Batman #11 is written by Matt Fraction and published by DC. Artwork is by Jorge Jiménez, colours by Tomeu Morey and letters by Clayton Cowles with assistance by Jiménez. Main cover art (left) is also by Jiménez and Morey.
Batman #11 is available now, in comic book stores and on digital platforms where all good comic books are sold. Grab your physical copy from Forbidden Planet or digitally from Amazon Comixology UK.
Synopsis
The deadliest woman in the world wielding two blades is back, and her quest for blood puts her on a collision course with the Caped Crusader—and as chaos ensues, Vandal Savage’s corrupt GCPD won’t be far behind! If that weren’t enough, the sinister Minotaur, squeezing Gotham’s underworld, finds himself on a path to reckoning, courtesy of the Penguin! Matt Fraction and Jorge Jiménez deliver an action-packed chapter of their smash-hit series that critics are calling “a blockbuster reinvention” and “a perfect comic book.”
Review
We’re now at the eve of the “Bad Seeds” event which is going to see Mayor Pamela Isley taking Gotham into her own hands for one night of pure chaos. But before the event can kick off Matt Fraction and Jorge Jiménez have just a little (sarcasm) ground to cover as each of the series ongoing plot lines heads towards natural disaster.
Events are moving really quickly in Gotham at this point. Batman is tasked with catching up to everything happening in the Barbara Gordon: Breakout, Poison Ivy and other Gotham-based books and that means moving at breakneck speed through The Ōjō, Minotaur and “Bad Seeds” narratives in order get ready for the event to kick off. Luckily for us fair-readers that means Batman #11 is a fast-paced, non-stop joyride through all things Gotham.
Sadly for The Ōjō her masters in The Shadow Board aren’t happy that she hasn’t been able to deter Bruce from always doing the right thing. Due to that failure they’re opening up the job to anyone willing to take it and that means Gotham’s streets are about to be flooded with assassins. Given that the Bat-family is already operating without their bunkers and without Oracle this could cause absolute chaos. Fraction is potentially teeing up one hell of a street war for the heart of the city and this is only the open couple of pages of the issue. Ōjō naturally doesn’t take well to this news and it triggers a domino effect that should keep the GCPD busy for a little while longer.
Meanwhile Penguin has problems of his own. In a way Fraction has broken down Batman #11 in vignettes, each picking up on some of the key figures in the Gotham landscape to check in on their story in light of what is to come. For the bulk of the issue it’s Bruce who is the connective tissue. He appears to check in on Dr. Zeller, still reeling from her own interaction with Ōjō. This brief scene gives Bruce a moment to cover his tracks when it comes to Damian, potentially putting his secret identity reveal on the back burner… for now.
The back half of Batman #11 is taken up by a furious fight between the Dark Knight and Ōjō with the two very evenly matched. Of course this is where Jiménez absolute comes into his own, taking on Fraction’s script and turning it into a frenetic mash up of shattered glass and flying punches. Made all the more dynamic by Tomeu Morey’s incredible colours. This issue really runs the gamut of the colour spectrum with scenes in shady boardrooms, on the streets at night lit by neon signs and there more straightforward daytime scenes. All of this is to say Batman continues to be one of DC’s most lively books and considering the direction of travel it’s able to stay in its lane here without feeling like pure setup for the crossover event.
Then we reach the final scene. The moment Fraction takes the reader exactly where… none of us ever expected him too. I went into Batman #11 presuming we would come out of it on the fringes of “Bad Seeds” and perhaps we are. But if so it’s not anything obvious. Instead a small moment between Bruce and Damian is interrupted by the arrival of a surprise new character. I won’t spoil the reveal here but this is certainly not something the series had been signposting in previous issues.
It’s interesting this person has chosen to arrive now given the history as to why they have been called to Gotham. Fraction is taking a gamble on filling a void left in the Bat-Family with someone new. Given their brief introductory dialogue I wonder if he may be riffing of a plot-line from Batman & Robin which could signal an interesting direction ahead… I’m intrigued to say the least!
Verdict
Batman #11 handles the impending arrival crossover event in the best way possible… by ignoring it and continuing to run each of it’s already rich plot lines at full speed in a head-on collision with what is to come. It’s cliffhanger twist proving to be yet another brilliant piece of writing from Matt Fraction.
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