If you're going to write a Batman comic without Batman, THIS is how you do it.
Puzzled, frustrated, and just plain fed up with all the craziness and crossing over going on in the Bat-Books lately, I really found DETECTIVE COMICS #852 to be a breath of fresh air.
Batman's not here.
But Bruce Wayne is.
Or is he …?
Jim Lee's art aside, I've always felt the original "Hush" storyline by Lee and writer Jeph Loeb was a little overrated. Hush was able to fool and manipulate a few too many people while keeping a few too many wildcards in check. "The Return of Hush," which played out in the final issues of BATMAN: GOTHAM KNIGHTS, was downright laughable.
But writer Paul Dini revisited the character in last year's spectacularly bad-ass "Heart of Hush" storyline that began and ended in the pages of DETECTIVE COMICS. It's coming out in April in a handsome hardcover collection, and I highly recommend that you grab it. It's been years since I've read a Batman story that good, and given the way things are going right now, it might be years before it's challenged.
This issue finds Thomas "Hush" Elliot penniless, beaten, and broken in body and spirit. His grand plan to kill the Batman and assume Bruce Wayne's identity wasn't quite grand enough. And Selina Kyle, whose heart the madman literally stole, exacted massive revenge on her tormentor.
The story begins with a suicidal Hush dumping himself into the same icy waters that killed -- with more than a little help from Tommy himself -- his father when Tommy was just a child. He's ready to give up. Ready to die.
But, in a twist that's something right out of THE BOURNE IDENTITY, Tommy finds out that the universe isn't finished with him yet.
Something else -- or should I say someone else -- isn't finished with him, either.
This issue is absolutely chilling, as Tommy tries to rebuild his fortune by impersonating Bruce Wayne. (Remember, Tommy gave himself plastic surgery to look like Bruce.) Dini builds on the kick-ass new characterization of Hush he's been creating through Tommy's evils both current and remembered, staying consistent with his hatred and contempt for women and his cold, calculating way of hatching plans in a way that will harm as many people as possible. Lying is involved. And stealing. And murder. All done with Bruce Wayne's smile.
The dialogue here is some of the best and most chilling stuff Dini has ever written. There are moments that will make you cringe. Every other page I felt queasy at just how awful Tommy really is.
But I like I said, someone has other plans for Mr. Elliot, and it's not the Angry Koala. (You'll have to buy the issue to get the reference, but trust me, it's awesome.)
I'd like to say that the story continues in next month's DETECTIVE, but it doesn't. You'll have to pick up BATMAN #685 for the conclusion, because the next DETECTIVE is part of this Neil Gaiman "Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader" thing.
Yet another event to interrupt the only Batman writer right now who's telling good old-fashioned, normal Batman stories with thrills, twists, and chills. Dini knows what DETECTIVE is supposed to be. I'm glad someone does.
And I can't say enough about Dustin Nguyen's art on this title. His pencil work (inked by Derek Fridolfs) is as handsome as John Kalisz's color palette, which gets quite a workout from Tommy's dastardly globetrotting.
At a time when Batman's missing from his own books, and Superman is being replaced by The Guardian (in SUPERMAN) and Nightwing and Flamebird (in ACTION COMICS) while Superman himself is exiled into space, it's nice to know that good stories about our favorite characters are still being told if we're patient enough to sift through the crossovers and events. When it comes to Batman right now, this storyline is it. - John Bierly
