Batman #158: The Pawn

As a child of the mid-2000s, I got my start reading Batman during a particularly explosive period. I grew up on Scott Snyder & Greg Capullo’s seminal New 52 run and had an excellent backlog of Batman stories from the 2000s to fall back on between the monthly publishing schedule. Instantly, figures like Red Hood, Mr. Pyg, and most importantly, Hush became staple characters for me within the Batman mythos. I say all this as a preface to my review in hopes of showcasing that I did not go marching into the start of Hush 2 with any preconceived cynicism. I was hoping for the best and found myself stabbed in the heart by mediocrity.

Batman #158 is an overstuffed yet underbaked start to one of this year’s biggest events—one that reads like a sequel to the seminal Batman: Hush in name only. There’s more of a thematic focus on the mistakes of Batman’s past, specifically as they pertain to the Joker, than on Thomas Elliot or the events of the original Hush storyline. If this were a new concept or if it was framed more as window dressing for something tailored to the title villain in a unique way, then this opening salvo could’ve been more interesting.

However, that’s seemingly one of the only kinds of stories the character has been allowed to have for nearly a decade now. Ever since 2016, we’ve had a constant stream of Batman stories that are about other Batman stories, and it’s a shame reading a sequel to an iconic, standalone Batman tale that has more Three Jokers in its DNA than it does Hush. It’s not the lack of Elliot in this first chapter that creates that sensation, but rather the lack of anything in presence or theme that justifies this being a story worthy of having his name in the title.

The writing isn’t good enough to support such a played-out concept either. Loeb is not the kind of comics author that you can rush greatness from. Cutting this arc down to an initial rush order of six issues cramps his normal pacing style and leads to an opening chapter that feels as though it’s comprised of the first five pages of multiple different comics. Characters show up because they have to and do things because the author requires them to be there, awkwardly jumping in and out of the issue to build a false sense of intrigue. Dialogue is equally painful, overlapping the narration with an awkward cadence that breaks the reading experience and leaves the characters sounding less than believable.

Jim Lee, much like Loeb, is another hall-of-famer who can’t have greatness squeezed out of them by a deadline. While his art remains technically strong, you can see just how much the crunch on this book affected his artistry. The linework is muddy, and everything feels stiff in a way not normally seen in Lee’s work. The muted coloring doesn’t help matters, leaving the book lacking a crisp visual flair. This isn’t necessarily a problem with Lee’s style feeling dated, though, as we’ve seen plenty of ’90s superstars come out of retirement recently and absolutely kill it in the modern space. Marc Silvestri’s work on Batman & The Joker: Deadly Duo and Kaare Andrews’ Spider-Man: Reign 2 jump to mind—the key connection there being a substantial amount of development time that Hush 2 visibly did not receive.