Chip Zdarsky (in Chief Bock voice), “You son of a bitch.”
BATMAN #156 is on fire, with a high-octane, action-packed 23 pages. Batman is fighting the Court of Owls, Riddler is telling riddles, Gordon is working with his most important ally, and a character has a big reveal.
THIS is a Batman story.
In the penultimate issue of Zdarsky’s latest arc (and run?) of this legacy title, the writer is pulling out all of the stops. It’s all connected (like Jett and I always say), with some nice twists along the way. As Batman says at one point, “Nygma, for someone so smart you’re an absolute fool.” The line makes sense and doesn’t contradict any character or their actions. Zdarsky has created a great issue here, that last month made a nice turn that has brought this arc all together.
My nitpicks? The “reveal” is on a character that was a little underserved at this point, and the Gordon-Nakano affair feels like a quick “oh yeah, have to mention this”.
All-star artist Tony S. Daniel takes over the pencil duties this month and exceeds expectations (as usual). The guy knows how to draw action, and made this issue feel like it’d just chugged three energy drinks. Every panel moves. Every action is clean and precise. It was a joy to look at each page:
Overall, I couldn’t be happier with this issue. Everything works, building on what’s come before and leaving us excited for what’s next. I hope Zdarsky can stick the landing next month because this is an arc I’ll recommend to all Batman fans. – Ryan Lower
