Writer: AJ Lieberman
Artists: Al Barrioneuvo, Javier Pina
Publisher: DC/Titan Books (ISBN 1-84576-258-4)
One really might as well have foregone the “Batman” part of the title of this book, as it’s essentially the story of the return of Hush and his desire to kill the Riddler (except he doesn’t do it when he has the chance) – running up against the Joker and his grasp of Gotham on the way. The Bat-cast are bit part players, existing it seems purely to justify the word “Batman” in the title (in fact Green Arrow seems to get more page time that Bats himself).
So, Hush is back from the dead (see next paragraph for commentary on what I think of that) and is living in a shack in the woods. He kills off a few nosy townsfolk who wonder why the light is on and then starts tracking the Riddler – who engineers his escape from jail thanks to a name he knows from the Joker’s past: the name of the name who killed his wife. Cue a bunch of flashbacks acting as a poor man’s Killing Joke and … nothing else. The plotline just disappears with the Joker getting his arse handed to him by Hush and his new ally…Prometheus. A great creation by Grant Morrison, used awfully here – his appearance rings false in every panel he appears in – and the final (disconnected) chapter in this book about the society of villains looking for Prometheus for his other-dimensional base is excuse for (a) another series of flashbacks and (b) a pointless and tenuous tie-in to this Infinite Crisis bollocks.
So, Hush is back from the dead…just like Donna Troy…just like Jason Todd…just like everyone else who ever died in the DCU, because with this Infinite Crisis Bollocks (deserving of the capital I think) death has been cancelled and nothing will ever be the same again blah blah blah. What DC appear to be missing with this stupid stupid stupid idea is that it means that nothing that happens is of any relevance to anything at all. In a few months the DCU will be relaunched, characters given a new status quo and everything that has happened since the original Crisis rendered meaningless. Which means of course that what actually happens in this book – or any DCU book - doesn’t matter. All tension is completely gone – it doesn’t matter if Batman gets killed, for example, cos death no longer matters.
DC should be thanked for giving readers a superb jumping-off point, but it’s a hell of a kick in the teeth for everyone who’s been reading these last couple of dozen years – just as the original Crisis was for Silver Age fans. I suppose this review might as well read – some boring stuff happens, get it if you care. Oh. And just to cap it off. In case you wondered. It’s written like this. A very staccato style. For short attention spans. Are you irritated by it yet? Because I was.
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