Batman #163 – Jeph Loeb, Writer; Jim Lee, Penciller; Scott Williams, Inker; Alex Sinclair, Colorist
Ray – 8/10
Ray: It’s been close to half a year since the last issue of Hush 2 came out, and now we’re headed for a much longer break as we wait for the creative team to get ahead on part two. That’s frustrating, but essential for Jim Lee’s art. However, that also means that the story loses a lot of momentum as it’s easy to forget exactly where we were before the break. When we last left off, Batman had done battle with his own Bat-family and alienated most of them in his pursuit of Hush, who has aligned with Jason Todd for unknown purposes. Batman, chasing down the villain and his estranged son, has actually partnered with some of his villains – including Joker, whose life Hush forced him into saving early on in the story. It’s an interesting idea, but the motivation of Batman and the villains isn’t all that clear and many of the developments along the way are sort of rushed.
The best parts of this issue are the parts that call back to the original Hush storyline, with Clayface making an appearance as a fake Batman and there being some interesting discussions of Batman and Jason’s complex relationship. The story feels sort of frozen in time, without much reflection of the many developments for the Bat-family since then. Hell, the comic has taken well over a year to come out with these six issues, so the status quo isn’t even the same when it began! The last half of the issue has some huge developments with Batman seemingly being taken off the table and winding up reconnecting with one of his iconic romantic interests – one who he hasn’t been involved with in a long time. Overall, the art and a few character moments are strong, but the issue as a whole feels kind of disjointed and lackluster for the big finish of the arc so far.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes
