Batman #159: The Hush of Crickets

‘Hush 2’ started on an uneven foot that still had room to shake itself out, but Batman #159 is a full-on faceplant — as tired in its repetition of recent Batman/Joker beats as it is ignorant to recent continuity. That said, Loeb does manage a solid memory sequence and sets up the story’s moral conflict with just enough emotional weight to keep things vaguely engaging. The real problem, though, is how hard this issue ignores continuity, especially with Three Jokers, and how that spills over into the way Batman, Joker, and — most glaringly — Jason Todd are written.

The choices made in their dialogue, the sudden burst of violence, and especially Bruce pulling a gun — none of it tracks. Not with where he and Jason are supposed to be now, and definitely not with his well-established hatred for firearms. If he was so on edge that he’d actually reach for a gun — something we’ve seen in other desperate moments — it might make sense if his relationship with Jason was still fractured. But it’s not. And Jason’s aggression and his reaction to sparing Joker’s life? It doesn’t really land anymore either, not after multiple stories have already processed his trauma and shown him grow from it.

Even setting continuity aside, the story keeps drifting away from Hush. You could argue it’s building mystery — but there’s no mystery to speak of. No suspense, no threads to pull. It’s a vanity project, tripping over iconic imagery from Hush 2 without bringing any of the substance. What is here is a clumsy, played-out “commentary” on the Batman/Joker dynamic that’s been beaten to death more times than Thomas and Martha Wayne. Its as though no other Batman stories exist in Loeb’s periphery between the original Hush and this one, and with the glaring absence of the title villain, all you can hear are crickets.

What we’re left with, once the dialogue breaks down, is Jim Lee’s art — which, to his credit, really shines here. He’s got more space to stretch out and show off, and it pays off. The real standout, though, is the coloring: the airy, ghostlike tones of the flashbacks and the sharp, heavy lighting in the present do most of the heavy lifting when it comes to building beauty and atmosphere.