I Am Batman #2 – John Ridley, Writer; Stephen Segovia, Artist; Rex Lokus, Colorist
Ray – 8/10
Ray: One of the things holding this series back is that I’m never quite sure where it falls in continuity. Jace Fox seemed to only be starting his journey towards being Batman, but now he’s operating in the open as the new Batman while the original is presumed dead. There are still some things here and there that make it seem more like a Future State book at times, starting with just how much control the anti-Oracle known as Seer has over the city. When we last left off, the vigilante criminal Anarky had apparently been shot dead by an unknown source, sending Jace on the trail of his killer. But what he finds isn’t what he expected—the killer wasn’t the Magistrate or another notorious Gotham criminal. It was a kid belonging to a radical anti-vigilante group, whipped into a frenzy and sent as a weapon after Anarky by Seer—who had now claimed its first scalp among Gotham’s vigilantes.
There is a really clear parallel Ridley wants to make, and that’s to notorious vigilante killer Kyle Rittenhouse, who is currently awaiting trial. It doesn’t take long for this boy’s case to become a major flashpoint in Gotham, with some arguing that he just did exactly what the Magistrate has been doing all along. A heated conversation about race between Tubbs and Whitaker seems to take the issue over the line into soapboxing, even if the content is hardly wrong. The decision of Renee Montoya to ask Tanya Fox to defend the killer to make sure he gets a fair trial is intriguing. The problem is, I’m not sure how much any of this counts. A fairly major figure from Tynion’s Detective Comics has been killed off in another title, and he seems like the least important part of the story. Jace is still an intriguing Batman, although he seems to be trending towards a Miller-esque personality here. Overall, it has some strong points but it’s not clicking on all cylinders yet.
To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.
GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
