Written by: Chip Zdarsky
Art by: Jorge Jimenez
Colors by: Tomeu Morey
Letters by: Clayton Cowles
Cover art by: Jorge Jimenez
Cover price: $4.99
Release date: October 2, 2024
Batman #153, by DC Comics on 10/2/24, finds Gotham City on the road to recovery thanks to Bruce Wayne's company moving into the public sector to rebuild. Sadly, kindness can be taken as a weakness.
Is Batman #153 Good?
Did you ever get the feeling somebody is trying to make a point, but they keep dancing around the idea, so the message feels incomplete? That's what you get with Batman #153. Chip Zdarsky moves Bruce Wayne and Gotham City into a new day of rebuilding and social improvements, but Batman feels the city pushing back with the "commie" insult hurled left and right. Zdarsky is certainly leaning into a "message," but I'm not quite sure which one.
When last we left the Caped Crusader in Batman #152, Batman and Catwoman successfully completed a heist to steal a mother box Amanda Waller kept hidden in a secret military installation. This whole ordeal was part of the hero's counter-offensive to the Absolute Power event. The issue ended with Batman and Catwoman taking a stroll on the beach while the world burned around them.
In Batman #153, the Absolute Power event is over, and everything is (mostly) back to normal. Jim Gordon is flourishing as a private detective. Edward Nygma has started Nygmatech to use his genius for the greater good. And Wayne Industries is funding more socially beneficial programs and rebuilding efforts to make the city a better place. All signs are trending positively.
Or are they?
Mayor Nakano's marriage is on the rocks, thanks to overwork, several indiscretions, and pressure from his longtime, secret relationship with the Court of Owls.
A new, patriotic-themed vigilante has come on the scene. He uses guns, and he has the approval of Commissioner Vandal Savage, which suddenly makes Batman's job a lot harder.
Finally, Edward Nygma decides he can cut through the red tape for his corporate expansion if he makes moves to merge with Wayne Industries, using leverage from an unlikely source.
The issue ends with a hostile takeover bid, Bruce gets a reminder about someone he's forgotten, and two slugs to the chest.
What's great about Batman #153? Technically, Riddler and the Court of Owls aren't working together, but that kind of one/two punch may just be what's needed to get this series back on track. Once Chip Zdarsky pulled out the Bat-God nonsense, this series turned into a disaster that nobody wants to read, so maybe a fresh start with a tried and true arc can right the ship.
Nobody wants Zdarsky's legacy on Batman to be a historic failure, so here's hoping we're in for better days.
What's not great about Batman #153? Strange as it sounds, the underlying tone is the sticking point jeopardizing the beginning of this new arc.
Zdarsky is playing with the idea of "addressing" the idiotic online troll arguments that Bruce Wayne should be using his billions to solve Gotham's problems instead of beating up crazy people. That argument never held water, but Zdarsky is choosing to give that argument weight and address it with story elements, which comes across as a personality shift for Bruce Wayne.
Bruce is presented here as distracted, eager to spend millions to the detriment of his company, and more focused on using his company as a tool for social progress. In isolation, using your massive wealth for the greater good should be a good thing, but the issue slides toward putting Batman on the back burner.
Technically, the issue is executed well enough, but you can feel a different personality injected into the comic, likely Zdarsky's, that feels off somehow.
How's the Art? Jorge Jimenez is a fantastic artist, so it should be no surprise that this issue looks amazing. Jimenez pops the reader in just the right spots when more than a few surprise twists and turns crop up, and the brief bit of action looks great.
About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.
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Final Thoughts
Batman #153 begins a new arc that depicts Gotham City heading toward a brighter day while dark forces plot to tear it all down. Zdarsky's setup checks all the right boxes on the surface, but there's an obvious shift in Bruce Wayne's personality that feels off somehow. This issue is better than the majority of Zdarsky's run, so we'll see if he can pay off the setup.
7/10
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Part 1: I mostly disgaree with this review, this issue was wayyyy worse than it was said (as always all criticisms are meant only for the quality of writing and not a personal attack on writers themselves). Let me explain myself.
ReplyDeleteFirst off none of the problems with Zdarsky have gone away. He still sadly writes without any regard for the machinations of the world he is writing in just beacuse he has a certain plot to tell (which will fall apart more as it goes on). I don't care which angle or what message he is going to send, this has been so tired in western comics that most readers are beyond caring at this point and Zdarsky attempting to tackle it now as if it's something never done before with Batman is just comical but those aren't the major problems. These are: it's one thing for rogues to work as black ops or off the books agents for the government or "consultants", it's a whole another thing for one of the most notorious ones to be out of jail, create a legal organisation and be popular with people!!! ( I persume the war of Jokes and Riddles has still happened in this continuity or have the people of Gotham decided that catastrophe isn't canon anymore to their lives??? I wish we could do the same for the whole King run of Batman but alas) There is no way that Riddler would be able to do any of this and it is beyond ridiculous. Insane or not he has been a criminal, even Two Face won't be able to pull this off and arguably he is one of the villains that Gotham might have some sympathy for. The fact that he has done it and is popular is the icing on the cake. A very bizarre swerve for the character that ignores a lot of lore to just tell an out of character story that I will guarantee will go nowhere good exactly like the whole deal with Vandal Savage being Commissioner which is beyond ridiculous ( not to mention a serious nerf and downgrade from the role that character had before all this, it feels like he was chosen just because he is a known name and randomly instead of him actually being related to this plot).
Part 2: Another problem is more subtle but very damaging: So genuinely asking, have the writers at DC read a Batman comic from before or not?? Cause them having not read a single one is the only explanation I can come up with that explains why they would think Wayne industries trying to renovate Gotham and specifically taking interest in more humanitarian work is a novelty! No seriously, do they not know why Bruce Wayne has been called a billionaire philanthropist??? You know, it's probably cause he has done...philanthropy. the numerous orphanages and clinics and housing complexes Bruce has built for Gotham have been mentioned, depicted and even sometimes played an important part in plot several times before. Why would a lot of Batman stories start with opening ceremonies for some kind of charity or initiative Bruce Wayne has done otherwise??? He has even been known to give work to certain criminals in order to rehabilitate them (a lot more that what Selina claimed to have done). I hoped this aspect of the plot would be just ignored with this new arc but the writer insists on mentioning it and therefore making me address it. The problem with the criticism that Batman just punches criminals isn't that doing charity work as Bruce Wayne would put Batman stories as back burner and not work, the problem is Bruce has ALREADY been doing that from way back. He has been both Batman and Bruce wayne for this exact reason, alot of times him not seeing a point in the second identity of Bruce Wayne resolved with him understanding the importance of Bruce Wayne's role in Gotham as well as Batman, so this whole nonsense with Gordon talking as if they have just discovered a new element or something is absolutely bizarre, so much so that it can't help but become non canon immediately by default just beacuse there is so much evidence already to the contrary.
ReplyDeleteNow if they want to criticise Batman and make him go in a new direction, they could have written a story about Bruce entering into politics or trying to be an important official figure or etc in order to implement change in Gotham in a more foundational way maybe, there are a lot of avenues that can be taken in order to address the way Bruce has dealt with Gotham and its cons specifically which I welcome gladly but him creating affordable housong complexes and the like isn't it cause he has been doing this for years. (It isn't a must do, but at least politics isn't something that Bruce Wayne the PHILANTHROPIST billionaire Ceo is particularly known for and it could go some interesting places especially with court of owls coming back). They won't that of course cause it would probably solve some problems in Gotham permanently and we can't have any forward progression in comics even if we have series dedicated to past eras where we can go back in these earlier settings to tell stories if we want a more corrupted Gotham as opposed to the better future one and they will even be as popular as main or future timelines titles as Waid's worlds finest run on Batman and Superman has proven so no real addressing of Gotham problems and how Bruce tries to think a solution for them that is more long lasting and more Gotham being taken over for the billionth time by some rogue or something and setting back the status quo that is unrealistic at this point.(not to mention extremely boring and done before)
In conclusion this issue is wayyy worse than what 125 or whatever issue Zdarsky started his Batman run with was. 4 out of 10 and that is only for art. Basically none of the characters here with the exception of Nakano have been in character at all. And without the characters, the plot has so much holes that it can't make up for the absence of good character writing.
Parts of my comment got lost again 🥲🥲 whatever. Either it will reappear later or it won't but basically part 1 was about how Riddler doing what he is doing in this issue makes no sense. And the fact that vandal as commissioner is both lame and out of character.
ReplyDelete