Sunday, September 15, 2024

Batman: Hush, Vol. 2 (A Madman Re-Read)


Volume 2 opens with a night at the opera. Only this isn't the stuff of the Marx Brothers or Queen. What starts as a refined charity event for a community hospital ends in bloodshed when Harley Quinn and the Joker robs the event and murder Bruce Wayne's best friend from his childhood. Only the Clown Prince of Crime claims that he didn't pull the trigger. That doesn't stop Batman from almost killing his most hated foe!

As the story progresses, Loeb's storytelling gets much more complex. So much, that I'm still not 100% sure what one of Batman's allies did wrong. Did they do wrong at all? I've researched for an answer and I am still not all that sure. 

Jim Lee's artwork continues to evolve. Batman looks resplendent by the end of Hush. So do Catwoman and Robin. 

The biggest disappointment is how it feels that by the end of this book, every criminal in Gotham City should know that Bruce Wayne is Batman. They really can't all be that ignorant. Or does the criminal element in Gotham just choose to ignore the truth. New villain Hush, enlists several baddies to make Batman believe that Jason Todd is actually Hush. I find it unbelievable that none of these hired goons went snooping and put two and two together that Bruce Wayne's deceased ward, Jason Todd was the second Robin who died at the hands of the Joker! I don't buy it!

A good story with great art, that just finishes in a way I find implausible. Batman's Rogue's Gallery cannot be that blind!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.

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