Hush 2 Is Heavy on the Nostalgia But at Least the Art is Great (Review)

Batman: Hush may be one of the most iconic stories for the Dark Knight that DC has ever told with the original tale from creators Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee delivering some genuinely unforgettable moments and in many ways helping to redefine Batman upon the story’s debut in 2002. Now, more than two decades later, the sequel to that story has arrived with Batman #158 kicking off the six-issue Hush 2 arc. but while the story will be welcome by long-time fans of the original and brings with it Lee’s incredible art, the kickoff issue feels like a heavy nostalgia play that’s more frozen in time than fascinating, a story that largely ignores any of the developments and changes Batman has undergone to retreat the past.

The issue kicks off with Batman responding to The Joker staging an attack on the Gotham Reservoir. There’s an altercation between the Clown Prince of Crime and the Dark Knight that results in Batman going into the drink with the toxic fish, but this is Batman. He isn’t taken out. He’s just dealt a complication but he’s not alone. The Joker soon finds himself on the receiving end of his own unexpected twist and while Batman is rescued by Talia al Ghul, the Joker is hauled off to be tortured and mortally wounded by Hush. A few logical leaps later — and the Bat-Fam being unable to reach Batman because their signals were jammed — and Batman realizes where he needs to go to find the Joker, encountering not only a dying villain, but a “greatest hits” of his crimes. More than that, Batman quickly realizes that this has all been orchestrated by none other than Tommy Elliot, aka Hush.

[RELATED: DC’s Batman: Hush 2 Trailer Teases Iconic Villain’s Return]

If you hadn’t read a single Batman comic since 2003 — or even if this follow up was coming in much closer proximity to the original story — this would be a fine issue. It very much captures the look, the feel, the energy — the vibe, if you will — of that original Hush story. And one absolutely cannot deny that Lee’s art here is fantastic. There is just something about how Lee approaches Batman and his cast of characters, not to mention that Alex Sinclair’s colors just pop beautifully. The issue, however, is that it’s been 22 years. More specifically, a lot has happened in even more recent Batman runs that has very fundamentally shifted just about everything about the character, from how he operates to the very cadence of his speech. Loeb’s writing doesn’t reflect any of that. Instead, this arc just feels like it was shoved into a setting (for lack of better term) where it doesn’t really belong. It makes for a really jarring hard shift from Zdarsky’s run, one that may leave readers a little confused and a lot underwhelmed. Not having this be its own limited series entirely separate feels like a mistake, one that the story may have to work harder than normal to overcome.

There’s also just not a lot of substance here to really pull readers in. Again, this is very much a nostalgia play, which means that for readers who aren’t familiar with the original Hush story, the barrier for entry may be a little higher and for those who are familiar but who haven’t revisited it in a while, things just don’t feel like they gel quit right. However, if you can strip out the hype around the story and ignore that this is a highly anticipated follow up to a massively important Batman story and, thus, approach it as its own thing, the story feels a lot like a vintage, or even classic Batman tale. Which isn’t a bad thing. It again just goes back to whether making this a part of the mainline Batman comic was the best play since so it feels completely divorced from the rest of the universe.

Ultimately, Batman #158 is okay. If you really liked the first Hush story, you’re probably going to like this. Lee’s art also never disappoints. But this does in many ways just feel like a symptom of something larger with comics and with DC specifically: the need to revisit iconic and classic stories to over-capitalize on nostalgia in a way that really only offers up diminishing returns. It’s just one issue, and future chapters could shift a lot of things, but just from here it doesn’t feel like we’re going to be breaking any new ground — and if readers really want to retread the Tommy Elliot story, the first one was a masterpiece all on its own. A follow up wasn’t necessary.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5

Published by DC

On March 26, 2025

Written by Jeph Loeb

Pencils by Jim Lee

Inks by Scott Williams

Colors by Alex Sinclair

Letters by Richard Starkings