Sorry, busy week and weekend (well, not super-busy, but the wife went out of town, and I was dealing with the child exclusively, and some other things came up, so busier than usual!), so I haven’t gotten to last week’s ALL IN book until today. And what’s this? A Batman book? From DC? Shocking!
Batman #1 (“Vast Colors in the Dark”) is the inexplicable new title (“inexplicable” because why relaunch it?) in the ALL IN Universe, and it’s by Matt “Don’t Call Me Three-Eighths!” Fraction, Jorge Jiménez, Tomeu Morey, and Clayton Cowles. The MSRP is $4.99, and it’s 22 pages long. And it feels utterly pointless.
Ok, so we know that Loeb/Lee are currently doing their dumb “Hush 2” thing (and yes, I’m totes buying it). Maybe Lee is slower in his dotage than even he knew, so DC got antsy not having a Batman book on the shelf, even though, you know, Detective Comics exists. So they got Fraction to write a new Batman book, but as far as I know, whenever Lee gets his shit together, Batman #162 will come out, and so we’ll have … two books called Batman? Is that right? And then, it seems, Loeb and Lee will need a break after the first part of “Hush 2,” so they’ll go away and spend the next three years working on it. What then? What happens when they come back? Will DC allow them to hijack the main book again, or will they just publish it as a Batman comic with the old numbering? If that happens, why didn’t they just publish it like it should have been, as a 12-issue maxi-series like the good old days of the 1980s? Is it solely because of Lee’s ego that they put it in the regular Batman book, killing what apparently was a fairly well-regarded Zdarsky run (not that I regarded it well, but a lot of people did, apparently). Does anyone at DC not have their head up their ass?
And then there’s Fraction. There were many debates back in the olden days about how good Fraction was, because Casanova remains one of the best comics of the century and some — not all, but some — of his Marvel work was so very good (and some of it was good, but a tad overrated, like Steve Wacker’s favorite comic). I still think he’s very good — despite the objections of a misguided person on this very blog, Adventureman is a hoot and a half — but the lack of Casanova in his life seems to have caused him to lose a bit of his mojo, and it’s too bad (and, of course, I’m holding out hope that he can actually finish his magnum opus one of these days). He’s not a bad choice to write Batman, of course, but … I do wonder why DC hired him. I always think this when they hire an idiosyncratic writer who has a certain style and they put him on a book where they do not want that certain style. We’ve seen this many times over the years, and we’ve seen it in movies, as well — the directors they got to do the recent Star Wars movies had certain styles that Disney did not want on their Star Wars movies — and I wonder why DC and Marvel do that. Back in the day, the best Fraction X-Men issues were the ones where he indulged in his style a bit, and isn’t that what you want if you’re Marvel or DC: someone with their own style bringing their own weird viewpoint to characters? As long as Fraction doesn’t turn Batman into a pedophile, why not let him loose on the dude?
Because this is a #1 issue and it reads like an issue from a run that’s been going on for a while and needs a breather. As much as I didn’t love Absolute Batman #1, Snyder knows what a Number One Issue is supposed to do, and it was bombastic as fuck. In this issue, Batman tracks Killer Croc, who’s escaped from a treatment facility, to a butterfly sanctuary, where he … talks to him. And Waylon gives up and goes back into treatment. I mean, really? Now, that’s not to say it’s a terrible issue. I’m all for Batman trying to talk bad guys down rather than just punching them, as I’ve said many times in the past. But this is a #1 issue? That DC said, “Yeah, we’re good with this”? Fraction establishes some new status quo things, like Jim Gordon rejoining the force to be a beat cop (which would never, ever happen in the real world, because that dude is old as fuck), Commissioner Vandal Savage1 pulling a Trump and introducing soldiers onto the streets of Gotham to fight crime and promising that he’s going to hunt down Batman, our hero hanging out with an AI Alfred (come on, DC, just bring him back to life already)2, Robin getting arrested, and Fraction going oddly transphobic? What’s that all about? (I haven’t seen anyone point that last thing out, so am I just reading too much into the gang that accosts the women in the park? They seem … very regressive, to say the least.)
Anyway, it’s … fine. It’s just kind of dull. I don’t get trying so hard to establish a new status quo when, I mean, it’s fucking Batman. This is a slightly kinder, gentler Batman, which I approve of (and which it seems like DC is trying to make happen, given what we saw with Detective #1100, as I noted in my review), and Fraction doesn’t do anything really wrong, it’s just that he doesn’t do anything really right, either. But when a writer starts on a series, if establishing the status quo doesn’t matter (and, again, it’s fucking Batman), the writer can do two things: begin dropping hints about the first major story arc of the run (or even ones down the line), or do a slam-bang one-issue story. Fraction does the one-issue story, sure, but it’s definitely not slam-bang. Croc escapes and gets sad because he thinks he’s a bad guy. Boo. Fucking. Hoo. It doesn’t even have to be something bleak, as a lot of writers have done. But, I mean, there should be a crime involved, right? Wouldn’t that work better? Breaking and entering a butterfly sanctuary doesn’t seem to cut it.
Sigh. Jiménez and Morey do wonderful work with the art, but that’s to be expected. I don’t know why Batman needed a tweaked costume, but Marvel and DC are like the University of Oregon football team, I guess — they just can’t help themselves. The book looks great, at least, although I don’t love new, “mod” Gotham — I miss the weird Gothic-ness of it, and I’m sure an artist can make that work and not turn it into a nightmare city. I do like that Jiménez makes the book a bit “comic-booky” with some of the sound effects, too — I don’t know if he did that with Zdarsky, but it’s neat. It doesn’t make the book goofy, but it does make it a bit less bleak than a lot of Batman comics of the past.
I don’t know. Maybe I’m just cynical about relaunches. Maybe I’m bummed that, while Fraction has done some excellent work in the past decade, it appears his greatest work might be gone for good. I’m optimistic about Fraction being on the book and will probably go ALL IN with at least the first trade, but this first issue is a bit dull. Oh well.
1 To remind everyone: VANDAL SAVAGE IS THE FUCKING POLICE COMMISSIONER OF GOTHAM CITY!!!!
2 Whoops — according to Fraction, he’s not AI, just a memory. I can’t decide if that’s dumber than him being AI or not.
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ½ ☆ ☆ ☆
One totally Airwolf panel:
I’m almost at my self-imposed “It’s been a year since ALL IN began, and I’m done!” deadline. Will DC do any other books before it? Only time will tell!
Love that corner box.
I haven’t read this yet, but I bought the last two Batman #1s and this one will be arriving soon. I assume it’s just a #1 to goose sales. And Jim Lee apparently wants his Hush stuff as part of the regular title because he’s old school.
Fans of this blog should be happier that Fraction has said he wants to do shorter stories, cut down on the dark/gritty, and trend more towards Bronze Age superheroism. We’ll see if it lasts. I don’t love the new costume, but I do like seeing the blue and gray return.
Was Zdarsky’s run acclaimed? It was okay. The idea of Batman fighting his own personal Frankenstein’s monster, while daring to do a sequel to the Morrison run was something, but it went in directions I didn’t love. My favorite part was probably the last arc/trade, which I think was just some extra filler to give Loeb and Lee more time, but read like more classic Batman.
It’s fine if Lee wants it that way, but if he can’t do it in a timely fashion, someone should tell him he can’t have it that way. It’s a monthly comic, after all.
I’m on board with Fraction doing shorter, less bleak stories, but, I mean, things ought to at least, you know, happen. That’s all I’m asking for!
I didn’t say Zdarsky’s run was “acclaimed,” I said it was “well-regarded”! Word choice is important, sir! 🙂
I too dig the corner box.
I enjoyed Fractions first issue, it was pretty low key but far more closer to ‘My Batman’ than what the character has been like over recent years.
I also keep asking myself if Absolute Batman could possibly suck anymore, and the answer is YES, with each issue that comes out,
Ha, yeah, AbsBats isn’t that good, but my point was that at least the first issue was full-on energetic, which is not the worst way to kick off a comic.
I despise the youths’ phrases…but I’ve never seen a better encapsulation of Snyder’s Big Two oeuvre than the phrase “Hype moments and aura.”
Starting with the New 52, there’s just no there there beyond those aims.
Not the worst approach to Big Two Capeshit (Hickman’s closed puzzle boxes own that, much as I enjoy the ‘splosions of his Avengers saga), but just as ultimately weightless, when compared to the baton-pass approach exemplified by Bendis->Brubaker->[redacted]->Waid.
” Will DC do any other books before it? Only time will tell!”
well there WAS a new ALL IN number 1 this week
But I think you can be forgiven if you skip it
I read it and enjoyed it for what it was, I hope DC brings it back with a new writer.
I guess with the state of the world we live in now, hate goes both ways, just sad.
Not the 1st time a comic has been cancelled because of online comments by creators and it won’t be the last.
John: Yeah, good point. I was in a hurry this week, so I didn’t think to look too closely at the table, so I missed it. Now, I wonder if it’s even still there. Oh well.
The writer didn’t apologize (nor should she), but she did say that she posted a bit fast and she should have thought about it for a hot second. I mean, that’s partly what’s wrong with the world — far too many people speak (or type) before they think. I wish DC hadn’t had fired her, but she had to know they would if she spoke out like she did.
Batman has had a flattening effect on its writers in recent years. James Tynion IV spent too much time trying to get his new characters going (some of which sucked, but I liked Miracle Molly and Clownhunter), had the Scarecrow try to take over Gotham in a story that went on too long, and had a boilerplate Joker story. Nothing too memorable. Zdarsky tried to do something a little different with Failsafe, which wasn’t great in the first place and then dragged. Next, he wrote an alternate universe story that wasn’t all that good and some Joker nonsense. He had good character moments throughout and a decent final arc & issue, but nothing that got people excited.
H2sh is H2sh.
Now we have Fraction, and his first issue was okay but nothing special. I think the problems boil down to Batman the character having so many stories in every major form of media. He’s fought all the dangers, been reinvented all the ways, and processed all his feelings. Coming up with a fresh angle that also sparks reader interest is tough.
Weirdly enough, Detective has had better content, but less attention. Tamaki, Taylor, and especially Ram V have produced comics that read better and are more interesting than most of what we got in the main title.
Read it. thought it was okay but nothing special. Not one of Matt Fraction’s better works. Nor one of the better Batman stories.
I’m thinking it’s not a particularly good fit of writer and character – especially as there are multiple concurrent Batman series and crossover events limiting what Matt can do. I’m thinking he needs to have a supporting cast he can put his stamp on but nobody in this issue stands out sufficiently.
I heard that one bit of advice for novel writers was to ditch the first chapter or two and start the published story after things are already moving. I feel this issue should have been one skipped for this reason
(though not go as far as Giffen and confuse all readers as to what is going on)
Having now read this– it’s fine. A nice low-key issue to catch our breath, like you said. Doesn’t feel like it needs to be a big #1 relaunch, doesn’t really have a mission statement for the run. I do like how it compares Croc’s eternal childhood to Batman’s. And I like how Cowles subtly changes the lettering when Bruce does his Batman voice.
And yeah, not sure what the deal with “The Creeps” is. They mug women and cut off their clothes? And then wear them? I assumed they were some version of the Jokerz from Batman Beyond at first.