Batman #137: The Unhinged Knight Returns

The key theory behind action stories is the ultimate expression of emotion and conflict leaks out in the fight sequences. These beats occur when the feelings of characters get too much to express through dialogue. For superhero comics, this should often be the case, as the medium requires the omission of details due to the static nature of images on the page. Action should be the ultimate expression of superheroes externalizing their dueling natures and innermost conflicts. The best creators tap into this use of action, and there may be no better team in the business right now tackling this than Chip Zdarsky and Jorge Jiménez. 

Batman #137 – written by Zdarsky with art by Jiménez, colors from Tomeu Morey, and letters by Clayton Cowles – drops right into the action of Gotham War, as Batman continues to terrorize the criminals being trained by Catwoman. The plot makes clear that Batman has gone off the deep end, deeply affected by the non-stop events of the run’s first two arcs and then Knight Terrors. He’s picking fights with the extended Batfamily, both emotionally and physically, and has the twisted words of Zur-En-Arrh ringing in his ears. 

After Bruce brutally beats down and delivers Selina’s students to the cops, Red Robin, and the other protegees discuss stepping in to talk with Batman. Catwoman and Red Hood plot an ambush on the Dark Knight, while the Batfamily tries to step in and mitigate the damage from the fight. The fight goes south as Batman underestimates his trainees, and Damian/Robin has to step in to help Bruce escape. 

Meanwhile, the second-stringer rogues of Gotham, Black Mask, Professor Pyg, Firefly, and more, have gathered to discuss their next move with the shift in the heroes’ alliances. Another mystery element thrown into the plot is the appearance of a major DC villain, appearing to Batman after buying what remains of Wayne Manor. 

Zdarsky refocuses the script on Batman’s perspective for this issue and makes the vigilante’s over-the-top recalibration more than just simmering subtext. The scripting hammers the fact Batman is not right over and over again, utilizing every avenue possible to convey the warped outlook he’s adopted. The events of Failsafe, the multiversal adventure, and Insomnia’s horrors are weighing on the crime-fighter, and the cracks are not just showing, but growing. 

This sense of paranoia reads like a mix of Frank Miller and Grant Morrison’s interpretations of Batman examined through a modern lens. The internal monologue Zdarsky employs feels even less verbose than previous issues and helps to reinforce that connection to Miller, echoing the restraint shown in Year One. Zdarsky builds from his previous arc to establish this atmosphere, and the interaction Prime Batman had with Miller’s Dark Knight Returns version of Batman echoes throughout this story. From the reference to Bruce’s new hand to the casual slips into the view of the mission as a war, the Miller influences are palpable. 

Over and over again, this issue and Batman’s binary view reminded of a specific panel from Dark Knight Returns: 

All of this feels like Zdarsky pushing and pulling the work he’s done to build the foundation for this run, and he delivers on every page. Every beat, from Batman’s escalation of violence to the outcome of the fight with the Batfamily, and even the villain’s meeting, feels like an organic addition to the ongoing tapestry. Zdarsky has created a cascading series of effects that originate not only from the start of the run but reach even further back, touching on longer portions of Batman continuity. 

The track that Zdarsky lays in Batman’s characterization feels essential, and Jiménez masterfully picks it up. The artist’s style is just mind-boggling to see issue after issue, as it clearly stands in its own world but somehow manages to continuously shift and evolve. The artist channels the tension and paranoia clouding Batman’s mind, twisting and distorting the vigilante’s expressions into cruel snarls that move him another step from human. Jiménez takes the idea of the inhuman, urban legend of Gotham to a new level with this issue, and makes clear that something is wrong with Bruce on an anatomical level.

The image above is a perfect example of this, as Batman is shrouded in darkness, the only sense of personality being his fists “KRAK”-ing in anticipation of a fight. Later on the page, Jiménez uses a wide close-up panel of Batman’s cowl and reinforces the frown lines around the eyes. These two small beats showcase the performative sense of fury Batman is exhibiting and channel the notion of Batman using fear as a weapon. 

In the larger scale movements of the issue, Jiménez employs kinetic, jaw-clenching action. There’s a sense of exaggerated physics to his linework and panels that makes the breaking of bones and splattering of blood even more visceral on the page. The elastic quality does not subtract from the concrete feeling of the bodies, and this feels like a perfect visualization of action for the story unfolding in Gotham War. It’s both about people and larger-than-life figures, fighting in the literal and metaphorical sense for the soul of the city. 

Jiménez’s art only sings across the page thanks to the partnership with Morey’s coloring. The palette of the book is an extraordinary blend of spellbinding brights and stark dark hues. There are subtle but distinct uses of black and blue that help to reinforce the twisted nature of Batman, the blues deploying whenever Bruce is resorting to actions that feel closer in line with the Miller interpretation of the character. That feels like a deliberate choice to echo the coloring of the DKR Batman costume and showcase the influence the older Bruce has had. 

Elsewhere, the sickly tones used in Gotham, both as a background and to showcase the smoke gas Bruce employs, heighten that sense of wrong in the city. Everything is one step to the left, and that sense of disorientation is explicit in the book’s coloring. Morey doesn’t ever let a single sense of color wear too long on the page and reinforces the sprawling, kinetic nature of the art by rotating hues in each circumstance. One moment, red guides the page as Batman’s knuckles are steeped in blood, while the next is dictated by the light-absorbing blues and blacks. It’s an excellent way to break up and delineate scenes, and makes for a strong way of altering the pace of the book.