Batman #12 review

She arrived at the end of last issue and now we get to meet Verity Pennyworth. Great-niece of late, great manservant Alfred, she’s here to take on her relative’s duties. Not that she’s been to butler school.

That’s imaginary Alfred, not a hoax, not a dream, but we could say he’s an imaginary story given he’s being conjured up by the regularly concussed Bruce.

While Verity, proven by DNA to be a Pennyworth, gets to know Bruce and Damian, a newcomer is bringing unfamiliar danger to Gotham.

The ‘poison murderer’ isn’t the only new face in town.

Given a biker gang and a bird-themed assassin have recently tried to kill Bruce Wayne, Batman assumes he’s the reason.

Later, Der Giftmörder and another of the newly arrived killers, Lord Fantôme, encounter one another in a swanky hotel’s elevator.

Batman takes them both out, but with Gotham currently in the hands of Mayor Poison Ivy and Police Commissioner Vandal Savage he has no choice but to truss them up in Wayne Manor.

Damian has a question.

Well done that woman. As this scene developed I thought it was going to out Verity as a bad guy herself; happily not. It seems she was a good study at the Society of the Midnight Key. Mind, she’s had long enough – Alfred was murdered by Bane in 2019, even allowing for comics time, that’s a quite a while ago.

I’d like to know more about this school for superhero major domos. Who set it up – Humphries, Wesley Dodd’s manservant in Sandman Mystery Theatre? Do they only do butlers or do they turn out the likes of taxi driver Doiby Dickles and rubbish private eye Stretch Skinner? Do heroes ever get a choice or are all sidekicks imposed?

I enjoyed seeing the fresh villains this issue, I think they’re all new concepts bar this young lady.

The civilian name links her to the heroes who went by Spider/Spider, while also nodding to Batman villain Black Spider, and I want to know more.

Poisonous Professor Anton Anker is supposedly in Gotham to answer the call for international assassins to kill Bruce Wayne from Waynetech’s ‘Shadow Board’. Is it a coincidence, then, that he has a client who wants a guy dead in Gotham (and one looking like the neighbourhood Mafia hoods in writer Matt Fraction’s Hawkeye comic?). Also, it seems pretty risky killing a guy in the middle of a chess park.

One new character, a luchadore who isn’t Bane, is introduced on the sole dull page of the book, as he witters on about a rival who apparently murders people in the wrestling ring. I’m not sure if he, King Panther, is the assassin, or whether it’s ‘the diabolical sir Sueno’.

Ah, what to make of imaginary Alfred. I think we all agree he’s a stupid idea, adding to the argument that Bruce Wayne is nuts. I do wonder what to make of him giving Bruce answers to questions Bruce supposedly doesn’t know the answers to… are we to assume Bruce did read Alfred’s papers? Given his will made Dick Grayson a rich man, someone read the will.

And can Damian and Verity not hear Bruce, just yards away, having a conversation with himself?

Who’s Lord Fantôme about to kill here? He looks for all the world like cop-turned-PI Harvey Bullock?

After the Penguin rallied/ordered the varied crime syndicates to take down would-be kingpin the Minotaur there’s a very interesting development I hope is what it seems, and assume it’s not.

Amid a fascinating discussion on vigilantism there’s an exchange of looks between Bruce and Damian I don’t get.

Anyone?

Enigmatic without being interesting, that’s the final scene, involving the currently bloated and out-of-it Joker at Arkham Tower. Just go away.

One thing’s for sure, when a writer gives us so much to think about, I’m happy, so well done Matt Fraction.

The art is once again stunning throughout, Jorge Jiménez is such an elegant storyteller that every page is a pleasure. Body language and facial expressions are always on point, while the action feels visceral. There’s one panel I especially like this time and it doesn’t even have anyone in it.

I’m sure gloomy, gothic Gotham is still around, but meanwhile the modern metropolis, lit by the lovely colours of Tomeu Morey, works for the story we’re getting,

Clayton Cowles, still sharing the lettering credit with Jiménez for reasons beyond my ken, does a cracking job throughout the book.

All in all, this is another very busy issue, so busy there’s no room for Vandal Savage, Poison Ivy or Jim Gordon to put in an appearance. The new villains, who could be refugees from the old Batman Incorporated comic, are more intriguing than the crime gangs Fraction enjoys, hopefully they won’t wipe one another out. As for Verity, I like her but really, DC should just give us what most people seem to want, the return of a living, breathing Alfred.

The cover is interesting but the Alfred arm is one element too many; the figure of Verity (why so sad?) and pile of Bat-ironing is enough, the rest is clutter.

In truth, I’d love to know what you make of Verity.