REVIEW: ‘Batman,’ Issue #100

Batman #100 is published by DC Comics, written by James Tynion IV, with art by Jorge Jimenez, Carlo Pagulayan, and Guillemot March, inks by Danny Mimi, colors by Tomeu Morey, and letters by Clayton Cowles. The final showdown is on! Batman vs Joker for Gotham’s heart and soul. With Batman’s allies cleaning up the streets he finally squares off with the Clown Prince of Crime. But there may be a wildcard left in the deck that neither of them has planned for. In whose favor will this unforeseen participant turn the tides?

Big events are often tricky to wrap up. With so much having developed throughout the previous stories, wrapping it all up in a satisfying bow can be a touch difficult. The payoff needs to be big, but without clear consequences, the story often ends up leaving the question of “What was the point?”, on the reader’s mind. This is where Batman #100 stumbles for me.

The first half of this issue delivers a high octane battle on multiple fronts. Bouncing between Batman’s confrontation with Joker, Barbara’s reactivating the Oracle network to coordinate the Bat-family with anyone who needs them, and the rest of the team throwing down with Joker’s minions throughout Gotham, the emotion in the story gets ratcheted up to an 11 fast. This is especially true for Batman.

With a reanimated Alfred cursing his name, Batman struggles to keep up with a Joker that’s sporting his own batsuit. The fight and the words that get exchanged between the two bitter foes build up the moment wonderfully. It’s only in the wrap up that it falters.

I won’t give spoilers of course, but the last moments of the fight take a turn I didn’t expect. And for a moment, I thought something truly interesting would happen with the conclusion of the battle. Sadly, it fizzled in the end.

While numerous characters get their moment to shine in Batman #100 the scene-stealer for me is Harley. Having come around on the character recently with the tail end of Sam Humphries run on her solo comic, Tynion continues to utilize her in some interesting, and powerful ways. She’s had enough of a lot of what goes on in Gotham. Especially where Joker is concerned. Her big moment here stole the show for me.

Once the battle stills and Gotham gets to breathe again the book follows up the main event with a couple of wrap-up stories. These are well executed and help put some of the characters into place for the future.

The artistic presentation of this book is nothing short of exceptional. Jimenez delivers all the fights, and all the emotions of the main story with flawless precision.  The follow-up stories, lined by Pagulayan and March respectively, do just as good a job delivering their own tales. Couple these performances with another equally superb coloring job on the part of Morey, and you have art that is executed to a level I can find nothing to complain about.

The last element of the presentation is Cowles’s lettering. This aspect of the book also comes through delivering the reader the narrative in a clear, and easy to follow manner.

Batman #100 delivers an exciting finale to its storyline, even if it stumbles at the end. It wraps up the Joker War storyline nicely and sets the stage for Gotham’s recovery to come.

Batman #100 is available on October 6th wherever comics are sold.