Batman #139 – Chip Zdarsky, Writer; Jorge Jimenez, Jorge Corona, Artists; Tomeu Morey, Ivan Plascencia, Colorists
Ray – 9.5/10
Ray: In the aftermath of Gotham War, Chip Zdarsky is doing what he does best—taking his heroes to rock bottom. Batman cut himself off from his allies one by one, and now only has one person in his ear—Zur-En-Arrh, the deranged alien Batman he created as the alter ego who won’t have the hesitations Bruce Wayne does. He’s living alone in a run-down apartment, obsessively focused on crime and solving the problems Batman left linger for too long—starting with one cackling clown. Zdarsky is picking up with Joker from the work Geoff Johns did, bringing back the concept of the Three Jokers—but one is more than enough, as the clown is leaving a trail of breadcrumbs for Batman in the form of corpses.
Zdarsky feels like he’s been building to this for a long time, because this Joker story starts with Batman figuring out that Joker is leaving him clues based around the mentors he studied under in his youth—as shown in Zdarsky and Di Giandomenico’s Batman: The Knight. The mystery lures Batman to the mansion of a mysterious old doll magnate who has long since become a recluse, and Batman enters into a booby-trapped house of nightmares that comes with living dolls and one sadistic clown. What is Joker’s goal? It might just be that he finally found a Batman who he can relate to and who can truly challenge him—and he just needs to push Batman far enough to finally unleash him.
The backup, with Jorge Corona art, is sort of unexpected—I wasn’t expecting Vandal Savage to become a fixture of this title. But that’s what he’s become in Gotham, as he discovers that he’s immortal once again—but only as long as he stays within Gotham’s city limits, due to where the meteor landed. The roving warlord is now forced to establish a home base for the first time, first going for typical violence before eventually taking a new tack—and potentially establishing himself as a power broker in the city.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
