Comic Review: Batman #99

Batman #99

DC Comics

Writers: James Tynion IV

Artists: Jorge Jimenez, Tomeu Morey

It’s finally here, the penultimate issue of James Tynion’s IV’s Joker War.  So far, this story had its ups and its downs.  While Joker War’s core is a wonderful exploration of Batman and Alfred’s relationship, the rest of the story has several different problems.  But ironically in this issue, there aren’t 99 problems, there’s just one.

Every story needs a scene to set up the final act.  Usually, it’s a scene between our hero and their allies deciding on the plan to finally thwart their foe.  Think Batman and Lucius Fox discussing the echolocation in The Dark Knight.  These scenes don’t actually move the story forward, but they do provide necessary information for the viewer to understand the premise and stakes of the final battle.  Bruce getting a lecture about his pulse-googles doesn’t drive the conflict forward, but how weird would it be for the audience if he just started busting clowns with his 10-D VR headset.  My point is that these expository scenes are important, but should ultimately be concise.

The problem with Batman #99 is that the entire issue is one big exposition scene.  Tynion takes a page (or an entire issue) out of his former mentor Scott Snyder’s playbook,  The actual conflict of the story, Batman fighting the Joker, is completely absent from the issue.  Instead, all the characters move from place to place to get to the final battle.  Allow me to list the scenes in this issue: Joker moves to the final battleground, Batman and his allies decide on their plan, Batman moves to the final battleground, Batman confirms his plan with Harley Quinn, Batman and Joker preview their final battle.  Because the first few issues scattered the main characters all over Gotham, Tynion spends the entire issue getting them back together.

The exposition in Batman #99 roadblocks all of the momentum in the story.  I don’t have a problem with each individual scene.  But because Tynion spends the entire issue setting up the finale, the pacing as a whole suffers.  There are two obvious workarounds to this problem.  First off, Tynion could just cut the length of most scenes in half.  Joker’s opening monologue eats seven pages of the story while adding little to nothing.  Likewise, it takes Batman five pages to debrief with the Batfamily, when it could easily be done in two or three.  Or second, Tynion could just cut most of the scenes out altogether.  The Batfamily and Harley scenes could have just been one more tightly-packed scene instead of two.  Either way, this issue needed a larger focus on action and progression.

That’s not to say this issue didn’t have its highlights.  Even though the exposition led to an overall problem, each of the scenes was quite enjoyable.  I particularly loved Batman’s speech with Harley.  One of Tynion’s talents is his ability to guide characters in the proper direction.  Just like his tactful handling of the effects of Alfred’s death on Bruce, Tynion gives Harley real character progression.  Throughout Joker War, Harley was accepting, sympathetic, reflective, and even rational.  In this issue, she’s no different.  Harley compromises with the Bat in a manner less dramatic than most of Bruce’s conversation with the Robins.  It’s like Tynion’s power is his ability to see what directions these characters need to move in to grow.

There’s plenty of other things to discuss, specifically related to the ending.  But since these are mostly just a handful of cliffhangers, they’re better left for the discussion of the next issue.

Overall, Batman #99 suffers from a frontload of exposition.  Tynion still brings heart and character to the story, but the lack of progression slows things down too much.  I have no idea what to expect out of Batman #100, but now that all of the setup is out of the way, I’m looking forward to Joker War’s finale.