Batman #107: Fear Comes Calling

Those of you who have been following Batman in recent months, as well as through Future State know this but, let’s be clear: Gotham City is having a Rough Time of it.

Not that Gotham has ever been an easy place to live. As the DCU’s foremost gathering place of serial killers, organized crime and the generally unhinged, Gotham has weathered so much tumult over the years that it’s hardly surprising the populace is reaching a breaking point. Now new power player Simon Saint has enlisted the aid of the one man best suited to pushing them over the edge entirely: The Scarecrow.

The story opens with a return to the framing device from last issue: a flash forward to Bruce under Scarecrow’s control, captured, his eyes forced open, his mouth covered, body confined – he is helpless, unable to move, speak, or even look away. Here, Tynion begins to break down our sense of reality alongside Bruce’s – his thoughts come through narration, yes, but then the Scarecrow responds to them. How is that possible? Are Bruce’s restraints real? Is he speaking aloud? Is the Scarecrow himself real, or just a product of his toxin-fueled imagination?

Open question. What we know for now is that Bruce is struggling to remain level, and grounding himself through thoughts of the past – tracking how he went from where he was to where he is.

Here, Jimenez’s layouts really shine. We follow past Batman as he makes his way through the mayor’s mansion, his movements framing news reports, telling the story of the city of now. Crane was believed dead, but now he is here, and he’s active. The city shudders, panics. Can they survive another attack so soon? How much can one community weather before it breaks? Frequent vigilante ally (and occasional vigilante) Renee Montoya has taken on the role of Gotham’s police commissioner, putting her firmly on the opposite side, at least according to the rule of law. With a single move – leaving a scarecrow figure in Nakano’s mansion – Crane has destabilized Gotham even more. The best part (for him, anyway) is he did it without fear toxin. Instead, he’s used the city’s own trauma, and the rise of the relatively unthreatening Unsanity Collective, to do the deed “naturally.”

Still, while the Unsanity Collective may be a lesser threat, Bruce believes that it is nonetheless somehow at the center of the current tumult – whether unwittingly or otherwise. The question is how to find out?

Meanwhile Harley Quinn, with her knowledge of the Arkham inmates, proves herself a surprisingly useful, and unfortunately unstable, ally for the Batfamily. And speaking of Harley, she looks exceptionally adorable decked out in her new Riley Rossmo designed costume and presented by Jimenez and Morey. I wasn’t really sure about it last issue – something about the combination of Rossmo’s great design and Jimenez’s great style didn’t sit quite comfortably for me – as they say two great tastes don’t always go great together. But somewhere around Harley’s ecstatic smile from her motorcycle it all fell into place.

What I really love about Harley’s involvement in the Batman title is that Tynion never forgets that she is a wild card, a little off-kilter and unpredictable, even when she’s trying to help. She doesn’t become just a heroine with a big mouth, she’s still dangerous, still violent. And for all that she means well, sometimes she can’t help but do… less than well.

Harley’s appearance is the apparent trigger for the arrival of new character The Gardener, who arrives looking sleek as heck and accompanied by two thoroughly vegan-friendly dogs. Who is she, and why is she so interested in Harley’s appearance? Good question, and one I can’t wait to find out the answer to.

The issue raises as many questions as it answers, and by the end it has taken what we think we know about the rise of the Magistrate and called it all into question. But I’ll leave that for you to discover.

I, on the other hand, shall move on to the backup – a 10 page tale dedicated to Bruce’s new frenemy, Ghost-Maker. This time, Tynion is joined by Ricardo Lopez Ortiz on art (otherwise the team remains consistent with the lead) in a story that is just about as manga as I’ve ever seen a Batman book, and I’m loving it.

Where Batman has been pulled to Earth, Ghost-Maker is even more opulent, more extravagant, than Bruce Wayne has ever been. We join him onboard his massive airship, Ghost-Stream, post-threesome and pre-dropping into a hidden island that serves as the current headquarters of Madame Midas, the richest woman in the world.

This backup is really interesting – it has an entirely different tone than the main story; as I said before, it mostly feels very much like a shounen manga. It also feels like dropping into the middle of a world that has already been living and thriving outside of our range of vision for ages, and I love that. DC has tended to focus more on American superheroes and villains, but that doesn’t mean other countries and regions don’t have their own casts and conflicts.

En route to establishing this, it introduces a rogues gallery of Ghost-Maker’s very own, including several characters I’d love to see again; best of all, now that Ghost-Maker and Batman have combined their forces, maybe I can.