Review: Batman/Catwoman: The Gotham War hardcover (DC Comics)

There’s a dynamic philosophical conflict at the center of Batman/Catwoman: The Gotham War that’s fascinating to consider. It is a book that on one hand undermines the basic tenets of mainstream superhero comics, which is always the recipe for a good time, but in the end can’t quite show the courage of its convictions. Frankly Batman doesn’t have the stronger point here, but as Batman’s wrongness gets wronger, it seems the story must undercut the argument on the other side, too.

All of that makes for interesting reading, a mash-up of the Batman and Catwoman titles of the kind I wish we’d see more often, and writers Chip Zdarsky, Tini Howard, and Matthew Rosenberg should be commended. There were moments I wished Gotham War weren’t going the traditional comics crossover routes a la “Contagion” or “Cataclysm” or “No Man’s Land,” but equally the writers pull off a fun superheroes vs. supervillains story too. There are some old Bat-tropes at play here that I don’t think ought be resurrected, but again this is good reading overall.

[Review contains spoilers]

Catwoman Selina Kyle’s got a proposal for the Bat-family: if they let her team of thieves and former henchmen operate with impunity, they’ll only steal from the rich, they’ll work without violence, and they’ll give 15% of their hauls to charity. The younger members of the Bat-family see it as an idea at least worth giving some consideration, though to Batman, allowing any crime to be committed — and his proteges considering the same — is anathema.

[See the latest DC trade solicitations.]

It’s a fantastic thought experiment, the proposition of a social experiment not unlike a needle exchange — in the absence of preventing harmful things, Selina offers to facilitate those harmful things happening more safely for the greater good. And while the discussion doesn’t get quite this far, the emphasis on charity suggests an eventual cessation of crime all together, if violent crime can be lessened through social safety nets being propped up.

But the idea is most interesting in Batman’s opposition to it. For the plan to work, Batman would have to stand by while crimes are committed in Gotham, to agree that he would prevent some crimes and not others, to sit at the Justice League table knowing that there are some crimes Batman foils and other crimes he permits. Even as we can see that Batman’s case-by-case, “catch every criminal” approach (often through the dispensation of violence) has not worked — we’re told that Selina’s approach has made an immediate, noticeable difference — Batman can’t accept it, because it violates the very core of who Batman is.

All of that makes for Gotham War’s exceptionally strong start. The writers pose a dilemma out of Greek tragedy, where Batman can’t entertain a solution that might be good for him because to do so would erode his very definition of himself. Further, we also see Batman weighting violence here¹ — beating up criminals when they do wrong — over a long game that might lead to peace; there’s some good in the bad and bad in the good that results in gripping reading.

I can’t necessarily fault the creative teams for taking all of that and pivoting to what becomes in the end a villain’s mad scheme. And kudos to the writers for two surprises that somehow I’d managed not to spoil for myself — one, the presence of Vandal Savage and his purchase of Wayne Manor, and two, that Selina’s associate Marquise turns out to be Vandal’s daughter Scandal Savage (not unfortunately in recognizable Secret Six form, but Scandal nonetheless). Much as I might like to read a book about the Bat-family debating the social origins of crime, probably a villain is warranted, and the “metor’s going to hit Earth” finale was positively cinematic.

But the mitigating factors do bother me slightly. One, that Batman’s being manipulated by Zur-En-Arrh, making Bruce even more intractable than normal. We’ve got this interesting philosophical quandry and ultimately we don’t really know what Batman might think because Batman’s not himself. And then again Selina’s new paradigm gets usurped by Vandal Savage, so it too doesn’t get the fair trial that the idea might’ve deserved. Human greed and demagogic influence undercut the whole thing; this might be true to life, but I’d have been interested to see the characters negotiate the same proposal unmuddled by outside influences.

Too, Batman dealing with the Zur-En-Arrh personality — which is to say Zdarsky retooling elements of Grant Morrison’s Batman RIP — leads back to Batman’s fist-fighting his children, pushing them away, and vowing to do everything on his own. That’s Batman circa 2002, the “Bruce Wayne: Murderer/Fugitive” Batman, a storyline by a creative team whom I think believed Batman should not be alone and worked to write the character away from that portrayal. I have enjoyed Zdarksky’s Batman in the main, but I find the regressions in the character trite, and again, I’d be curious to see this same story told with Batman debating on the merits instead of being out of his head.

Still, plenty good stuff in Batman/Catwoman: The Gotham War — Scandal Savage(!), the moment where Tim Drake knows how to take down every single Bat-villain, the lead-in from Knight Terrors and the surprising continuity with Matthew Rosenberg’s Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing. The Justice League and Justice Society titles get together on an annual-ish basis when they’re both around; I wouldn’t mind seeing DC do something similar with the Batman and Catwoman titles.

[Includes original and variant covers]

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1. Reminds me a bit of Batman: One Bad Day: Riddler.  ↩︎

Rating 3.5