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Remembering Amalgam: “Bat-Thing” #1

By | October 12th, 2020
Posted in Reviews | % Comments

This is about the Amalgam Comic “Bat-Thing”, not that panel in “Batman: Damned”. It’s also part 19 in our 26 installment journey through Amalgam Comics.

The Mash Up
Man-Bat meets Man-Thing, as told by Larry Hama, Rodolfo DaMaggio, and Bill Sienkiewicz. This is another DC production.

The plot
You’d expect this to be about Bat-Thing, but you’d be wrong. It’s really about police detectives Clark Bullock and Christine Montoya, with Bat-Thing in a minor role as McGuffin instead of as a character.

The story opens with Bullock and Montoya at a murder scene where the cause of death appears to have been Bat-Thing. They talk about the victim’s criminal past so we readers know understand that 1) it’s OK that he’s dead and 2) Bat-Thing isn’t a bad guy for killing him. Bullock leaves the scene to warn Bat-Thing’s wife that he’s back in Gotham. He’s followed Bat-Thing and a mystery villain.

Montoya returns to the precinct to file paperwork and discovers a bulletin about a recent prison escape. We’re not shown a name or a face, but it’s enough for her to realize Bullock is in danger. She’s able to get through to him via radio just in time for him to avoid being killed by a couple goons on motorcycles.

During Bullock’s showdown in the street, two other goons attack Bat-Thing’s wife and daughter. The title character enters the story here, killing both goons. When Bullock arrives, Bat-Thing charges toward him. As Bullock fires into the monster, Bat-Thing leaps over Bullock to attack the mystery villain that was sneaking up behind him. The mystery villain is killed and Bat-Thing flies away.

When she arrives on scene, Montoya tells Bullock that the mystery villain, the slender man who had trouble pronouncing his S sounds, was really Fat Freddy, a gangster they had discussed earlier in the issue. Bullock shot Freddy in the face, which required reconstructive surgery that left him unrecognizable. The ordeal prevented him from eating solid food, so Fat Freddy lost a lot of weight, too. Bullock realizes Bat-Thing may not be the monster he appears to be.

What “Wizard” thought then
Surprisingly, no penis jokes. Hama promised it would be violent, and reminded everyone he wrote the top selling Amalgam from 1996, “Dark Claw”.

After release, “Wizard” cited this and “Generation Hex” as books put together just for the title pun and blamed them for the poor fan response.

Oh, and it was nowhere near being the top seller for 1997.

What I think now
“Bat-Thing” was underwhelming and predictable. The best part of the comic is the opening narration. Hama sets the scene wonderfully with hard boiled descriptions like “Where the brown water meets the grey edge of the city… and the stink of the Gotham fish market mingles with downwind traces of the sewage treatment plant.” Unfortunately, that narration is abandoned for some TV procedural cop drama dialogue where two disinterested police talk to each other about the victim, saying things both of them already know for the benefit of the reader. This average banter is occasionally brought down by some atypical balloon placements by letterer Albert DeGuzman, like in the panel below. It’s not impossible to figure out, but the parallel placement of Bullock’s second balloon and Montoya’s first led me to read it in a Z pattern instead of the backward N pattern that’s needed. (It doesn’t help that her question in her second balloon is a response to Bullock’s first.)

The plot of the story is underwhelming. Bullock thinks Bat-Thing is a mindless murderer, but his suspicions are never compelling in a way that would make a reader agree with him – especially not over the “he protects us” claims of Bat-Thing’s wife. This just sets up some false suspense, because you know he’s wrong, you know he’s going to realize it, and you know he’s going to figure it out before it’s too late, so why waste everyone’s time by not getting to the point?

Speaking of false suspense, the villain was a huge let down. Fat Freddy wasn’t a known quantity by the reader, he wasn’t even an Amalgam, so what’s the point of hinting at his identity before a big anti-climatic reveal?

Continued below

On the art side, DaMaggio’s storytelling is mostly competent and acceptable. He did a fantastic job with rain in the opening scene. There was really only one misstep in the comic, and it came during an action scene. In one panel, Bullock is trying to open his car door. He hears his partner on the radio, but she’s just razzing him and never says why she’s calling (he’s in danger). In the background and second panel, two bikers are moving in to kill Bullock. In the last panel, an arm reaches out from under a car to shoot at them. Pop Quiz: who’s under the car?

Surprise! It’s Bullock, the man too fat to wear his radio slid under his car and fired blindly at two moving objects in a residential neighborhood. Plus, as far as we’re shown, they haven’t fired at him yet.

The final panels set up a goal for the series: finding out how much humanity remains in Bat-Thing. Well, the answer is a lot, and the readers already know it. Why would anyone continue on this journey? I sure wouldn’t buy a second issue.


//TAGS | 2020 Summer Comics Binge

Drew Bradley

Drew Bradley is a long time comic reader whose past contributions to Multiversity include annotations for "MIND MGMT", the Small Press Spotlight, Lettering Week, and Variant Coverage. He currently writes about the history of comic comic industry. Feel free to email him about these things, or any other comic related topic.

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