Batman #122 Review

 

Tunnels and Teamups

Written by: Joshua Williamson

Art by: Howard Porter, Tomeu Morey, and Clayton Cowles

Cover Price: $4.99

Release Date: April 5, 2022

While I liked a lot that went down in last week's Shadow War Alpha #1, I think Joshua Williamson dropped the ball with his characterization of Batman.  Yea, I think it was to get Damian to go off on his own for now, but it still made Batman look like a total prick.   While that is nothing new, it felt like we were finally getting away from that unfortunate trend.  Luckily, Williamson didn't have to wait long to fix the situation, hopefully.  So, let's jump into Batman #122...

Batman #122 begins with a mysterious scene with the faux-stroke vowing revenge on "the people responsible."  Maybe it's a clue as to who the imposter is, but I don't know... though I do have some theories.  We then go off to Batman and Cameron Chase to get the issue properly going.

While Chase talks about what could have been, Batman is busy detecting by studying Ra's last moments holographically.  As an aside, are we still going with the not-so-rich Batman?  It never did hamper him much anyway, except for digging out those micro caves in the Gotham sewers.  You know, the ones that Mariko Tamaki just abandoned in Detective.  Anytime Batman does detective work, however,  is a plus for me, and he does come up with a lead here.  Imagine that, Batman figuring out something on his own!  I didn't think we would ever see that again!  I know I am being a bit snarky, but I am giving Williamson some props here.  As silly as it sounds, Batman has not been a very good Batman for quite some time.

While that's going on, we head off to Zandia to see how Slade, Respawn, and the Secret Society are doing against the newly (re)formed Demon's Shadow.  Spoiler Alert - it's not going great!  The Secret Society may not be much of anything after this, but Slad and his "son" do get away.

The best part of the issue, in my opinion, happens in the second half.  It's more personal and sets up some cool team-ups I didn't see coming and may also piss off  Bat Cat fans out there, but we shall see.  By the way, all that praise about Batman and his detective work?  Unfortunately, he seems to have been wrong!  Give the guy a break, though; he is out of practice!

While Batman #122 didn't impress me as much as Shadow War Alpha #1 did, I still liked it.  I am a fan of Howard Porter, but I even struggled with the art at points.  His Damian was a bit too tall and slim, and some of the action scenes were overcrowded.  It didn't ruin anything; it just didn't elevate it either.  The story itself was more set up, and while I liked most of it, the wow factor of the Alpha issue did not carry over.  Maybe it's the fact that DC and Williamson know that Batman will sell no matter what, so they are leaving the big things for Deathstroke Inc and Robin, or maybe it's just the way Williamson plotted the event out but I felt a tad disappointed By the end.  Sitting here and thinking about it, it's weird, but maybe it's because Batman is the least compelling character involved in the story right now.  That might be a plus, though, since we have two other books and many other characters to focus on here.

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Bits and Pieces:

Batman #122 sets up some surprising team-ups, but not much else.  After the explosive Alpa issue, I expected Williamson would keep the momentum going, but that is not the case.  I am not saying this was a bad issue because it is not.  It's just not as good as I hoped.

7.5/10