DC Comics and Batman #900 / Batman #135 Spoilers and Review follows.
A Trippy Romp Through The Multiverse With Infinite Jokers and Batmen!
What To Expect.
BATMAN #135 / #900
Written by CHIP ZDARSKY
Art by JORGE JIMENEZ, MIKE HAWTHORNE, and ADRIANO DI BENEDETTO
Cover by JORGE JIMENEZ
Connecting variant covers by JOE QUESADA
Variant covers by GABRIELE DELL’OTTO, STANLEY “ARTGERM” LAU, KAEL NGU, and NEAL ADAMS
1:25 variant cover by LEE BERMEJO
1:50 foil variant cover by STANLEY “ARTGERM” LAU
1:100 B&W variant cover by JOE QUESADA
Special foil variant cover by JIM CHEUNG ($9.99 US)
$6.99 US | 56 pages | Variant $7.99 US (card stock)It’s Batman versus Red Mask in a brutal Gotham that’s never known hope! Can the Dark Knight overcome the terrifying infection that Red Mask has unleashed? Only one thing is certain: he won’t be
able to do it alone.The conclusion to the bestselling “The Bat-Man of Gotham” is so big it could only be contained in an oversize #900 anniversary issue featuring the return of fan-favorite artist Jorge Jiménez and a wild collection of guest stars! Full of wild revelations and a new path for Batman, this is one issue you won’t want to miss!
In addition the main cover and solicitation above the title has a few variant covers below.
That includes connecting covers by Joe Quesada plus a connected black and white version.
Here’s what that Joe Q art looks like together, colored, but sadly isn’t one of the variant covers.
We also have another variation of the same variant cover by Stanley “Artgerm” Lau.
Plus some foil covers with the Batman symbol.
Batman #900 / Batman #135 Spoilers and Review.
The book opens with a creators’ credits page with the revelation that Batman has maimed.
His right hand is gone, but he fights through the pain and weaponizes his stump while war rages in Gotham City.
At the same time, the Red Mask, this world’s sane Joker, is set to jump into the multiverse.
He is doing this as wants to become a Joker.
He sees to pop into the multiversal world modeled on the iconic 1988 Killing Joke.
And, eeirly, as he jumped into the Killing Joke’s Joker’s mind, the Joker knew this was happening and looked back freaking out the Red Mask upon his return to his world.
The Red Mask must go back into multiverse.
He’s pulled back into the Killing Joke world is overwelemed by the Joker.
The Red Mask realizes that he can’t become the Joker because his multiversal role is to create them?!
He goes back into the multiverse while Punchline helps Batman access the Red Mask’s tinkering so he can track him down and save him.
Catwoman betrays Batman and kicks him into the machine and the multiverse.
The first world is based on 1989’s Batman film.
Looks like before Batman can get answer about whether the Red Mask revived this world’s dead Joker, he gets pulled into the multiverse signifying that the Red Mask is hopping from world to world.
The next world appears to the a world of vampires followed by others.
Those world’s include one modeled on 1989’s Gotham by Gaslight and the 1992 Batman Animated Series.
As well as the world of Batman Beyond.
Where we learn that Batmen can sense or access each other minds in the same way the Red Mask and the Jokers can.
Looks the Red Mask revived the Joker of Batman Beyond.
I believe that Joker was actually Dick Grayson.
More worlds visited including another vampiric world as well as one modeled on 1996’s Kingdom Come.
Batman even gets an assist from his counterpart, on a world based on the Batman 1966 TV serires, by getting his utility belt.
The next world is one based in 1986’s Dark Knight Returns.
That world’s Batman gives the multiversal travelling Batman his costume.
Batman gets pulled into the multiverse again finally confronting Red Mask.
They’re at what Red Mask bills as the end of the multiverse with Joker sharks as his allies.
However, the Batman ’66’s Shark Repellent proves useful.
The Red Mask is soundly defeated to begin the end of the issue.
Batman uses his words to demoralize him and his fist to knock him out.
A Tim Drake Robin, that I don’t recognize – so perhaps a callback to earlier in this arc – is reunited with Batman.
With the book ending with the multiversal Batman Zur-En-Arrh plural in a new-look Batman Incorporated or sorts?!
The Pulse.
This was a wild ride as milestone issues go. Our Batman following a sane multiversal Joker throughout the multiverse. Naturally, defeating him in the end. It was a difficult story to comprehend at times, but the key points were and made for an emotional story of a one-handed Batman. Decent art throughout, but not all art styles were complementary which was by design due to the various worlds visited in the multiverse. 7.5 out of 10.
