Batman #45 Review and *SPOILERS*

Batmanium

Written By: Scott Snyder
Art By: Greg Capullo, Danny Miki, FCO Plascencia
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: October 14, 2015

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

We're finally back to the main story and I couldn't be happier....... because I don't want to get internet slapped again.  Yeah, I'm feeling a lot pressure on this one, but don't worry; I'll keep it real like I always do and won't succumb to peer pressure or any kind of nonsense like that.  When last we left our Robotic Knight, Jim Gordon decided that he wanted to go after Mr. Bloom on his own and to do that off the grid, he had to keep his big bad Batsuit at home...... and man was that a mistake because when we left our hero he had been led into a trap and looked like he would be burned alive.  If that wasn't enough to keep you interested, we also saw Mr. Bloom go all Slender Man on Penguin's ass and possibly kill him.  Yeah, that's some shit right there....... we also had a story about Batman five years earlier in the last issue, but I don't want to talk about that.  So let's see where our story is heading with this issue and if Batman can handle the Devil Pigs when they turn up the heat.  Let's check it out.



Explain It!:

Our story begins with Jim Gordon trying to escape his death trap and while I really enjoyed this scene because it showed Jim Gordon really stepping into the shoes of Batman and how he's able to think and overcome a situation, it did come off very weird because the character talked about how if the fire he was stuck in got any hotter, it would destroy the suit and him as well.......... and then he proceeded to say how the fire was getting hotter.  Jim eventually overcame as we knew he would, but I have to think back to all the people that always razzed Robocop by saying if someone really wanted to take him down, all they would have to do is shoot him in the face and even though I'm a huge Robocop fan and tried to find ways to pish posh the naysayers arguments, I have to wonder how the hell Jim Gordon doesn't look like Freddy Krueger from his nose down to his chin.  We already established that the fire was hot enough to cremate a person, but there's Jim Gordon with only a bit of soot on his lip.  Not only that, but when he got out of the fire, he found himself getting the living hell beat out of him by the Devil Pigs, who even managed to stab him a few times and as we saw later, Jim is fine and dandy walking around like he wasn't just in a gigantic fire or stabbed.

I'm telling you, I liked this opening scene, but there didn't seem to be any ramifications to Jim being as injured as he was and for a story about a man trying to be Batman, it feels like a missed opportunity to show how hard it is to actually be the Dark Knight.  Jim is saved from the Devil Pigs when we see a new function the robo bat suit has....... kind of like we saw in the last Detective Comics, when the suit was given flight abilities.  Here we see it has a Auto-Pilot feature and it's sent in to save Jim.  This is a cool feature because of the partner aspect that Jim sees the potential for and how it allows him to step back into his old role of a Detective who can count on someone backing him up.

We take a powder from the action for a bit to see how Bruce Wayne is doing and surprisingly, he seems really aggravated that he isn't able to make a difference the way that Jim Gordon had previously asked him to and this seems to have come to a head when we find out that a bunch of the Joker's props from Endgame and a lot of the rubble from that ordeal has been placed in a fenced off lot next to the Rec Center where Bruce Wayne works and since he isn't a prominent business man or a millionaire anymore, it seems that he doesn't have the pull he once did to get things done and the lot next to his new life remains a horrible reminder of what the city went through.  Don't worry though kids, not only does Bruce do something to inspire hope in the kids that he's now working with, but we see that there might be a bit of the old Batman rattling inside of his head because he took those props and turned them into a playground for the kids....... a terrifying playground.  This might not mean much to some, but when you see a giant Joker's card displayed next to a giant T-Rex and Bruce considering them trophies for the ability to overcome..........well, you can see what I mean.

In the end, Jim Gordon, after his massive screw up against the Devil Pigs, is asked to meet Geri Powers, who has this big over the top allegory about how the Batman she wants is like a new element waiting to be discovered, while all she really is trying to get to is how she wants Jim to turn in his resignation.  It's a very odd scene and I didn't really care for it, but it sets up something awesome when Jim is supposed to resign at a big presentation and Mr. Bloom shows up rocking a Black Manta looking airship and Jim saves Geri Powers.......... but totally lets a shit ton of people get killed by Mr. Bloom.  Yeah, it's a bit of a screw up situation again, but it was a really cool scene to end on.

That's it for this issue of Batman and while I had some issues with things like Jim Gordon appearing like he has a healing factor here and Geri Power's over the top way to ask Jim to quit, the rest was really good and I'm happy as hell that we're back to seeing our current story.  I would have liked to see something about the Penguin here because I've been waiting two months for some closure to see if one of my favorite villains is alive or dead, but we got enough solid stuff here to keep me satiated enough that I guess I can wait a little bit longer to find out the fate of Oswald Cobblepot.  As I always say at this point, Greg Capullo's art in this issue is great as always so there isn't much to say about it.  I'm just happy as hell to get back to our story and not have to deal with any detours into the past...... it's those detours that get you into trouble.

Bits and Pieces:

The Batman story moves along here and sets up some interesting things to look forward to like the future of Jim Gordon as Batman and what's really going on inside Bruce's head.  While I would have liked to see more of the physical consequences that go along with being Batman here, I found myself enjoying this issue and can't wait to see where it goes.

7/10