This Is the Worst Batman Story in Years (And That’s Saying a Lot)

It’s a weird time to be a Batman fan. On the one hand, Absolute Batman and Batman: Dark Patterns are legitimately two comics that are instant classics, and will definitely be regarded as must-reads for new readers in the very near future, if not already. On top of that, the Caped Crusader is relaunching this fall with the brand new legendary team of Matt Fraction and Jorge Jiménez that promises to bring light and joy back to Batman in a way he hasn’t had in a very long time. On the other hand, the main Batman comic has jumped between being repetitive and derivative to an outright insulting slog every arc the past few years. The main comic has been struggling for arc after arc, telling the same annoying stories over and over, and to top it all off, the current “H2SH” storyline is the worst Batman story in years, and given how much competition we’ve been given recently, that’s saying a lot.

Batman Is in a Creative Rut

It feels like the main Batman title has been going in circles for a decade at this point. Every arc seems to either focus on some villain taking over Gotham City, Batman being accused of failing to be a hero in one way or another, or him fighting against his allies and family for some reason that’s always contrived. Sometimes it’s all three, and those stories are the worst. This isn’t to say that Batman has had no good stories in the main comic in years, as James Tynion IV’s run was generally solid and the opening two arcs to Chip Zdarsky’s run were fantastic, but generally they all fall into the traps listed above, and usually fall apart in some way because of it. Even years later Tom King’s Run is controversial, and Chip Zdarsky’s run is usually torn apart for its overly long Failsafe storyline. Yet all of those runs had good parts and enjoyable points, but I cannot think of a single thing that is enjoyable about “H2SH.”

The problems with “H2SH” are manyfold, but it boils down to two major issues; a disregard for continuity, and a creatively empty plot that boils down to characters making the most controversial decision at every given opportunity. Starting with the disregard for continuity, “H2SH” genuinely feels like a comic that should have come out twenty years ago. Everyone’s characterization is far more in line with how they acted in the early 2000s than now, especially with the focus on only the Robins, Batgirl, and Huntress as Bat Family members. It acts like “Hush” just came out last year as opposed to 23 years ago, framing it like Batman and Hush haven’t interacted since then.

And then there’s the Riddler, a key player in both “Hush” and “H2SH,” with his militaristic redesign and new massive bodybuilder physique. This is cool, but it only makes fans ask questions because Riddler was also a main character in the last Batman arc, and he was far more jovial and looked a lot different than he does now. Then there’s Red Hood’s decision to flip and join up with Hush because he’s mad at Bruce for not killing Joker and he potentially has brain damage from the Lazarus Pit. Jason has gotten over being mad at Bruce a thousand times at this point, and the two literally made up and forgave each other for everything not twelve issues ago. Also, if Jason was going to have brain damage from his revival, I feel like we would have seen some examples by now, right? It’s simply been too long for this twist to work.

But speaking of Red Hood, that perfectly leads us into what really makes this story atrocious; the plot obsessed with controversy. It legitimately seems like every major plot point in this story is designed to farm rage reads. Red Hood is a villain again, Batman shoots his own son with a gun, constantly blaming Batman for not killing Joker, Bane teaming up with Damian, the Bat Family fighting again. There’s no reason for any of these things to happen, yet they continue to stack.

For example, Damian and Bane drop out of nowhere to save Batman, which is obviously a shocking sight considering that Bane killed Alfred in front of Damian, and despite Damian letting go of that rage it doesn’t mean he’d want to team up with the guy who killed Alfred. Yet they do, and not only is there no explanation as to why Bane of all people would help Batman or why Damian went to recruit him, Batman proceeded to scream at Bane and knock him out with one punch, which is just straight up nonsensical. And then there’s Barbara’s new hatred of Bruce, which stems from Batman saving the Joker and her dad almost dying, as if somehow those two things are connected and Hush isn’t the one who put her dad in the hospital. She attacked Batman and he defended himself, but when the rest of the Bat Family arrived they specifically told Batman to stand down, because why shouldn’t he be blamed for everything?

This plot is actually nonsensical, with characters making the worst choices possible as they swim around a question that has already been answered a hundred times, strung along by a villain with as much impact as paper mache. “H2SH” offers nothing of value to the Batman mythos, and seems intent to highlight every single problem people who don’t like or read Batman have with the character, which just makes me ask who they are writing this for. No Batman fan wants to read this type of story, and non-Batman fans aren’t going to suddenly pick it up because it beats down on the Dark Knight. This story has no target audience, and the cynical part of me says that they’re just being controversial on purpose because without it, this story doesn’t have any legs. If that’s the case, then I suppose it’s doing its job wonderfully. 

Batman #161 is on sale now.

5 Best Superman/Batman Team Ups