Review: BATMAN #150
[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Writer: Chip Zdarsky
Artists: Denys Cowan, Jorge Jimenez, John Stanisci, Mike Hawthorne, Adriano Di Benedetto
Colours: Tomeu Morey, Romulo Fajardo Jr.
Letters: Clayton Cowles
Reviewed By: Derek McNeil
Summary
Batman #150: A milestone issue featuring art by the legendary Denys Cowan and series regular Jorge Jimenez! When a two-bit crook uncovers Batman’s true identity, he becomes the most dangerous man in Gotham City! Can Batman stop him before it’s too late? Does he even want to?
Plus, an Absolute Power backup story by Chip Zdarsky and Mike Hawthorne teaming Batman and Catwoman on the heist of their lives against Amanda Waller!
Positives
Way back in last October, in the pages of Batman/Catwoman: Scorched Earth #1, Chop Zdarsky planted a seed for a future story. In the epilogue to that story, we see a former student of Catwoman breaking into a house. He soon stumbles on some equipment and costumes that make it clear that the house’s owner, Bruce Wayne, is the Batman.
Now, several months later, Zdarsky has come back to address this hanging plot thread. We see this criminal, named Teddy, try to figure out what to do with this information. Should he keep the information to himself, attempt to sell it to one of Batman’s major enemies, or should he find a more creative way to make use of it.
It takes only a couple attempts for Teddy to learn that selling Batman’s secret will only lead to Teddy being killed to keep the secret from being shared for someone else, which leads to the third option, which involves using Batman’s secret as a shield. Teddy falls in with a gang who believe that Batman would look the other way, to avoid Teddy landing in jail and revealing Batman’s secret during interrogation.
Positives Cont.
The only problem with that is that Batman cares more about his principles than he cares about protecting his secrets. One of those principles is fighting crime, but there’s an even more important principle that Batman lives by, and this principle is the central theme of this story. Batman wants the citizens of Gotham (and the world) to “Be better”. This doesn’t just apply to the regular citizenry, but the criminals, the police, the heroes, and even himself. He wants everyone to be and do better, and his driving force is to help others do so.
Batman doesn’t just want to silence Teddy, but he wants to help Teddy fix his own situation, so that Teddy can be better. Out of all the people Teddy deals with, Batman is the only one who shows any interest in Teddy as a person, or any concern for Teddy’s family. Most are only care about Teddy because of what he knows, but Batman shows concern despite what Teddy knows.
And thanks to Batman #149 and the stellar previous issue, we can see that Zdarsky has been leading Batman himself to be better. Zdarsky and previous writers have put Bruce through the wringer, making his life fall apart in some ways, but Zdarsky has been putting Bruce’s life back together. In recent months, we have seen Bruce rebuilding relationships, more willing to accept help from others, and generally become more human. And generally living up to the principle of being better.
Positives Cont.
The second story is a prelude to Absolute Power, giving us a preview of Batman’s role in DC’s summer event. The story starts with Bruce narrating about his first act upon gaining control of the Wayne Fortune. This was to buy the company that manufactured the gun that Joe Chill used to kill the Waynes and close it down. Of course, Bruce didn’t want to put anyone out of work, so he offered all the employees other jobs within Wayne Enterprises.
But there is a point to this story, as Bruce applies the metaphor of a gun to Failsafe. Bruce refers to Failsafe as a gun of Bruce’s own creation. And with Amanda Waller using that gun to threaten the world, it’s Bruce’s identity to stop Waller and dismantle Failsafe once and for all. And doing so will be quite a struggle as we see that Batman and Cyborg together are outclassed by just one of Failsafe’s Justice League-themed Amazo androids.
I find it interesting that Failsafe is the mirror image of Batman right now. While Bruce has become somewhat more human, the Batman of Zur-En-Arrh, has done the exact opposite in merging with Failsafe and incorporating Amazo technology. Absolute Power is promising a rematch of a Batman that has reclaimed his humanity against a Batman that has completely purged that humanity, as if it were a weakness.
Positives Cont.
And the artwork has been superb this issue. How often is it that we get to see two giants like Denys Cowan and Jorge Jimenez working together on the same story? And Tomeu Morey’s colours perfectly complements their artwork. Meanwhile, the artwork for the backup story is great too, but captures a different feel, marking it as separate from the main story.
Also, I have to take a moment to praise the variant cover using the artwork of Jose Luis García-Lopez. This is based on his work for the 1982 DC Comics Style Guide, which is being reprinted next month. This was used a reference for artists to establish the definitive look for DC characters of the era. This is an absolutely fantastic blast-from-the-past for those of us who were reading comics during that era.
Negatives
I only have one problem, and it’s more a general problem with the Absolute Power event as a whole than with this particular piece of it specifically. There is a triumvirate of villains in this event: Amanda Waller, Failsafe, and the Brainiac Queen. I really like that the groundwork for Amanda Waller’s participation has been laid over the last few years. A lot of preparation has gone into that end of the story.
However, Failsafe is being used again in this story almost immediately after his debut arc and defeat in Zdarsky’s Batman. Similarly, the Brainiac event that introduced the Brainiac Queen has literally just finished in the Superman Family books. It seems odd to carefully set up the event carefully on one vector and rush it on two other vectors. The use of Failsafe is inspired, but perhaps a bigger gap should have been left between his defeat in Batman and his reappearance in Absolute Power.
However, this is more of an issue with the entire event, so I can’t hold it against this particular issue. In fact Zdarsky does his best to smooth over the quick reappearance of Failsafe with this well-written prologue of DC’s summer event.
Verdict
I loved this issue, and I hope that other writers will take a cue from Zdarsky’s direction when portraying Batman in the future. It would be disappointing to see this character development lost and have Batman backslide into the antisocial loner that some writers love to portray. Zdarsky’s Batman shows that Batman can accept help from his friends and allies and still be self-sufficient. It’s not just one or the other. I look forward to seeing what comes next as the title fully enters into Absolute Power, as well as seeing what Zdarsky has planned coming out of the event.
