Batman #134 - Comic Review

 

Bruce Wayne is lost in the multiverse, trapped on a strange world where that version of Bruce is dead, and the city lies in the grips of the Red Mask, who rules Gotham from behind the scenes with his venom powered enforcers.

The issue begins with Bruce being led to the Arkham Tunnels, a vast underground network of sewers and cells where the Red Mask is keeping his prisoners, and conducting his experiments. Not only does he have regular people trapped, but even has some metahumans as his test subjects; such as an insane version of The Flash. After finally coming face to face with Red Mask, the villain reveals himself to be more than just Darwin Halliday, but a man who has been given a glimpse through the multiverse at other versions of himself, and discovered that he is The Joker. 

Halliday is experimenting with his subjects and the multiverse in order to try to glimpse backwards through time on another Earth to learn what makes The Joker become who he is, so that he can experience the same thing and become The Joker fully. Stepping up his plans, Halliday releases a gas into Gotham that will cause people to connect with their multiverse counterparts. Bruce heads off to stop it, but ends up encountering this worlds version of Ghostmaker, Ghostbreaker. 

The fight between the two of them goes on for several pages, and is really well structured. Despite being without most of his equipment and having been beaten around a lot lately Bruce is still a good match for Ghostbreaker. Their fight sees them trading blows, clashing with swords, and falling down chasms as they make their way through the tunnels. There's a ridiculously fun moment when a number of frees inmates comes after Bruce that includes this world's version of Clark. How does Bruce deal with Superman? He makes a creepy face, puts on a scary voice, and tells him that he's his nightmare. And it frightens Superman away. I'm sure that there will be some who roll their eyes at this, but this was too ridiculous to be anything other than fun. 

Bruce is forced to fight Ghostbreaker a second time at the controls for the deadly gas, and is able to shut the thing down, but loses his right hand in the fight. Sadly, this doesn't really slow Halliday down, as he releases a small army of Manbats that have the gas pouring out of tanks strapped to their backs.

After a slower start, where we got a chance to learn more about this version of Gotham and its inhabitants, and got to see Bruce figuring out how to navigate this strange new place, things really started to make a dash towards a big conclusion here. However, it still feels like there's a lot more to come with this story. We don't know yet how Bruce is going to stop the gas, how he could get to Halliday, or what he's going to do with his hand. This story could wrap up in an issue or two, but I could also see it going on for a lot longer than that too. And I love that this story has been structured and paced in a way that it doesn't feel obvious where it's going to be going, or what's going to be coming. 

The back-up feature continues the story of Tim trying to find Bruce and bring him home. However, before he heads out to find him we get a moment where we see what the heroes are doing about Gotham. They can't let the villains know that Batman is gone, otherwise there'll be absolute chaos instead of just mostly chaos. As such, someone is having to fill in for Bruce. And it's not a member of the Bat Family. Superman is making appearances around Gotham in a Batsuit. I love this, I love it every time Clark pretends to be Batman to help out. The moment where we suddenly see Batman take off into the sky genuinely made me yell 'what?!' before I twigged what was coming. I need more of Clark helping out like this, as it's always a fun time.

After chatting with Clark for a bit, Tim heads back to base where Mr Terrific and Toyman are working on the equipment that should take Tim to the world where Bruce is lost. All he has to do it think hard about Bruce, and the tech will get him to him. Tim gets a special new suit for the trip, one with a huge illuminated R on his chest. Unfortunately, Tim can't help but think of another person whilst travelling through the multiverse, and ends up on a world where his mother is still alive. The two of them meet, and she can tell that Tim isn't her Tim, but is still happy to meet him. The two of them talk for a while, and Tim tells her about his life. They have a really tender moment, and it gives Tim a chance to feel a sense of closure and peace. He then heads back into the multiverse to go find Bruce.

I've seen some folks say that they dislike Tim's suit here, and whilst it's not his best look it's certainly not my least favourite of his. I kind of love the big R as a symbol for Bruce to lock on to, and I'm loving the fact that Zdarsky's Batman run is giving us multiple costumes for Bruce and Tim. It's fun to see our characters get temporary suits sometimes, and this is just that; it's just enjoyable. The conversation between Tim and his mum is enjoyable too, and it feels like the character has absolutely earned that kind of moment. Though, I can't help but wonder if he didn't take that detour and chat with her for hours might he have gotten to Bruce in time to save his hand being cut off? 

The Zdarsky run on this title hasn't had a bad issue yet, it's been making some bold story choices, doing a lot of big, bombastic stuff that borders on ridiculous, but always manages to come off as extremely cool. This issue is no different; and is fun from start to finish. 

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