Welcome to the First Issue Bin, where I — Ethan Kaye — randomly grab one of this week's comics that’s just starting up and give you the details on whether it should get added to your collection … or remain on the comic shop shelf.
Batman #1
Writer: Matt Fraction
Artists: Jorge Jiménez
Color Artist: Tomeu Morey
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Editor: Rob Levin
Before I get into this issue's review, I need to say this: A Batman reboot is a big deal.
DC Comics is very cavalier about their usage of the Batman character and the Batman Family. At any given time, there are at least four Batman titles running: usually Detective Comics, the standalone Batman title, and at least two limited series, typically more. He also pops up in Batman/Superman: World's Finest, Justice League Unlimited, Batman and Robin, and whatever big crossover is happening at the time. He's the golden goose and luckily he's a pretty interesting character with plenty of colorful villains and fellow heroes to plop next to him.
But relaunching the Batman title is huge. DC's only really done it three times before. The first solo Batman title launched in 1940 and ran until 2011. That's 714 issues, including #0 but not including annuals. The second was the launch of DC's "New 52" initiative where every title got rebooted at #1. That relaunch had some good Bat-stories, but was meant to only last a few years, and stuck around for only 53 issues (again including #0 but not the annuals). The "DC Universe Rebirth" era relaunched it again in 2016 with a new issue #1, and ran a respectable 161 issues (no #0 this time around).
To brag a bit, I have all of them going back to May of 1967. I'm a big Batman fan.
Matt Fraction and Jorge Jiménez relaunching with a new Batman #1 means that DC is looking at this as two things. For one, it means that new readers should be able to pick this up with minimal discomfort. You like Batman from maybe the movies or an animated series? Hey, kids, comics. And for two, it means that DC has enough faith in Fraction and Jiménez — that this relaunch has good enough writing and art — to warrant a change in numbering. Marvel tries to do this, but from the eight stand-alone Captain Marvel comics that have launched in the last 25 years attest to, it loses steam when you do the same trick over and over again.
And I'm happy to declare that this is an absolutely kickass comic in every single way. Fraction and Jiménez have pulled off a successful relaunch that's making me demand the next issue get here faster.
Instead of making Batman a creature purely of the night, like a Dracula, the creative team plunges us into mid-afternoon on a hot, hot summer day in Gotham City. Connecting the new #1 with current DC continuity, Arkham Asylum is still trashed and inmates are housed in the Arkham Towers skyscraper. Killer Croc, the massive reptilian Bat-villain, has violently escaped after self admitting, leading to a race between Batman and the Gotham Police Department to bring him in first. If Batman finds him before the GCPD, Croc might get a beating but he goes back to Arkham for treatment. If the police get there first, it's shoot to kill. The stakes are set, the players are on their starting marks, and the race is on.
A word about Killer Croc. For years DC treated Croc like their version of Marvel's Incredible Hulk. You point him at a target and he smashes it. His look changes from issue to issue, along with his size. Sometimes he has crocodile jaws. Sometimes he has really big teeth. Sometimes he's smart, sometimes he's not. It all depends on the writer. Hell, over in the Poison Ivy title that's running concurrently with Batman he has it together enough to get a girlfriend. And Fraction actually explains these inconsistencies, letting years of diverse takes stand without breaking the world. It's fantastic.
Like I said, Batman doesn't feel like a vampire in this. In fact, given the literally perfect art by Jiménez and the killer coloring by Tomeu Morey, it feels instead like a police procedural, with the Bat getting a case and just going to work. Comparing his job with that of the cops makes him look like someone on duty rather than someone slinking around in the shadows waiting for opportunity. Breaking up an entire gang of scissor-wielding attackers becomes just another part of the job, done without much feeling but with a ton of brutal execution. And the final confrontation with Croc is done with humanity and empathy in a way that's so refreshing in this world of "Punch me? I'll punch YOU!" comic books. I'm praying that other Bat-villains get handled with this same amount of care.
Jiménez's art has to be called out. For years now he's been the go-to Batman artist, handling the Batman title with James Tynion IV and Chip Zdarsky leading the writing. His style is remarkably detailed but thoughtful. His environments are lush and varied. I looked at his double-page title splash and saw that he'd brought the modern elements of Gotham City in harmony with the gothic spires, bridges, and blimps of the past. It feels like New York did in those wonderful years of my late 20s where I was running around Union Square after work, buying comics at Roger's Time Machine and grabbing a slice of pizza before heading home on the train.
It feels real. It feels right.
And this book does too. The responsibility has to be on Fraction now to keep the momentum and tone going for an extended run. DC needs to make this monumental reboot worth it, worth more than the equivalent of a Matt-Fraction-writes-Batman miniseries. It has to count, it has to give something lasting to the world of Bat-continuity. A relaunch for New 52 was a line-wide change, and the subsequent relaunch was a course correction. This is the first Batman relaunch that follows an individual creative direction rather than an editorial mandate. My fear is that Batman follows the Marvel model and trips over their numerous reboots. Sorry, Amazing Spider-Man, there are too many of you.
For now, I'm going to enjoy an extremely competently written Batman book, not that there's any shortage of them, but they're all just so much fun to experience.
Story: 5/5
Art: 5/5
Killer Croc: Is sort of dating Janet from HR
Janet from HR: Is sort of dating Poison Ivy
By the Transitive Property: Killer Croc is sort of dating Poison Ivy
Verdict: If you're a fan of Batman, sort of a fan of Batman, a lapsed fan of Batman, just a fan of Marvel and haven't tried a Batman book ever, or even just a fan of superhero comics in general, this is your book.
