In a weird tag-team move, Matt Fraction has taken over Batman from his Sex Criminals co-creator/artist Chip Zdarsky, so both the artist and writer of Sex Crimz have written Batman runs one after the other! What’s that aboot!?
And, prior to reading his comics, I would’ve said without a doot that Fraction’s Batman would show Zdarsky’s how it’s done - if only because Fraction is a better writer than Zdarsky by having actually written some good comics (even at DC - his Jimmy Olsen comic is brilliant).
Zap! Bang! Pow! There go my expectations - because Fraction’s Batman somehow gets off to a worse start than Zdarsky’s and shows no signs of being even slightly decent in the future. Batman, Volume 1: Daylight is an absolute stinker!
Part of the problem is a lack of a strong overarching narrative. Batman stalwarts Killer Croc, The Riddler, and Hugo Strange pop up to do what they always do and then pop down just as quickly having made no impact on the “story”. There’s something about a minotaur businessman doing something evilly capitalistic - that’s gonna be original. Vandal Savage is somehow the Commissioner of Gotham (Gordon is demoted to beat cop?!) and - you won’t believe this - he’s up to no good! He brings in his own private police force that, shockingly, is as corrupt as he is.
It isn’t just a meandering and vague narrative, it’s so fucking boring as well. You know Vandal is doing evil stuff, even without having to see cartoonishly evil things like planting evidence at the scene of a crime, so there’s no suspense. Similarly with the familiar rogues gallery making their obligatory appearances - Batman beats them up and off they go. So what?! There has to be more going on than childish plotting and box checking to engage readers.
Fraction introduces a new baddie in the form of a wind crow swordswoman who put me in mind of a similar character from one of the worst films ever made, Rebel Moon - which is a horrible reference to remind readers of. Oh yes, and, of course, with Hugo Strange follows - say it with me - the Monster Men! The Monster Men are the closest thing Batman has to a poison symbol - if these jokes are in the comic, it’s going to be a bad comic. And it always is.
Some plot elements made me think Fraction has completely lost whatever writing talent he may have once had: a kid films Vandal doing something illegal on his phone - but feels that the only way he can let the footage go out is via a newspaper?! No, I’m sorry but kids don’t put any stock in newspapers, let alone read or know anything about them - what would happen would be that kid posting that video on social media immediately. It’s ludicrously contrived that Fraction thinks a kid would believe the only way a video would have credibility is if it was delivered via legacy media - which has all the integrity always, right??
Dr Annika Zeller is a hotpants scientist who is Bruce’s love interest for this series. She’s framed as a genius but, when Damian Wayne/Robin calls Bruce “father”, and despite her watching Bruce do crazy martial arts fighting while in civilian clothes, and having the same build as Batman who she met in the first chapter, she doesn’t make the connection that Bruce Wayne is Batman. That totally undermines any assertion Fraction makes that this character is a genius. She isn’t - she’s a total dunce for not seeing the bleeding obvious.
Fraction finds a way around the Alfred-being-dead-thing by having him be a hallucination (or something?) that Bruce talks to, enabling him to have his cake and eat it too. It was great to see Batman wearing his classic blue outfit - makes a really nice contrast to all the black/grey/metallic outfits he’s worn these past few years. And it’s revealed how many gears the Batmobile (or this version of it anyway) has: 13 (4 of which are mental, naturally).
I read the first issue of this run when it came out last year and didn’t think much of it, so my expectations were quite tampered to begin with, but I still read this book with disbelief that it was as bad as it was, consistently throughout. Batman, Volume 1: Daylight? Save yourself from bothering with this forgettable slop.
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