Published on August 27th, 2003
In this issue, the penultimate issue of the "Hush" storyline, Jason Todd confronts Batman and they have a fight in a graveyard. Jason Todd was killed by The Joker, so it's strange that he's alive. Well, it turns out it's just Clayface pretending to be Jason Todd. The funny part is that DC actually did bring back Jason Todd from the dead in 2005 and he's currently still alive in the comics. Another amusing anecdote is that because Jason Todd wasn't that popular of a character in the 80's, DC decided to do a fan poll asking if he should die or not. Is it any surprise that in this bloodthirsty world the fans voted to kill him off? So they did! The Joker beat him to death with a crowbar in 1988's Death in the Family. Which always makes me laugh when comics decide to kill a character off. What a joke, because you know they'll be back. It also makes reading books like Batman confusing as hell. There seems to be a new Robin every decade, and they're all still running around. One is Red Hood, one is Nightwing, one is Robin. I'm sure there are others. Hush, the actual big bad in this story, finally shows up at the end of this issue. There's also a strange character, Harold, that shows up only to be shot dead by Hush. Harold was a mute that apparently helped Batman in the Batcave years ago. What? Did he sweep the floor? Harold, of course, was brought back from the dead by writer Scott Snyder in 2003. This from the Batman Fandom website: "Harold has two major disabilities: he is mute therefore cannot speak, as well as having a misshapen body, much like a hunchback, even his mother being repelled by him." He "was Batman's trusty engineer and the resident mechanic of the Batcave." Honestly? That has to be the stupidest idea for a character ever. I'm sure some writer was just thinking that, well, the Batmobile needs a mechanic and can't really just go to the local car mechanic. The problem with that logic is that this is a superhero world, it's not supposed to be realistic! So we have one more issue of this "Hush" storyline. This issue is at least basically just one fight sequence with good Jim Lee art so it's fast paced and fairly entertaining. I started reviewing this storyline in April and it's already October and I still haven't finished it yet. That probably tells you how great I think it is, though. **1/2
