This month’s issue is, strangely enough, all story finales (plus the obligatory black and white short). That hasn’t happened up until now due to the fact that the individual stories have different numbers of chapters, plus the breaks between Tom King’s entries. When it was first announced, I thought that everything lining up in that way might indicate that this would be the title’s farewell. After all, sales for these sorts of anthologies are never great, and that’s been true here as well. Turns out I was wrong and next month is solicited with the beginning of all new stories, so until then let’s take a look at how these wrap everything up.
Batman: The Winning Card part 4
After nine issues we’ve finally reached the end of the series’ debut four-part Joker story. So far, it’s been a surprisingly faithful recreation of the original story from 1940. New scenes were added and existing ones were expanded upon in the way you’d expect from a modern comic, but for the most part you were able to draw a one to one line between the pages in Batman #1 and here. We now enter the part of the original story where Robin (who was Batman’s sidekick far earlier than many fans realize) played a major role in taking down Joker. It’s also where this story completely diverges from that plot. It makes sense; not only does Robin not exist yet in this continuity, but this is no longer a simple adventure with a new, clown-themed villain. It acts as the set up for over 80 years of comics.
With this new framework in place, the story once again returns to Bruce’s relationship with Alfred. This is probably the strongest element of the story. King absolutely nails the dynamic between these two. Their rapport is filled with dry sarcasm and jabs at one another, yet never loses any sense that they deeply care for each other. Their insults are always delivered in a coy, playful tone that emphasizes just how close they are. It’s ironic that it was King’s Batman run that killed Alfred off, because this is exactly the sort of scene that is sorely missed without him.
Contrasted with that implicit comradery, the “final” fight between Batman and Joker really sells the unending animosity between the two. It can feel contrived just how often Batman ends up fighting Joker over the past almost-century, but the visceral hatred seen here is exactly the sort that lasts a lifetime. When Batman lists off the names of Joker’s victims and says he’ll repeat them every night, you believe him.
The sequence evokes many similarities to the ending of The Killing Joke. Visually, it has the same nine-grid structure that Alan Moore liked to include in his comics, and parallels the same back and forth close ups that took place at the end of that book. Mitch Gerad’s style is much more painterly than Bolland’s bold linework, but still manages to get across the same emotions while still maintaining the ethereal atmosphere established in the rest of the story. Narratively the similarities to The Killing Joke are even more obvious. As Batman lashes out at Joker, beating him on the ground, one of them recalls a story they once heard. In both stories, he uncharacteristically laughs just before possibly killing the Joker for good in an ambiguous final shot.
Where these finales differ is in how these elements are incorporated into the themes of the story. In The Killing Joke, Joker’s joke is about two men who fail to escape the lunatic asylum because while one offers to shine a flashlight so his friend can cross the “beam”, the friend is afraid he will turn it off before he crosses. Beyond the absurdity inherent in the pun taken literally, it closely ties into the situation Joker and Batman forever find themselves in. Batman is crazy for thinking he can help the Joker, and while Joker’s rationale is insane, he at least recognizes the futility. It’s a multilayered ending that succinctly encapsulates their canonical and metatextual relationship.
In this story, however, Batman makes a joke about a “bat-tery”. Not only is it an old joke I’d heard long before this comic, but it doesn’t meaningfully add to the story at all. There’s no good reason why Batman would say it at this moment aside from further homaging Alan Moore. At one point later in the comic Joker acknowledges that it was a bad joke, which feels like lampshading on the author’s part, but it doesn’t change the sense that it doesn’t really make sense to have happened.
Instead of ending there like The Killing Joke, King’s story continues on in a sort of epilogue. If there was any doubt that this was a Tom King story, it becomes abundantly clear here. He returns to a consistent theme for his writing of the character (and many other characters for that matter), in that it frames Batman as an irrevocably broken man. In a scene lit with golden hues and framed almost entirely with plaintive closeups of Bruce and Alfred’s profiles, Alfred mournfully informs Bruce that he and Joker are not so different after all. They’re both just victims of the trauma inflicted by Gotham. This thesis is even more explicitly stated by Joker later on where he states that they’re ultimately the same and will keep doing the same thing.
I definitely understand the temptation to lean into Batman’s trauma as his driving motivation. On that level alone I would be inclined to agree. However, it’s taking it the step further where it’s not just his motivation but also a crippling if not suicidal albatross around his neck that does a disservice to the character. When his desire to fight crime is reduced to “wanting to be the baddest alpha dog in Gotham” then he’s no longer the hero who wants to protect others from having to experience what he did in Crime Alley all those years ago. He’s not the person who holds life so sacred that he refuses to kill even the worst murderers. He just becomes a labored exercise of wallowing in trauma.
The first half to the finale of “Batman: The Winning Card” delivers an impressive summation of Batman and Joker’s relationship and justifies the animosity that would continue for decades of stories. However, it’s the back half where King decides to return to his regular themes for Batman that can spoil the rest of the story. Once again, like all other things, Joker becomes a manifestation of Batman’s drive towards emotional self harm and trauma.
Score: 7/10
Wild Dog: Here Comes Trouble! part 3
Last issue I mentioned that “Wild Dog: Here Comes Trouble!” was surprisingly at its strongest when it took itself with sincerity. It’s ironic given the story’s initial premise as an irreverent satire of the superhero genre, but Kyle Starks successfully manages the pivot into a story that makes you care about it. After what happened at the end of part 2, Mad Dog is beat down, broken, and feels as though he’s failed as a hero. Far from mocking the concept’s absurdity, his willingness to give up is tragic. You feel genuine pathos as Fernando Pasarin’s art gives us a close-up look at his realistically beaten and bloodied face.
Contrasted with this defeat is Gizmo’s reign of terror and seeming victory. Far from the support character or even comic relief that he’s presented as in many other villain team-ups, here he’s in complete control and stands above anyone who could think to challenge him. It becomes immediately clear that when taken away from the big hitters of the Teen Titans and Justice League, even C list super villains can be a terrifying force to the average person. Once again the art does a great job of depicting him as larger than life compared to those around despite his diminutive stature.
All of this culminates in a finale which makes you excited to see Wild Dog return and put Gizmo in his place. It feels like a true underdog story where you’re rooting for the man in the college-mascot-themed costume, not laughing at him. Is he still kind of ridiculous? Yeah, for sure, but when he saves the day he’s a big damn hero.
Score: 8/10
Aquaman: Communion part 3
“Alright, let’s wrap things up”. That’s the impression I get from this finale to “Aquaman: Communion”. The first two parts put a good deal of importance on the gorilla civil war and their relationship with the efforts to reach out into space. Now that Aquaman has finally reached Gorilla City, any confusion is quickly resolved as the dominators attack and the king believes everything Aquaman tells him. None of it is particularly poorly executed, but after the relatively slow build of the first two parts, the narrative suddenly works at a break neck speed to get the rescue operation underway.
With little time to focus on the story or characters, the finale is comprised mostly of action set pieces of the initial attack and subsequent rescue. Luckily Gabriel Hardman is still a talented artist who manages to keep each sequence exciting and vibrant. The chaos of each battle keeps the energy up and focused on the present conflict. I’ve said before that this story is for those who want to see gorillas battling aliens with lasers, and that still holds true.
Score: 6/10
Nor is the Batman
I just spent over a thousand words dissecting Tom King’s latest exploration of why he thinks that all of Batman’s actions are just self-destructive coping for his trauma. I am not a fan of this interpretation (for further explanation, scroll up a bit). Imagine my reaction when I start this story and the opening lines from Alfred are “When I think of Bruce I don’t picture the man. I see a child. A broken child.”
Redondo’s story is framed as Alfred writing about how he still sees Bruce as the hurt child in Crime Alley all those years ago. Stories from Alfred’s perspective have the potential to show Batman in an interesting and unique light. Tom Taylor, coincidentally the writer Redondo has been most paired with in his rise to fame at DC, wrote something along those lines with “Father’s Day” in Batman Annual #3 from 2018. It’s a great story that tackles the emotional challenges Alfred faces caring for a man whom he sees as his son but puts himself in danger every night.
Redondo takes a different approach. Alfred’s view of Bruce is, in an almost literal sense, infantilizing. That Bruce was permanently scarred by the death of his parents is pretty much an incontrovertible fact, but to say that it caused him to turn into a “broken child” just living out his fantasy feels wildly out of line. It’s the type of analysis a villain would give to torment Batman, not the honest opinion of his father figure.
Throughout the story, Batman’s actions are often framed as delusional to the point of being comedic. Redondo is very good at using panel layout and motion for humor. In the right setting it can add a lot to a comic. Here it’s still effective at making the scenes funny, but that totally undercuts any sort of sympathetic tone Alfred might otherwise be trying to convey.
In a vacuum, Some of the text could be read as sincere, and work similarly to Taylor’s story I mentioned earlier. However, then you’ll get a line about everyone is just “playing their part” to humor him. It’s like if Neil Gaiman’s famous story “The Gentleman’s Gentleman’s Tale” from Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?, where all of Bruce’s villains are just actors hired by Alfred to keep him busy, was played straight instead of acting as a metacommentary on the relationship between Batman and the needs of comic narratives.
I’ve referenced a lot of other Batman media in this review for an eight page short story, but only because it tackles a theme that is regularly broached by Batman authors (including in this very collection). Unfortunately I don’t think Redondo’s approach works very well. The tone jumps jarringly between a father’s sincere concern for Bruce’s well being, and a comedic framing of Batman’s actions as the delusions of a child that needs to be placated.
Score: 5.5/10
Recommended if…
- You’ve been following any of these stories and want to see how they end
- Underdog stories are something you like
- You’re a fan of Tom King’s past work on Batman
Overall
Batman: The Brave and the Bold #9 wraps up multiple stories, including Tom King’s Joker story which debuted in the very first issue. The quality of the stories themselves ends up being inconsistent. The best is Wild Dog’s, which manages to get you to genuinely care about a character initially presented as a riff on superhero tropes. However, both of the actual Batman stories are dragged down by focusing on meta-analyses of the character that don’t quite work.
Score: 7/10
DISCLAIMER: DC Comics provided Batman News with a copy of this comic for the purposes of this review.
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