Review: Superheroic Civil Disobedience In ‘Batman’ #111

The dark future of Gotham is in motion. And if Batman #111 is any indication, its much closer than anyone thinks. However, if the Dark Knight and his allies have anything to do with it, that future might just become a distant memory for fans…

James Tynion IV, Jorge Jimenez, Tomeu Morey, and Clayton Cowles tell this tale of a Gotham coming apart at the seams and the Dark Knight’s battle to save it. Its an incredibly fun transition and set-up issue.

Simon Saint’s Magistrate program is in full swing across Gotham. It’s beginning to install martial law across the city, starting with framing the Unsanity Collective. Luckily, Batman, Ghost-Maker, and Harley Quinn are on the scene, and the rest of Batman’s allies are en route. But Saint may be about to learn why making allies with the Scarecrow is a bad idea…

This issue is a lot of action to put pieces in place for the climax of this arc, and that means it’s a fantastic showcase for the art team. For large parts of the issue, Tynion just steps back and lets Jimenez and Morey do their thing. This means there’s some great splashes, some amazing work on action sequences (cementing the art team’s position as DC’s current best), and some great atmospheric colors. Really, my only complaint about the art is that there’s a handful of panels where something is a little off about how Jimenez draws Batman’s cowl, but it’s obviously a minor quibble.

On the writing side, this would be a fairly good but unremarkable mid-arc transition issue if it wasn’t for one scene in particular. That scene, in which the Scarecrow springs his trap on Simon Saint is fantastic stuff from Tynion. Jonathan Crane here comes off as scary, enigmatic, and completely in control of the entire situation. 

The ease with which he takes down Peacemaker-1 (a character Batman himself struggled to defeat last issue) makes this moment all the more horrifying. To top it off, seeing Saint react so viscerally adds another frightening feeling to this moment; up until now, he has completely been in control. Every good story needs a great villain, and Tynion put all his cards on the table here for what I hope is an excellent climax to this story as it transitions into the Fear State event.

The stage is set for the Dark Knight’s darkest Halloween yet, and thanks to the creative team’s work here, I’m excited to see what that has in store.

Batman #111 is available now from DC Comics.