Batman #137 - Comic Review

 

Yet another comic event with war in the title, because war sells. Gotham War heats up in the second part of this Bat-Family civil war story as Bruce comes down hard on Selena's new plan for the city, and the rest of Gotham's crime fighters pick sides.

The first issue of this story laid out a very clear and concise plan, Catwoman wants to train the petty thugs, the goons and henchmen of Gotham, to become specialised thieves like her. The goal, is to give them a better way of making money, a way that means they can target only the wealthy, only those who can stand to lose a few pieces of jewelery and cash, and it stops the costumed criminals from having desperate people to pull into their schemes. It's not a bad idea on paper, and the book makes a point of showing that because of this violent crimes and killings have dropped a lot; but Batman isn't on board.

And this is perhaps the biggest issue with this story, and the reason why people are disliking what's going on. Batman is being a complete dick. He's refusing to listen, even for a moment, he doesn't want to see the data or the evidence, because he's in an all crime is bad mindframe, and doesn't seem to want to look at things a little more objectively. Some of that is understandable, he's been through a lot recently with Failsafe, the multiverse stuff, and Knight Terrors all happening to him in quick succession. There's a reason he's got Zur-En-Arrh screaming in his head, he's close to losing his mind.

This means that in this issue we have a Batman who's going off the deep end. He's purposely going after Catwoman's people, he's making a point of stopping them in the scariest and most violent ways possible. He sees himself as the ultimate law in Gotham, with only his way being the right one, and he will enforce that if needs be. Whilst this does fit with some versions of the character we've had over the years it doesn't mean it's a good thing, and we're seeing Bruce once again push his friends and family away from him and sending himself down a dark path.

The fact that there are very clear and distinct sides taken this issue too, with everyone but Damian standing against him kind of shows that Bruce is in the wrong here. Of course Jason was likely to go against him on this, but you've got Tim, Dick, Barbara, and Duke, reasonable level-headed folks taking a side against him too; that alone should make Bruce stop and think for a second. Sadly, thanks to the aforementioned series of traumatic incidents and slow mental deterioration, Bruce simply sees it all as a betrayal.

This is definitely the weakest of the stories we've had since Zdarsky took over the title, and whilst I don't think that this is the best story to be doing I most certainly won't be jumping on the 'he's been a terrible writer the whole time' bandwagon that folks on social media are running. This story feels like a DC editorial decision, one that he's been told that he has to do and that he's simply trying his best with. I might be wrong, maybe this was part of his plan the whole time. Either way, I'm not ready to throw an entire writer's worth away for one story that's less than perfect.

Whilst the story for this issue might not be the best, the art on the book, by Jorge Jiménez and Tomeu Morey, looks great. The action sequences are really well done, and even if you hate the idea of Bruce fighting his family the way in which it's presented on the page at least looks really good. The page reveal of Damian siding with his father (because of course he does) is a particularly great panel too.

We'll have to see how this particular story plays out, and whilst it might not be the best one we've had it certainly is perhaps one of the most interesting, and there is a good idea at the heart of this book. This plot will be divisive for sure, but you might find something cool here beneath the initial fan outcry.

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