Batman #21 Review

It’s overtime.

After almost a year of winks and nods, the mysteries of Rebirth are finally coming to the forefront. Let’s first do a recap of what has happened over the last year. Wally West came back and found that through various ways, all of the superheroes are suffering from memory losses stretching into years. And a mysterious hooded persona called Mr Oz (who may very well be the Watchmen character Ozymandias) has been plucking people right and left thinking them a danger to a mysterious event that has created the fracture in the DC Universe. Included among them have been Doomsday, Tim Drake and interestingly Mr Mxyzptik – who’s escape ensured that the pre-New 52 Superman and New 52 Superman were merged to create a Superman who can truly be called a continuity of one new reality. Which makes us question – is this possible for others given we haven’t seen two variations of one character elsewhere. Is there a pre New 52 Batman that can merge with the New 52 Batman?

Coming to Bruce, at the end of the events of Wally’s return, a bloodied smiley badge (like the one found on the dead body of Watchmen character the Comedian) was discovered by him embedded in the walls of his cave. Over the last year, he met the Pyscho Pirate, who is one of the few characters who remember all the Crisis events that have occurred throughout the DC history.

The book starts with Saturn Girl (who has powers of premonitions) watching an ice hockey match between Gotham and Metropolis. The contrast is striking, for Batman and Superman have always been called the pillars on which the DC universe stand. She suddenly starts screaming that someone will die, and that the Legion will die and Superman can’t do anything. The person whose death is being talked about is ambiguous, for over the course of the issue, we find multiple candidates. As for what the Legion is, it is a group of superheroes in the 31^st century who are inspired by Superman.

So, let’s get into the proper plot of the book. Bruce has been studying the badge over the last year and it is eerily seen in his obsessive nature as it dominates multiple screens with him looking into events and news on the middle portion. This is a nice parallel to Ozymandias’s own network of channels in Watchmen. Bruce is the observer, the one who knows and plans for all. But the badge is rooted in ignorance for him right now.

The game parallels the confrontation that occurs later on. As Bruce has a brief glimpse of Flashpoint Batman (a Thomas Wayne who lost his son and became Batman in an alternate universe) after the mask interacts with the bloodied badge, Reverse Flash aka Eobard Thawne comes in and a vicious one sided fight ensures.

Though Eobard is obviously distracted. He finds the letter Thomas wrote to Bruce that the Flash delivered when Flashpoint was folded into the new reality, and tears it up. Eobard remembers that reality as he and Flash were the only one unaffected by it – and he was killed by Thomas in that. As a timer counts down to Barry’s arrival, Bruce managed to injure Thawne but is seriously disadvantaged against a speedster.

It is only Thawne’s curiosity that saves him. Using the vibrational frequency of the badge, Thawne leaves a bloodied Batman and traverses to another universe. But his return is traumatic and fatal. He comes back, whispering about seeing god and is reduced to a skeleton by blue flames. And that is what the Flash discovers when he comes fashionably late. A bloodied Bruce and a dead Thawne on the floor of the Batcave.

Let’s first get into the mystery of the badge. In Watchmen, the smiley is worn by the Comedian. But the hero himself is anything but funny. An assassin and womaniser, he represents the worst of humanity masked in heroism. His death signals the start of ‘end justifies the means’ as Ozymandias reveals that heroes have to become scapegoats for the better of humanity. Watchmen was a cynical view on heroes who abused their position and became distrusted by the public. At the end, the powerful and godly Doctor Manhattan leaves the universe saying he will make a better one.

The New 52 is supposed to be a result of that, though none of the Watchmen characters have made any direct entry into the universe. We are still assuming that Ozymandias and Manhattan are behind the memory losses and universal changes of DC. The smiley is the most direct allusion that the Watchmen universe has entered the universe inhabited by DC heroes.

The Flash has been the linchpin in any universe changing event. Whether it be his death during the first Crisis, the role of his successors in the subsequent ones and his direct involvement in the Flashpoint universe and the reimagined New 52 one, Barry has been the one to remember realities beyond the current one.

He involved Batman by carrying over the letter, written by a dying Thomas, to Bruce. The last remnant of an alternate reality which was actually created because of the selfish desires of the hero, Barry himself in this case – which actually justified the Watchmen stance.

There are still too many questions rather than answers right now. Where did Eobard go? Who killed him? Why did Bruce see Flashpoint Batman? Why is Saturn Girl in Arkham and what happened to the Legion?

But it’s a great start and as we goes into the event of ‘The Button’, we will hopefully find some answers.

So, I give it 9.0 out of 10.

+Amazing parallels with Watchmen

+Great artwork

+Ties up nicely with events that have been occurring over the last few years

-Still in ‘more questions than answers’ mode