Batman #7: Room Ten at Arkham Towers

Batman #7 revolves around an honest conversation between Batman and the Joker, who’s being held in Room Ten at Arkham Towers. The conversation between the two iconic characters captures both of them rather well, however, Fraction’s take on the Joker is certainly different than previous iterations.

While she mostly plays third wheel to Batman and the Joker, Dr. Annika Zeller is given more nuance in this issue as a doctor who truly cares about her patients, even the crazy ones. The Joker is handled with kid gloves and high-tech security systems that serve to protect him from everyone else and everyone else from him at the same time.

Jorge Jiménez’s artwork feels stylistically erratic. While the blue and gray batsuit is sleek and Batman himself is drawn as a towering, stoic vigilante, other characters like the morally questionable Harvey Bullock and the down on his luck Jim Gordon are drawn with a little more mess. Jiménez’s line work is different for each character, giving each a unique feeling on the page. Similarly, structures are drawn with varying levels of depth. A building below the gliding Batman is like a landing pad, while another in the distance is like a block-shaped tower.

Tomeu Morey’s colors can be felt throughout Batman #7. From the gloomy Gotham lit by the neon lights of giant companies to the surprising warmth of Arkham Towers, each scene is given a different aesthetic without overpowering the reader with constant tonal shifts.