Written by John Ridley, Bilquis Evely,
Bengal, Tim Seeley, Nick Dragonita
Art by Olivier Coipel, Bilquis Evely,
Bengal, Kelley Jones, Nick Dragonita
Published by DC Comics
DC has much of its mind on the future these days, with its Future State stunt and all.
And it’s time for Batman: Black and White to get caught up in that mix.
Each issue of this revamp appears to work on a theme for each short story’s creative teams to interpret.
The first issue, about Batman’s cycle of missions, repeating again and again. The second issue dealt with faith – that of the dutiful and the fanatical.
And issue No. 3 features Batmen of the future, complete with a parting pin-up of Batman Beyond.
Company business first, though, so that means devoting the main story to a story based in DC Future State: The Next Batman and its creative team, John Ridley and Olivier Coipel. This is a near-future Gotham City run by the autocratic Magistrate, who kill masks on sight, Bruce Wayne is presumed dead, and Tim “Jace” Fox has taken up the mantle of the bat.
In this story, Fox is caught by on offshoot of Penguin’s gang that has turned into its own version of the Proud Boys or Oath Keepers.
And, maybe this is the vast right-wing, white-supremacist conspiracy with the former president as a figurehead and leader who incited a riot on the Capitol in our real world talking, but it felt good seeing a Black man in the Batsuit walloping the living bejesus out of those guys in a comic book.
Batman feels like a solid post-apocalypse kind of hero as well. He’s hyper-competent, has lots of resources, great fighter, bleak outlook. People are still talking about that “Knightmare” version of the character in Zack Snyder’s movies, and apparently we’re about to get a whole lot more of him with the upcoming Snyder cut on HBO Max.
But until then, we get a post-apocalyptic Batman story in this issue as well with Nick Dragonita’s “Legacy.” This time it’s a city of ruins, overgrowth taking over the high-rises and skyscrapers. An anime-flavored Batman wears a giant mech suit, blasting away at equally giant monsters.
However, this crusader trains his sights on a bunkered enclave of elites, leading the huddled and frightened masses to their front door and kicking it in. While Bengal’s “I Am The Bat” focuses on a future Batman who sees himself as the last line of defense against Gotham’s cohort of supervillain madmen and freaks, I appreciate a Batman who also focuses on rooting out Gotham’s corruption, even if it’s a war he knows he’ll never win.
And that idea means that Batman can never die, right? Because even when the man dies, the mission goes on.
That brings us to the best looking and/or written stories in this issue – Bilquis Evely’s “A Kingdom of Thorns” and Tim Seeley and Kelley Jones’ “An Unquiet Knight.”
Evely brings fairytale fantasy to her story, turning Batman into a literal knight with trusted steed, amid a sorceress’ thorny overgrowth. Everly’s art requires a few passes to catch all the details, and her style here feels like Prince Valiant on the back of a Sunday comics page.
Is it Poison Ivy in this story? I don’t know. I must admit the details of the story are very blurry, and I’m not entirely sure how the climax of the story works. What exactly does the knight bring the witch? But I can read it a bunch more times and lose myself in imagined metaphor, the knight reborn, the witch redeemed, the world’s balance restored.
Seeley and Jones’ tale is every bit the horror and dark, gothic piece you’d hope for from the man behind Hack/Slash and one of the preeminent Batman artists of the 1990s known for his vampiric vision of the Dark Knight.
Jones’ trademark style is in full effect here – the kajillion folds in Batman’s cape, the sneering mouths, the 2-foot-long ears on the cowl.
And there’s also some great tenderness in this story, along with surprise guests: Zatanna and Etrigan!
I won’t reveal the screw on which this one turns, but this tale of a future proves that the Batman will haunt Gotham’s underworld long after Bruce Wayne has moved on.
If Seeley and Jones wanted to make their entry an entire graphic novel or Black Label miniseries, I’m game.
