BATMAN #41

[ BARGAINS OF STEEL ] 

In June, 2015, DC Comics launched their brand new direction, aptly titled DC YOU. However, do you know what the YOU in DC YOU actually stands for? Does it mean, oi YOU, Scott Snyder, stop touching yourself there or else it will fall off. Or does it mean, wait a minute, Greg Capullo, didn't YOU once have hair? Want to know the answer? Then what are you waiting for? Read. Read. Read.

To QUOTE BF Skinner: 'The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do'.

THE REVIEW:

Initially I was going to start this review by saying something like, 'this whole issue of Batman is basically one giant excuse explaining why Jim Gordon is filling in for the title character'. But then, I said to myself, hold it a moment there, boy-oh! If I say this, tonally it would make me sound as if I didn't like reading it. And no, that would not be the case. Not at all. I did like reading this issue an awful lot.

On a conceptual level I'd say this dual stranded story-line explained the circumstances behind Jim being chosen as the new Batman (mainly because Geri Powers, the head of a secret police faction, whom we don't really know a lot about yet, feels that he'd be a more procedural and down to Earth fit than a new recruit). And while this is being relayed, at the same time a modern day tale is also presented, involving a disfigured hood that kidnaps a sports celebrity with the use of an electrified... errr... thing.   

Granted, a part of me would have preferred it if the present day section could have been replaced with another explanation. One involving as to why someone like Dick Grayson or Jason Todd never attempted to fill Bruce's mantle after his so-called demise. Or for that matter, a small token acknowledgement, highlighting what the other member's of the Bat family feel about this new take on an old character.

Of course, I'm sure these topics will be picked up at a later date. Leaving this issue right here, this exquisitely illustrated issue drawn by the one and only, Greg Capullo, to deal with the start of Robo-Gordon Mark-Two: Now In A Bat-Suit With Bugs-Bunny Ears.

Well, let's face it. This new mechanised version of Batman does look a tad too Robocop inspired, doesn't he? Still, that's most probably why the suit in question is mechanised! To justify to us -- the readers -- why a character such as Jim Gordon would be so good in it: he's a man first, a tool second, and a cop third.

What's more, I also enjoyed all of those other little tit-bits which added to the plot, like the color variations on the Bat-suit, what Jim had to mentally go through to prepare for his role, as well as the way Harvey acted as a pseudo Robin figure, telling Jim why he shouldn't be Batman, and just stick to his usual job.

THE MUSIC:

I'm sorry. I'm so-so sorry. But because of the central theme running throughout this urban adventure, a theme relating to a good honest cop being persuaded to wear a mechanized power suit, I feel, so sorry, that I have to musically match it up to, again, sorry, the theme tune to...

THE COMPARISON:

Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Next month I promise I won't compare anything related to Batman to anything related to Robocop.

  

THE CONCLUSION:

At the end of this issue something happened that was so surprising I'm not sure if I should reveal it here. So, to disguise this fact, how about you try and guess what this something is out of the following eight options.

1. A man working at a restaurant unveils himself as being Jim's long lost brother. The man's name is Ramsey, Gordon Ramsey.
2. Harvey Bullock joins Jim by dressing up as the new Robin, wearing a trash bag and a pair of rubber gloves in the appropriate places.
3. Barbra Gordon walks in on her Dad in the new Bat-Suit and is immediately shocked.
4. A man in the street recognizes Bruce Wayne sitting at a park bench.
5. Jim starts making his own brand of gin, and calls it Gordon's gin.
6. Alfred Pennyworth gives Jim a hand with his new role. His left hand that was chopped off by the Joker.
7. The Joker jumps out from under a pile of rubber gloves and asks Jim to be his new Robin.
8. Robin, the brat Wonder, wants to team up with Jim, but only if he allows him to play on his Wii.  

Nuff said.