The Next Batman #1 Review

 

Writers: John Ridley, 

Brandon Thomas + Paul Jenkins

Artists: Nick Derington,

Sumit Kumar + Jack Herbert

Rating: 6 of 8

The Next Batman #1

Legacy. Believe it or not, it's one of the most important things there is. A son tries to live up to his father, a daughter to their mother; a student to his teacher. Such men leave behind a legacy, we can't help but try to live up to it - even if we fail.

Such is the case for a number of characters here; perhaps most of all, the new Batman. So far, he does a decent job as the new Dark Knight, though it remains to be seen whether he - or anyone - can truly live up to such a legacy. Intriguingly, the issue itself never actually reveals just who the new Batman is.

A few weeks ago, DC actually revealed his identity - but, as it's not revealed here, I won't spoil the surprise for anyone who doesn't already know. So far, there isn't much to distinguish him from Bruce's Batman. Whenever it comes to new faces behind the mask, it's important to do something to distinguish them from the original, or there's no point in using someone new.

But if they're too different, outside of the name and mask, what exactly makes them Batman? It's a tricky thing to balance and while I think it was mostly done well with Gordon, Dick and Jean-Paul, I'm not sure that Ridley's succeeded - at least, not so far. With the Magistrate, he's certainly succeeded in giving Batman and co a rather formidable foe.

As opposed to other foes, this one seems almost omnipresent and, given that it controls the city, it's a lot harder to defeat. In this time, anyone who wears a mask is breaking the law and, if one of their officers spots you wearing one, you're dead. 

Later on, one officer says to an ex-partner ''You know I never cared for the ''masks'', but... now masks have gotten so damn political, and the cops-- we're caught in the middle''. With all of this combined, Ridley's making a very political story for these times, though done with enough care that it never feels like it's delivering a lecture, or a story that suffers through a badly delivered lesson.

Throughout, he and Derington deliver some very tight action scenes and, between this and Ridley's script, the story flows better because of it. It ends on a rather tantalizing cliffhanger, one I'm curious to see followed up. 

Though there are two more stories, The Next Batman's definitely the highlight - though they both come pretty close, especially Arkham Knights: Rise, a tale about the titular Knight leading a resistance full of Batman's villains against a greater threat. It works pretty well to show just how much good such figures could do, if they only needed to. Jenkins does well in showing just how different this Knight is to the original, with an ideology both different and similar to their predecessor.

Overall, despite it's flaws, this is a very good opening, which shows a lot of promise for this dark new status quo.