Batman #15 // Review
A Midwestern farm boy from another planet and a woman from a magical island are approaching one of the richest men in the world. They're asking him what he's gotten himself into. And it's a valid question. But it's one that he doesn't necessarily have to answer. After all, he's a private citizen. They're slightly less than private. They are, in fact, superheroes. But they are actually friends. And the given the fact that he's a superhero, too, he really kind of owes them an explanation in Batman #15. Writer Matt Fraction opens up a whole new story in the week of the big Bad Seeeds crossover event with artist Jorge Jiménez.
The gentleman in question is a guy named Bruce Wayne.He made an appearance on the GNN show Sophie’s Choice to announce that he would be leaving Gotham. But not in any way other than a promotional sounds. His money is financing a new reality show. B.I.L.F. Mountain. This is not what it might sound like the cheesy acronym actually stadns for “Billionaire I’m Looking to for Financing.” (So...y’know...it’s cheesy enough that Bruce probably came-up with it himself.) Sort of a Shark Tank or Dragon’s Den if you happen to be on that side of the Atlantic.
Fraction does a good job of juggling the various plot elements that he's constructing the story with. At the heart of it all, Bruce Wayne is staging his own death. Evidently, if you're a billionaire, you can do that or whatever. It's really no big deal. Of course, having the intellect of one of the world's greatest detectives probably helps. There's a reason why. And fraction is slowly diving into it. The storytelling feels like it's well planned out. Whether or not it's going to actually amount to anything is another question altogether.
Jiménez is given rather a lot to work with here. There's a lot of different jumps in setting and mood and tone and ensemble. The artist is a pretty good job with everything. Even that moment where?SUperman and Wonder Woman are confronting Bruce on what the hell it is he thinks he's doing. There have been so many of those moments in DC comics. Where major superheroes show up out of nowhere to confront their colleagues on some weird decision that they're making. It's really hard to stage that in a way that feels new and fresh and original. Jiménez it gives the moment it's proper weight.
In a wway, it’s sort of an inverted Death of Superman sort of a thing here. On this side of the context page, we know that he's not going to be dead. But he's entering into dangerous territory. It's not like the company is trying to pass off the idea that he might actually be dead or anything like that. But it's an interesting place to start from for multi parts series that could actually turn into something terribly originally Fraction does the right thing with it.
