Review: Batman/Flash: The Button Deluxe Edition (Rebirth) hardcover (DC Comics)

When Geoff Johns spearheaded in 2009 the re-integration of Barry Allen into the DC Universe after almost twenty-five years of absence, one thing he established was the murder of Barry's mother by the Reverse Flash; another was a deep friendship between Barry and Batman Bruce Wayne. This was something we'd had no hint of post-Crisis on Infinite Earths in the years Barry had been away; it was a friendship, though logical, invented almost whole cloth by Johns, and given that at the time of Barry's resurrection, Bruce was "dead" (or lost in time), there was never anything to perpetuate or refute that friendship.

We would not see Bruce Wayne and Barry Allen on the same page at all, as a matter of fact, until the end of 2011's Flashpoint, where they meet "again for the first time" in the newly created New 52 universe, though neither one realizes it. Essentially, in the entirety of the post-Crisis era, the reader never actually saw Bruce and Barry have a significant present-time conversation despite that we're later given to know how much they meant to one another. This is one of my favorite aspects of Flashpoint, the way in which Johns makes true something that didn't exist before, a microcosm for the way in which everything was the same but everything was different in the New 52.

That 2016's Batman/Flash: The Button presents the next most significant meeting of Batman and the Flash since Flashpoint underscores how slowly what Johns established has actually evolved; Button is basically the culmination of a story Johns proposed almost a decade ago, as well as something of a mini sequel to Flashpoint. Other factors aside, Button is also momentous as potentially the first Batman title crossover with another title outside the Bat-family in at least 30 years; Flash has crossed over with Wonder Woman and Green Lantern and Green Arrow at least without an event miniseries being involved, but it's possible Button is the first inter-title, extra-family crossover for the Batman title ever, if not at least since Crisis.

All of that makes Button notable, despite that, depending on your perspective, there's not a whole lot here. There is importance, in one sense, from a purely character-driven point of view, which is how I recommend Flashpoint should be read, too -- if we're focused solely on the emotions of the characters, Button carries a lot, and especially if writers Tom King and Joshua Williamson continue these implications into Batman and Flash respectively. On the other hand, in terms of the overarching Rebirth storyline, Button does almost nothing, flitting and flirting with revelations that it ultimately backs off of because those are really meant to be saved for another story. Button calls an "epilogue" what's really just a teaser for a different book, indicative of some of the overarching Rebirth story's burgeoning difficulties overall.

[Review contains spoilers]

Had Flashpoint been perhaps just a "regular" DC Universe event, a fifth week story like Tangent for instance, where there was a bit of later fan interest in seeing the Flashpoint and main DC universes interact, Button would be a rather exciting "look back" five years later. We get some indication of what happened in the Flashpoint universe after the events of the miniseries and, moreover, our Bruce Wayne comes face to face with his father from Flashpoint. That reunion is emotional, in much the same way these aspects were emotional in Flashpoint, and this makes for a fun mini-Flashpoint sequel, especially as drawn so dynamically by Jason Fabok.

But Button is ostensibly about more than that, and that's where the jury's out about whether Button delivers. In the course of investigating the smiley face button found in the Batcave, Batman encounters his father only for his father to die again; the seemingly previously-destroyed Flashpoint universe reappears only to be destroyed again; and Golden Age Flash Jay Garrick arrives just to apparently be killed. The few lines from Watchmen at the end of the story suggests all of this is according to Dr. Manhattan's plan, but it's a particularly weird plan -- pulling back the curtain just enough to show Flash and Batman that something's up without explaining what.

Is this meant to be simple torture, giving Batman a vision of his father and Flash the knowledge that he might have killed the Reverse Flash? Surely Bane breaking Batman's back, for instance, trumps that. It's all so backward and weird that, as with Mr. Oz's varying appearances in the Superman books, I worry whether Geoff Johns and company will be able to tie these disparate threads together in the end. Not to mention why Manhattan would want the button to appear in the Batcave in the first place, or if he's omnipotent and it's not his doing, why he couldn't prevent it.

As much as Button has been played up with its lenticular covers and so on, there's not a lot here that moves the overarching Rebirth story forward. We already know Saturn Girl is in Arkham and that Johnny Thunder somehow made the Justice Society disappear. Given also our previous general understanding of Manhattan as the culprit, a glimpse of Manhattan's finger doesn't move me all that much; DC puts greater stock in these tiny non-moments than I think they should. The "epilogue," an image of the Watchmen button floating in space followed by an image of Superman's S-symbol, offers really no content.

About the only thing Button accomplishes that's new Rebirth-wise is to bring Jay on to the scene (drawn as John Wesley Shipp by Howard Porter), but he disappears so quickly and his presence holds such little consequence that it's as if it didn't happen at all. I can only hope that upcoming events in Batman are predicated by Thomas Wayne's pronouncement that Bruce should stop being Batman, and that the Reverse-Flash material in Flash's next volume builds on this; otherwise Button will be in part a curious exercise in running in place.

Batman/Flash: The Button is admirably drawn by Fabok and Porter, who also wonderfully gets to draw again both the Flash title and also the Justice League Watchtower. Tom King's first part to the story, a brutal issue-long fight between Batman and the Reverse-Flash that only spans a story minute, is a slice of dynamic storytelling for the ages -- I'd welcome King continuing to write the Flash title. All the writers and artists do well, and Button is a fun Batman/Flash team-up; I'd be equally happy to see the titles do this again or see something the same between another two titles. Whether Button delivers on its Rebirth hype, however, I'm not entirely sure, but at least it's a good read despite that.

[Collects original and variant covers, including both sides of the lenticular covers and international variants]

Summary

Reviewer

Collected Editions

Review Date

2017-10-11

Reviewed Item

Batman/Flash: The Button Deluxe Edition

Author Rating

4 (out of 5)