JUSTICE LEAGUE: DARKSEID WAR – BATMAN
“God Only Knows” (22 pages)
Story & Words: Peter J. Tomasi
Penciller: Fernando Pasarin
Inker: Matt Ryan
Colorist: Gabe Eltaeb
Letterer: Dave Sharpe
Publisher: DC Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Be it ever so dreary, there’s no place like home. Despite his reckless ascension, Batman gravitates back to Gotham City. Jim Gordon has summoned his friend out of concern. The established apprehension is twofold: (1) the Dark Knight has been dehumanized due to the Mobius Chair, and (2) the bad seeds cannot be contained since a prediction of their crimes is not the same as committing them. The exact science for preventative measures is precise. Saving lives is what matters. The human condition is and always will be extremely volatile and unpredictable. Either way, Batman believes that logic and proactivity are efficient for the greater good. The Chair alerts him to some illicit activity in progress. He leaves Jim hanging. Rather than pulling a Houdini, he zooms away in the Chair.
A quartet of thugs intent on robbing a nightclub will not see their plan come to light. HAH! Instead, they are whisked away to the Antarctic where they can contemplate the error of their ways while freezing their buns off. The dispenser of justice confronts an abusive alcoholic husband. Since he’s such a lady-lover his fitting punishment is to explain to the Amazons of Themyscira why he’s a misogynist. His stay will be a brief one but painfully enlightening.
The driving force to Bruce’s transformation as Batman was the murder of his parents in Crime Alley. The exact moment he sat in the Mobius Chair, the first significant info-bomb was the culprit behind the heinous act: Joe Chill. Teleporting into Gotham State Pen, the Master Detective delivers fear to the power of infinity when he makes his presence known to the lowlife. Two decades in the slammer and no chance of appeal. That is not enough penance for his cowardly act. Once he spills the beans that his perpetual sentence is due to the elimination of the Waynes, the two-bit becomes smug. Joe Chill is a mass murderer having killed forty people in his lifetime. Batman informs him that only two of that half-score matter. He unmasks and divulges his secret identity to Joe. The worst part is that the scumbag is the catalyst for the creation of the Batman, the scourge of Gotham City’s bottom feeders. That tidbit would ensure swift justice from the other inmates for the notorious Joe Chill. Batman is no assassin. There is satisfaction in making Joe forget the terrifying encounter.
Home is where the heart is. That can never be truer. Alfred is, has been, and forever will be the anchor. Batman is not infallible within the Genesian invention. His immense strength of mind and sheer determination are resisting the Chair’s pull. As a result, he’s bleeding externally and cannot physically remove himself. Bruce tries to convince Alfred that everything is fine and dandy. He has been upgraded to the nth degree. Joe Chill proved to be a semi-satisfying experience. The bane of existence, the bone of contention, the elusive prey is the primary target: Joker will meet his maker once and for all!
Lower your expectations: “This…chair you’re squatting on…does it come from a place where there’s no more hate, no more crime, no more murder, no more wars?” “It doesn’t.” “Then you’re just fooling into thinking a change is gonna come.” – Jim to Bats
Chilling calculatons: 40 dead humans = 7,200 lbs. of flesh and bone, 120 lbs. of brain matter, 65 gallons of spilled blood.
The joke’s on us! The computer screens show (in no particular order) covers and or scenes from BATMAN: the KILLING JOKE, BATMAN: the MAN WHO LAUGHS, “Hush”, “Death of the Family”, “Endgame”, JOKER: LAST LAUGH, DETECTIVE COMICS #475. Feel free to add to the information!!
Peter J. Tomasi gets to revisit the Caped Chaired Crusader a few months after the conclusion of BATMAN and ROBIN {2nd Series}. Mr. Tomasi must have studied under J.M. DeMatteis and been his star pupil. The psychological profiling of the Man Who Would Be Bat is painfully simple. The newly christened God of Knowledge has the entire universe to explore but decides to detour by making a return trip to his roots. A trio of men have shaped and defined him: a heartless crook whose dreams of making it big involved erasing his parents; the epitomical gentleman who became the ultimate caretaker; the untarnished ally who never wavered in his ideology. With his extraterrestrial/divine powers, how exactly will he address the issue of the homicidal maniac whom he has tolerated time and again? Will the Bat-God correct his negligence??
The irony is that the gods of any pantheon are anything but pristine. If anything, their flaws are even more heightened due to their inflated notion of superiority. The supreme beings claim not needing to involve themselves with lesser individuals but that notion could not be further from the truth. They are fascinated by their inferiors, intent on intervention to improve pitiful existences. Batman boomerangs to Gotham City. He decides to divert his quest for omniscience to resolve personal issues.
Fernando Pasarin provides a clear definition to every detail great and small. The faces tell all. Batman has never been more aloof nor more menacing in a device that expands his mind but is eating away at his heart and soul. The layout is standard with neat square panels. Iron bars are ineffective with Chill pressed against them as the big black Bat breathes down his neck. The very last page is the ultimate conditional stimulus. Who doesn’t want to read more as various incarnations of Mr. J pop up on fourteen screens highlighting iconic covers and or scenes from the Clown Prince of Crime’s seventy-five year stint?!?
Matt Ryan keeps the anatomy accurate. The solid lines capture all the minutia from the lights of the Mobius Chair to the cardboard boxes in Crime Alley. The shadow technique is extremely efficient in Bruce’s blood-curling countenance.
Gabe Eltaeb does not darken Batman’s snazzy new duds. How could he when the pale blue light surrounds them?? In fact, I’d dare say Lite-Brite came calling and rendered their own version when he confronts the brutal boozer. Joe Chill’s pallor extends past his skin. This dirtbag is a coward through and through.
Dave Sharpe gets to deepen Bat-Tron’s voice and make him more distant with the black balloons and captions. I can’t get enough of the big BOOMs. I would expect no less from otherworldly technology.
This is the first of six one-shots that expand upon the head-turning, jaw-dropping, buzz-generating “Darkseid War” storyline. This issue was originally slated for last week. The most exciting part is that even though it’s a standalone story, the ramifications will be shown in next month’s JUSTICE LEAGUE #46. As Batman’s brain continues to bulge, I give this book nine PINGs on the Mobius scale.
This review was made possible thanks to my local comic shop:
