Batman/Superman #6: No More Lies

Batman and Superman have been lying to the rest of their friends and fellow heroes for months.

The Batman Who Laughs has played them for fools time after time because he knows who they are and how unwilling they are to trust anyone but themselves. It’s because of this that Six of their closest allies have been infected by the evil Batman without them knowing and potentially even more because no one knew what to look for until now. This issue follows the aftermath of The Batman Who Laughs’ escape from the Fortress of Solitude and the reactions from the rest of the Justice League after Batman and Superman reveal the truth to them all.

One of the central themes of this issue was rebuilding. They go on the search for Wonder Woman, who hasn’t been answering their hails and finds her angrily fighting clay monsters on a Greek island.

David Marquez frames their initial search with wide panels, pulling back from the heroes to show the scale of the search and the divide between them and Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman has always been the most valorous of the Trinity, so she’s absolutely hurt and angered by their actions, especially concerning Donna Troy. 

After destroying the clay monsters, Wonder Woman takes them to task over their secrecy, comparing them to the villains the face on a regular basis. Joshua Williamson, Marquez, John J. Hill and Alejandro Sanchez give readers an excellent scene of Wonder Woman explaining why she was given the Golden Perfect with a stern look now that she may have to use it on her closest friends.

It’s easy to forget that prior to most of this, The Trinity had a short ongoing together before their own individual adventures pulled them and their lives apart. Wonder Woman leaves them by saying she’s going to rescue her protege, but she’ll have a hard time trusting Batman and Superman going forward.

Marquez’s art continues to be astoundingly good as he manages to fit so much emotion, action and depth into each page. From his double page spreads that incorporate Leaguers talking to each other about The Infected while the big fights are happening in the larger panels, to single pages that showcase individual heroic moments with excellent posing, Marquez absolutely kills it every time. His art, coupled with Sanchez’s smooth coloring makes this book feel large in scale, everything pops off the page and makes the reader want to see more.

With Clark having revealed his identity to the world and Batman no longer being plagued by Bane and his father, both have got a long way to go before they’re anywhere close to being fine. Upon visiting The Commissioner, they reaffirm their heroic natures after realizing that The Batman Who Laughs is only trying to pull them further into the darkness.