“*****This contains spoilers for both this book AND Batman: the Long Halloween. So if you haven’t read Long Halloween, I’d say go for that one because it’s pretty great.*****
Here’s the thing: Batman comes up against a new enemy and has to fight through his rogues gallery to figure out who it is.
Sound familiar?
That’s because it’s the plot to the Long Halloween, also by Jeph Loeb.
Comics have a problem. The problem is that in order to have a mystery person who knows both Bruce Wayne and Batman, we have to introduce a new character. And when we introduce a new character, he sticks out like a sore thumb. Which I guess sticks out and pulsates red in most cartoons, which I assume is where this saying came from.
Long Halloween dealt with this in an interesting way. We get our new guy, then he’s shot. So we all think, Hell, it can’t be him. Of course, the shooting turns out to be faked so that the new character could continue to operate in secret. Rad! I’m down with that.
Aaaaand then we did the exact same thing in this book.
Pretty disappointing.
Other than that, it’s a good read. Nice mix of characters. Good plot. Really, the only problem was having read the story before in Long Halloween, which killed the big reveal.
I still prefer Long Halloween, even though Jim Lee’s art in Hush is great. What can I say? I have a soft spot for Solomon Grundy.
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