BATMAN #118

 

    When writer Tom King was fired from Batman, I swore that Brian Bendis would eventually be the new writer. I'm not sure what happened, but Brian Bendis' DC exclusive contract ended and he's not writing any DC books at the moment. Perhaps the DC brass actually read a few issues of his awful run on the two Superman titles? Or maybe none of his books sold well. Either way, the new writer on Batman is not, in fact, Brian Bendis. It's Joshua Williamson, DC's latest "it" boy now that James Tynion IV quit DC to go to Substack. Williamson was once a good, interesting writer. He wrote 3 Image books that were entertaining; Nailbiter, Birthright, and Ghosted. Sadly, he joined DC and for whatever reason his writing has fallen off kind of like how Jason Aaron's writing decreased in quality once he became a big name. I haven't read everything Williamson has written at DC, but the few issues of The Flash I did read were forgettable and his last Nailbiter series for Image was atrocious. But Batman has not been a great book in almost a decade. Tom King's run was hit or miss and Tynion's run was unexciting and mostly dull. So what was Williamson's big pitch going to be? Batman fighting The Penguin or something we've all seen before? Nope! Although Batman fighting a classic rogues gallery does happen in this issue. But Williamson's idea for Batman is actually something new and fresh. His great idea is to take Bruce Wayne and Batman out of Gotham City. First off, that's a terrible idea. I suppose a great writer might be able to pull it off...but even that I doubt. This first issue of Williamson's run starts off with a homage scene to the first scene in Tim Burton's Batman film. That's fantastic. Then there's a Billionaire's Ball that's also a costume ball where everyone is dressed up like villains such as The Joker and Mr. Freeze and what-not. Bad guys attack the ball, Batman saves the day. Then we get to the meat of the book; Batman, Inc., a motley group of "other" Batmen have been arrested for murder in some far off, foreign city. Batman goes there to investigate and ends up finding Lex Luthor there as well. The best thing I can say about this issue is the art. Jorge Molina and Mikel Janin did the art, although I'm not exactly sure who did what. Did they just both draw every page? Did Janin just polish it up? Did Janin ink it? The art looks prestigious, anyway. As for the story: you usually want to be hooked in a first issue and dying to read the next issue after a great climax. Seeing Lex Luthor show up just makes me care less about this book. And do I give a shit about Batman investigating a murder in another city far away from Gotham? Nope. I had high hopes for this new team simply because Tynion's run was so disagreeable. Now I'm just sad. Is it that fucking hard to write a good Batman book? Jesus. *1/2