Week 2. How long will I stick with this li’l newsletter? Who knows. But I have a brand new notes app essay about a thing I like, this time about Batman. As in the comic book title, but also the character at-large.
If you know me personally: ever wonder why I dig Batman and DC Comics so much? Here’s a peek into why. Beware of Batman #125 spoilers, and general talk about recent comic book events.
Again: this is mostly for me, but I hope you find something to dig in it, too.
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Mr. Chip Zdarsky, the newest Batman writer, said it best:
This week saw Batman #125 drop, the first issue with the new creative team of Zdarsky (Writer), Jorge Jimenez (Artist), and Tomeu Morey (Colorist). Contemporary “chapters” in the lives of these corporate-owned superhero characters are usually marked by the creative teams working on their books. So Zdarsky, Jimenez, and Morey have just started a brand new and highly-anticipated chapter in Batman’s life—and I for one fucking loved it.
I’ll probably focus mostly on the story here, and so use Zdarsky’s name to talk about the creative choices being made, but it’s important to note that comics are collaborations—the art and the words work in tandem to create these wacky little floppy magazines we call comic books. The art is just as essential as the writing—if not more essential, honestly.
So before I jump into the thick of it, let me just say: this issue is Jimenez and Morey at their career best. Batman as a title has never felt more dynamic, more energized, even including this duo’s last go at the title with James Tynion IV as the writer. Take a look at some panels online, maybe on Jimenez’s Instagram—you’ll see what I mean.
But first: Batman #125, a summary. Stop here if you care about spoilers.
Lots packed into this issue, so I’ll give a bare bones summary so we’re all mostly on the same page.
First off: Bruce Wayne is Batman.
That’s pretty common knowledge, duh, but it’s an essential fact of this first issue of the new run1 . Bruce Wayne is Batman, but Batman hasn’t been spending a lot of time as Bruce Wayne, as pointed out by Robin (secret identity: Tim Drake). In the last major Batman run, spearheaded by James Tynion IV and Jorge Jimenez, Bruce lost his famous Wayne Manor and his billions—he’s no long the rich socialite he once was, thus he’s spending all his time as Batman.
Great. That established, we learn that there’s someone killing Gotham billionaires—turns out this is the Penguin. Bruce and Tim (Batman and Robin) go to a rich-person gala to stop a Penguin attack, Tim gets shot—but doesn’t die—Bruce and Tim rush to the hospital. Bruce learns that the Penguin is fatally ill, and then the Penguin poisons himself with cyanide in front of Batman and some nurses, essentially framing Batman for murder.
Okay. Yes. I could go into more detail, but now you’re caught up.
I’ve already written a bit about #125 for Screen Rant, but here’s what I think, really: all Batman stories require Batman to suffer. Zdarsky’s thesis in this first issue of his run seems to be that Batman’s primary suffering is that he does not allow himself to be Bruce Wayne.
I love so much about this opening issue, but that’s one of the elements I love the most: that Zdarsky appears to be interested in Batman’s humanity, who he is when he’s not being Batman. And that’s always what I’ve loved most about Batman; he is a masked vigilante, but he is also a man—a man with children, with friends, with very famously dead parents.
The previous run on Batman—Tynion’s—focused a lot on who Batman was to Gotham City. Zdarsky is setting the reader up to think about who Batman is to himself. Who Batman is to Bruce Wayne.
That’s the intellectual, thinky-thinky stuff about why I liked this issue. Here’s some more stuff I dig about it:
Batman drinking energy drinks, holed up in his basement
No, really:
Tim Drake
Tim Drake being happy
Tim Drake getting SHOT
Funny Batman outfit (yes I am linking to my SR article again, shut up, it’s my newsletter)
The Penguin has MERCURY poisoning and that’s hilarious because it implies he’s been eating too much FISH
How #125 is a great jumping on point for new Batman readers
How readers who know both the character’s history and recent comic events are rewarded
Did I say Tim Drake?
Okay, so I love Tim Drake. He’s one of my favorite comic book characters, and certainly my favorite Robin—there’s been five of those rascals, by the way. I could wax poetic about Tim’s big year—he recently came out as bisexual and is finally getting his own solo series after more than a decade—but what I love most about Tim’s appearance in this issue is the Batman-and-Robin of it all.
Culturally speaking, I fear the broad public thinks of Batman as a “lone wolf” figure; the Nolan movies didn’t do much to dispel this myth, and perhaps they even cemented it. The truth is, though, that Batman has been working with partners practically from the beginning. The Bat-man debuted in Detective Comics #27 in 1939. Robin (Dick Grayson, the first) debuted in ‘Tec #38 in 1940. Batman worked without Robin for ten whole issues. Then he worked with Robin for over 80 years.
Zdarsky brings “Batman-and-Robin” back to the forefront with Batman #125—I can’t think of the last time Bruce worked so closely and so in tandem with one of his Robins, at least on the page. It’s a dynamic that’s been sorely missed, especially since it’s so culturally ingrained. They’re the first superhero and sidekick, after all. And dedicated Batman readers are rewarded with some classic Robin angst in the form of Jason Todd flashbacks—but that’s a conversation for another day.
So we have the classic “Batman-and-Robin” vibes, and we have Zdarsky returning Batman to his Bruce Wayne, playboy billionaire roots as he sweeps through a run-of-the-mill gala in his fancy suit. The Penguin—there are few Batman villains as classic as the Penguin—is up to his usual tricks.
Why do I love Batman #125? Because it feels like the classic Batman stories from my childhood—and I’m not even talking about the comics. I’m talking about Batman: The Animated Series, which often played with the Bruce Wayne/Batman divide—and I’ll take this opportunity to highly recommend Kevin Conroy’s recent bio-comic about voicing Batman in BTAS, as featured in this year’s DC Pride 2022.
I’m talking about Tim Burton’s Batman Returns from 1992, which is not only, frankly, a classic Christmas movie, but also features Danny DeVito’s iconic turn as the Penguin.
Batman has a long, deep history in American culture, and at this point the comic books are only a small part of that. This first issue of Zdarsky’s run—and the “Batman vs. Bruce Wayne” conflict it establishes—honors the kinds of Batman stories we’ve seen on big and small screens alike. Not to use the ultimate vague word, but: with the Penguin, and the galas, and the Robin of it all—this issue just has a Batman: The Animated Series VIBE, you know?
That’s what I like, ultimately, about this issue. Zdarsky—and Jimenez and Morey—manages to balance the culturally-relevant Batman elements (secret identities, ritzy galas, Robin team-ups) with recent Gotham comics events (Catwoman’s new love interest, Tim’s self-discovery, even Alfred’s death from a few creative teams ago). Batman #125 is both a jumping on point for new comic book readers and a deeply exciting off-shoot of what’s come just before it.
That’s what I like, ultimately, about this issue, and that’s what I like, ultimately, about DC Comics—and superheroes—as a whole. They’re hardwired into American culture (like, did you really need me to tell you that Batman is Bruce Wayne, or did you know already? when did you learn that? what???), and they’re also, at the very same time, a deeply niche subculture with a labyrinthine history. I like the labyrinth, and I like the shared surface. The dichotomy of it all.
Bruce Wayne. Batman. Could it be that he’s both at once?
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(PS: Did you read this, and now you’re interested in superhero comics? Or maybe checking out a comic book store? I would very much like to help you find your way through this beloved fucking labyrinth. Reach out. Batman #125 is a great jumping on point. Happy reading!!!)
A “run” is what we, in comics, call a collection of issues made by the same creative team, or sometimes just the same writer—so this will go down in quote-unquote “history” as Zdarsky’s run on Batman.