Written By: Tom King
Art By: Mikel Janin
Published By: DC
My Comics Dash cohort Jean-luc has been trying to convince me that this current arc of Batman sucks, but I’ve held out so far. I’m pretty sure he hates fun because he doesn’t like the Speed Racer movie; however, Issue #43 is a goddamned mess. I guess he wins this round.
The biggest problem is the artwork. It hasn’t been great since the beginning, but it hits peak bad this issue with Harley showing up. She’s drawn so stiff and robotic, and her facial expressions are this mix of boring and uncanny-valley…boring. She’s boring. I don’t really care for Harley Quinn, but I know she isn’t supposed to be boring. She’s pretty much everywhere this issue too, ugly as sin and taking up page space. It’s a real shame, because the backgrounds are nice.
Well, some of the time. The artwork really is ugly this go around. Proportions are still off, colors are flat, and some of the movement looks cartoony in a bad way.
As to the plot, Tom King is focusing on the “War of Jokes and Riddles” which was terrible, and while it was a backdrop in the last two issues, it’s in the forefront here. It brings everything down, forcing Selena’s charm away so Ivy can angst her angst and Batman can be Batman. It’s all rather boring, even if the core idea is solid. I like the idea of a villain being bested with words and not a fight, but this isn’t the right execution for it.
At the end of the day, Batman #43 is a poor execution to a narrative that promised fun and something kind of cool. The writing is spotty, made worse by the fact that the artwork is straight ugly almost all the way through, and the resolution doesn’t hit quite as hard as the comic wishes it did.
