Comic Review: Batman #101

Batman #101

DC Comics

Writers: James Tynion IV

Artists: Guillem March, Tomeu Morey

Get ready to study or sleep.  Pull out the oversized sweaters.  Relax by the window with your cat.  Batman is going lo-fi.  Okay, that might sound ridiculous.  But while Batman might not be listening to Joji and cramming for his English exam, “Batman going lo-fi” is an actual quote from the comic.  At first this might sound silly.  But in context, it’s surprisingly interesting.

There is this intangible idea of the perfect Batman story.  It’s the kind of story that seems far away, probably because it was this kind of story that hooked us into Batman in the first place.  For some, it’s Batman the Animated Series.  For others, it’s Batman: Arkham City.   For a lot of people, it was Batman Begins.  All of these stories focused on grounded crime, genuine mystery, and the Gothic aesthetic.  But nowadays, this story seems absent from DC comics.  This is partly because writers want to try different things with the character over time.  But it’s also in no small part because of his evolution over the years.  He battles aliens, monsters, and literal gods alongside the Justice League.  He has an endless armory of weapons and vehicles.  He commands a full battalion of costumed allies.  In recent years, Batman went from man to mythical.

So when Tynion proposes lo-fi Batman, he’s talking about bringing Bruce back to basics.  I am all for this.  I have no problem with where Batman has gone as a character.  But at the same time, I do miss the feeling of a classic Batman story.  This was something Tynion captured very well early on in his run.  And now that Batman lives in the heart of the city without his fortune, it’s like Batman starting back at square one.

I do have doubts that Tynion can stick the landing though.  His latest story, Joker War, was full of promises that went nowhere.  And with the epic Ghost-maker story on the horizon, I’m not sure there’s room for Batman to focus on small-scale stories.  If Tynion actually takes the Batman in this direction, I’m all for it.  However, I’m not sure this will actually end up happening.

While I do like most of the status quo changes in this issue, there is one that makes me roll my eyes.  The issue ends with Batman and Catwoman going their separate ways for one year.  On the one hand, I’m glad that there wasn’t some dramatic breakup where they both hated each other.  But on the other hand, why can’t Bruce and Selina be happy?  With all the shakeups at DC, I don’t have faith that Tynion will have the power to bring them back together a year from now.  Based on his past decisions, I think Tynion really understands these characters.  This screams of editorial getting in the way (which is par for the course for Catwoman at this point).

While I like the setup in this issue, Tynion continues to roll out status quo changes without actually showing them.  He mentioned the city will get more dangerous, but it hasn’t.  He mentioned the Joker was right, but he wasn’t.  So now that Tyinon promises to return Batman to his old days, I’m not sure if it will actually happen.  This was a decent little issue, but it all depends on the follow-through.