Peacekeeper-01 is out of control, and only the new, even more extreme Peacekeeper-X can bring him in. Or can he? Batman #114 features a lead story written by James Tynion IV, drawn by Jorge Jimenez, colored by Tomeu Morey and lettered by Clayton Cowles. And in the backup, Clownhunter’s “Fear State” adventure wraps up in a story written by Brandon Thomas, drawn by Jason Howard and lettered by Cowles.
The streets of Gotham are even darker for others. There are some escapees from Arkham Asylum, ones who survived A-Day, and while they struggle with their demons, a ghost haunts them and a certain avenging angel hunts them. And one psychiatrist wants to save them. Arkham City: The Order of the World #1 is written by Dan Watters, drawn by Dani, colored by Dave Stewart and lettered by Aditya Bidikar.
Matt Lazorwitz: It’s not a good week in Gotham, is it? Big cyborg battles in one book, a parade of Arkham escapees in the other.
Will Nevin: Is there ever a good week in Gotham? I mean, I wouldn’t want to live there — it’s one Joker attack after the next, I tell ya. And if it’s not him, it’s some Oracle lady beaming words into your house about how cannibalism is on the rise, and, well, I guess I’d better get on with it. Don’t want to be left scrambling trying to keep up with the latest trends. What’s the best way to cook a person, I wonder?
Batman
Matt: How much time, in world, do you think has passed since Fear State: Alpha? I mean, we’re at a point where there are now robot armies led by Peacekeeper cyborgs running around, and the Anti-Oracle has everyone ready to burst, but by the amount of action we’ve seen, it doesn’t feel like it’s been more than a day or so to me.
Will: Twelve-ish hours? A day (not to be confused with A-Day) tops. This is some real decompression we got here, and it is exhausting.
Matt: This issue winds up squeezing in a huge sci-fi fight alongside some character beats for Simon Saint, an interesting bit between Miracle Molly and Queen Ivy (although I might still be riding high on Miracle Molly after that Secret Files) and very little Batman. Batman’s on, what, four or five pages tops?
Will: Bats is here to break shit and yell at Simon Saint, and while that’s not ideal, for this middling story, it’s fine. Let’s talk about some of those character beats for ol’ Sainty — I thought they were wildly inconsistent from moment to moment. On one page, you have him yelling at X to put 01 down like a “dog,” and on the next, he’s sobbing after the whole operation goes sideways and his shiny new toy dies. If I’m supposed to read him like a deranged, psychopathic maniac who’s barely keeping it together, I think all of those moments hang together. But I think Saint is supposed to be a little different — a weasel, more reserved. More thinking and less feeling.
Also, yes, we’re both still high on Miracle Molly after Secret Files.
Matt: Yeah, I’ve been reveling in watching this guy unravel over the past few issues, but at this point? I don’t think he was too tightly wound to begin with. Was him being sad and shedding a tear over the death of Peacekeeper-X supposed to humanize him and make the reader feel any kind of sympathy? Because it did not. This guy has been pretty clear about his lack of care when it comes to civilian casualties. Just because he likes his assistant and is sorry he got him killed doesn’t make him redeemable.
Will: I’m not even considering the possibility he could be redeemed (because he can’t). I’m still stuck on the idea that what we see isn’t consistent with what we know of the character — he shouldn’t be distraught that X is dead. He should be pissed about the $500 million investment that’s now worthless. He should be angry that he has to build X-1.
Matt: Scarecrow is in the background this whole issue, literally whispering in Peacekeeper-01’s ear. While the dialogue there is pretty paint-by-numbers, I still like this take on Scarecrow. This guy isn’t wading into any combat situation on his own. He’s using puppets, manipulating them, using their fear and psychology against them and/or for him. That’s how a mad psychology professor should operate.
Will: I (we?) have given Tynion a lot of shit for this run, and I think it’s all deserved (Yes, I’m talking to you, ComicsXF staffers who all disagree with us to a person on this point). But his Scarecrow has been excellent. If not for all of the other noise in this arc, this could have been an inflection point for the character, but ultimately, I think it gets lost with everything else going on.
Matt: While talking positives, Jorge Jimenez once again kills the art on this issue. We commented about Dan More doing a two-page spread in the last issue of Detective Comics, and Jimenez does one here, too, with Batman front and center behind a legion of exploding Magistrate droids. And that goes into a splash of Miracle Molly, doing a “Come with me if you want to live,” hand outstretched. It’s great storytelling.
Will: As we’ve been doing BatChat (audio edition), I’ve been reading more, including older comics. And you know what? The current state of the art in comics? At the top level, outside of publishers who clearly don’t care and will let anyone draw and color their licensed book, it’s fucking great.
Arkham City
Matt: This? This is a weird comic. And I don’t mean that in a bad way.
Will: Dan Watters does, I believe, exclusively weird shit, and I’m here for it. Almost like a Gotham Central but for Arkham. Cool concept, great execution. And weird as all hell. Also, Dave Stewart colored the shit out of it.
Matt: This is great work for artist Dani as well. Between the aforementioned Miracle Molly Secret Files and now this, she is on the way up, and existing in that Sienkewicz/Mignola space of artists with untraditional styles who are still rocking superhero work. I like that kind of stuff.
Will: Did you spell “Sienkewicz” without looking it up?
Matt: I did, but I missed an “i” It’s Sienkiewicz. Still not a bad showing from memory.
Will: I’m impressed as hell. Close definitely counts for that. But yeah, this is a great book for an unconventional/non-house style approach, and it works here. And thank god they didn’t try script lettering — although Dr. Joy’s “notes” could have been a little larger for my poor eyes.
Matt: I always come to you for your takes on lettering, Brother Will.
Will: Why thank you, Brother Matt. I don’t have particularly informed or knowledgable opinions on lettering, but I say them quite loudly and with confidence.
[Grote’s note: The mark of a true comics critic.]
Matt: This book exists in the tradition of other Arkham-centric stories, like the probably-a-little-more-straightforward Arkham Asylum: Living Hell and the even more bonkers classic Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on a Serious Earth. The talk about the ghost of Amadeus Arkham very much hearkens to the Morrison/McKean book, another one with nontraditional art.
I think the choice of what villains we’re dealing with here is interesting. Other than Mad Hatter, who is B-tier at best, and mostly because of longevity and his various cross-media appearances, these are C- to D-tier villains. Ratcatcher, Dr. Phosphorus, Nocturna and the Ten-Eyed Man aren’t anybody’s favorite villains.
OK, I take that back, because the minute you say it, a group of Ratcatcher stans come out of the woodwork. But they are most assuredly not the villains you’d expect to be headlining a title.
Will: Oh ye olde fount of knowledge, tell me of Ratcatcher and why he is ass.
Matt: Oh, he’s just an example, and a different incarnation of the character was in The Suicide Squad this summer, so I expect he has a slightly higher profile now.
Will: Was that the guy Pete Davidson played? I’m vaguely aware of something with him.
Matt: Nah, it was a new female Ratcatcher. Pete Davidson was Blackguard, and he was (Spoilers for a two-month-old movie) the first to bite it.
Oh, and you can ask Big Boss Zack about Ratcatcher, too.
Will: You could have saved me the time of looking that up before I looked it up, you know.
Matt: OK, so back to the book, Ten-Eyed Man is a particularly interesting choice here, as this is a mostly forgotten character who was resurrected from the limbo of forgotten villains during the Morrison run, and they also wrote Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on a Serious Earth (This is the only time you have to use that entire title, since we have a few Arkham stories here), so I feel like there’s an homage to Morrison going on in here.
I usually try to be spoiler light in these pieces, and I’m dancing around a little more here, because this is such a weird comic, it’s something I want the reader to go into as fresh as possible. The procedural stuff between Dr. Joy and Detective Stone is so traditional cop drama, that it makes the weirdness with the Arkhamites stand out even more in relief.
And the tragedy that we’re seeing, the birth of another Arkham-type villain in Jericho Hering? That’s a whole other level of bad news.
Will: That was all sorts of ominous and — importantly — made you want to see the next development in the story. Unlike some other books (Lookin’ at you, Batman: Reptilian), I think this is one we’re going to keep in the rotation.
Bat-miscellany
- This week’s Wayne Family Adventures is my favorite one yet. Vigilante Bingo is my new favorite game.
- Will says he needs to do a better job of keeping up with that since everyone seems to love it.
- Here’s a fun thought: What if — instead of Secret Files and Urban Legends — DC had actually given a shit about relaunching Legends of the Dark Knight and put all of those stories there?
- This week in BatChat (audio edition) we’ve got three Elseworlds takes on Batman: Gotham by Gaslight, Holy Terror and Superman: Speeding Bullets. We’re quite partial to this episode, so please give it a listen. Coming up next week, we dive into “Blades” (Legends of the Dark Knight, Vol. 1 #32-34), “The Doomsday Book” (Detective Comics #572) and “The Beautiful People” (Detective Comics #821).
Matt Lazorwitz read his first comic at the age of five. It was Who's Who in the DC Universe #2, featuring characters whose names begin with B, which explains so much about his Batman obsession. He writes about comics he loves, and co-hosts the creator interview podcast WMQ&A with Dan Grote.
Will Nevin loves bourbon and AP style and gets paid to teach one of those things. He is on Twitter far too often.
