

Elias Rosner

Elias is a lover of stories who, when he isn't writing reviews for Mulitversity, is hiding in the stacks of his library. Co-host of Make Mine Multiversity, a Marvel podcast, after winning the no-prize from the former hosts, co-editor of The Webcomics Weekly, and writer of the Worthy column, he can be found on Twitter (for mostly comics stuff) here and has finally updated his profile photo again.

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