Review: ‘Batman’ #157 Wraps Up An Era With A Bang … And Not Much Else

About three years ago, I wrote about how the ending to a different run on Batman made me realize that I actually liked the character. Now as another era ends, I sat back and reflected on that, and what this particular run means for my relationship to the character.

Chip Zdarsky, Jorge Jimenez, Tony S. Daniel, Tomeu Morey and Clayton Cowles draw it all to a close.

The Riddler and Court of Owls have been played by Russian Intelligence. The KGBeast has transformed Gotham into a war zone. Police Commissioner Vandal Savage is only serving his best interests. Batman and Jim Gordon have just minutes to save the city, and not even this dynamic duo may be able to do it.

I wish I had liked this era more. Zdarsky is one of my favorite writers in comics right now. His first volume of Daredevil is one of the greatest the character ever saw, and I adore his Spider-Man work. However, this run was largely comprised of unfulfilled potential. It’s never been outright bad, but it’s really only had glimmers of greatness, like the giant Batman #900 anniversary issue.

This issue sums up how the run suffered, though. There’s just too damn much happening. Zdarsky has publicly stated in his newsletter that the story was supposed to end several months ago, right after Absolute Power. The amount of characters, plot and action here makes me think this might have been intended to be a much longer story, and it suffers greatly for it. 

Gordon and Bullock’s re-entry to the book barely has any payoff before shifting back into another status quo for the two of them. Batman just leaves the KGBeast in his ultra-patriotic disguise after beating him senseless. We don’t learn who was pulling the Court of Owls’ strings — and thus Riddler and Savage — though we get a glimpse at their shadowy back. It’s, again, not bad, but it needed more time to breathe, or it needed elements cut out of it, simplifying it.

It did have the best throughline of this entire run though. The art was fantastic. Jimenez covered certain plot lines, Daniel did the others, but universally it looked amazing. Morey’s color throughline ties it all together visually just the way we needed.

Again, I don’t dislike this run. Unfortunately it just never clicked, despite Zdarsky’s best efforts. And you know what? That’s okay. The character has weathered worse, and will continue to be here. It’s disappointing that one of my favorites just completed a middle of the road run, but it is what it is. It’s a bummer, but it doesn’t break anything for me.

Batman #157 is available now from DC Comics.