A New, "Batman," Run Starts Tomorrow With a Great Creative Team

Tomorrow marks the launch of a new, 'Batman, #1 comic. Written by Matt Fraction with Jorge Jiménez providing art, I'm excited. I will 100% admit that Fraction's work is stuff I have a love-hate relationship with. He can be amazing with work like his, "Hawkeye," run or, "Casanova," and then also give us..."Fear Itself." That said, when he is on, he is on. As for Jiménez, I don't think I've ever seen him illustrate a comic in any manner besides, "Superbly." This all goes to say, I'm excited for the latest relaunch of, "Batman," even as the most recent volume is technically not complete--the whole, "Hush 2," storyline is horrifically delayed and a pretty messy read (the art is lovely, though).

There has been a degree of controversy over how this relaunch has pricey blind bags and even more hubbub over how bags were being sold and opened by online retailers (with this happening a ton on livestreams) before tomorrow's official release date. Still, regardless of any polybag promotions, the quality of the comic itself will be the real thing that stands or fails the test of time (as I've stated before about these mystery bags). I am excited to grab my copy of the latest, "Batman," #1 as soon as I'm a bit more mobile and able to drive/politely ask my wife to drive me to the comic shop. Here's hoping it's a quality read!

"Batman," #158 Kicks off, "Hush 2." Time for my Thoughts on this Sequel's Debut

DC has been excitedly promoting a new story arc in, "Batman," that kicked off with this week's issue (#158). Titled, "Hush 2," it is a big sequel-of-sorts to the original, "Hush," storyline that introduced the villain, a former childhood, "Friend," of Bruce Wayne actually named Tommy Elliot (he was secretly quite crazy). The original, "Hush," featured the writing of Jeph Loeb and art by Jim Lee. They've reunited for this new arc years later and what I've read so far is good, but not great.

I have a mix of feelings. I don't know what the point is of a, "Hush 2," storyline as since the original one a lot has changed for the main characters of Tommy and Bruce. The comic acknowledges this, however, and even makes some meta-comments by having Batman's internal monologue express surprise when the Joker tries to recycle an old gag/crime and it throws our hero off as the Joker isn't generally that lazy in his capers. It's almost like Loeb and Lee know we're going to question, "Why Hush 2 and why now?" and they want to head us off. Lee, to his credit, is as skilled an artist as ever when he isn't busy running comic companies and his artwork is a beauty to behold. 

The plot eventually has Hush abduct Joker and possibly plan to kill him to prove a point about Batman's refusal to let even a monster like the Joker die--this is, again, a reused story idea and the comic makes it clear it is aware it is retreading old ground. Does pointing out that you are doing repetitive plotting with a meta-wink at the reader excuse the fact you are still being lazy, however? Your own personal answer to that question may influence how much you enjoy issue #158 of, "Batman," as it kicks off this new Hush 2 story. I myself loved the art and thought the story so far was alright if not amazing. Then again, even the original Hush was more of an excuse to have Batman face a bunch of his villains as they were drawn impressively well with the plot more in place to give Jim Lee an excuse to draw cool stuff. That is a bit of the vibe I'm getting we'll receive with Hush 2 as well so I guess the more things change the more they stay the same, as the saying goes.

3 out of 5 Stars.