The battle to put corrupt Gotham police commissioner Vandal Savage in jail is on the backburner this issue as an enemy from a few months back – well, in our time – shows up again to bedevil Batman. And doesn’t she look vicious on Jorge Jiménez’s gorgeous cover, a Magpie for the 21st century.
OK, that was unfair. Batman’s first original post-Crisis villain wasn’t scary in the least, with her tarty outfit and elderly clown fright wig. New birdwoman The Õjõ – who narrowly escaped being called Lady Death-Man by DC – is far more intimidating, with her slashy laser knife thingie and creepy pet crows. Also, those eyes look as if they could petrify a person.
See those shadows in the bottom right corner? They’re previewing something that happens inside the comic, but a lot occurs before we get to that moment. Early on the killer for hire confronts rogue WayneTech board member Blake after a meeting of ‘the Shadow Board’, sketchy business people apparently waiting for an invitation to join the Court of Owls.
Or perhaps hay fever season in Gotham is very bad. Whatever the case, so far as the hit on Bruce Wayne is concerned, The Õjõ is going to have a lot of competition. She’s not pleased.
Don’t you just love a slice of life drama?
Across the city, we catch up with the Penguin, who’s entertaining the heads of the local crime factions. Each of them has recently had a loved one murdered by the new ganglord on the block, who wants to lord it over the lot of them.
Oswald Cobblepot’s idea? To push back at the Minotaur, go old school. Biblical. Oh, please let this mean machine-gun packing gentoos wearing bow ties.
Bruce Wayne, meanwhile, is trying some damage limitation after son Damian appeared in full Robin regalia and called him ‘Father’ in front of employee Dr Annika Zeller.
Commissioner turned Gotham PD beat cop Jim Gordon and colleague turned private Dick Harvey Bullock are at a funeral for a friend.
In Gotham’s Little Tokyo, Batman is observing the clean-up after a lot of slicing and dicing in a kitchen, when The Õjõ appears behind him. Fight!
And a great fight it is, complicated by the interference of Savage’s trigger-happy cops, but Caped Crusader and assassin both escape.
Later, a stranger appears on the doorstep of the new urban Wayne Manor.
Kidding. But I’m not far off.
A blonde great-niece? Could be she’s the daughter of Alfred’s Bronze Age niece.
Anyone ever heard of the Society of the Midnight Key? It seems a very odd name for a butler school. Consider me intrigued.
It’s odd, this issue is at least as choppy as the last, but where that one left me pretty cold, I really enjoyed this chapter. The Õjõ has a striking design, it’s fun to see Penguin to the fore, we have the promise of a sharp Gordon and Bullock subplot and the butler business could bring some good old fashioned-secret identity complications.
There are a couple of off-notes. The big one is the Dr Zeller subplot. I’ve just not warmed to the woman, who seems your classic shrink who sympathises too much with the villain, in her case the Joker. Surely Batman could come up with a better way to deal with Damian’s slip-up than honesty. I know he’s not big on mindwiping, but scientist Dr Zeller would approve, she’s all about brain modification for the good of society.
Then again, she’ll likely be offed by the Joker within the year.
A more minor niggle is the lack of clarification as to what The Õjõ’s meal of murder is about; a comment from Bruce towards the end of the issue has me assuming the victims were her rival killers from Batman #5, but writer Matt Fraction could have been clear.
Overall though, he does a great job here, even giving us a nice spot of Damian characterisation towards the end.
As for Jiménez, he’s on fire, with that splendid page of Pengy moving among his unhappy associates, the two-page Damian origin flashback I cropped rather severely, a page of Batman looking down on poor, dead Blake in progressively closer shots, every image of The Õjo… this comic is a visual delight, with standout individual images aplenty, all of which contribute to the storytelling. Even the credits spread is masterful.
Colourist Tomeu Morey’s balanced palette also plays a big part in the success of the issue, while Clayton’s Cowles’ considered font choices and balloon placement work their own magic.
Batman #11 is a little piece of DC Comics joy. Don’t miss it.
Too Dangerous For a Girl 2 