Batman/Catwoman: The Gotham War Review

If I had to summarize Gotham War in a few words, I’d say “it’s a mess.” Frankly, a very interesting premise that’s held back by the writing, both in terms of quality and in terms of committing to the premise. Even so, I think the first half is fine, sometimes good, until it sets up the back half. “How is that back half?” you may ask. 

I hate being outright mean towards comics. These things are hard to create, and a lot of work, unappreciated work, goes into them. So as much as I hate to say it, the back half of Gotham War falls under what I would only refer to as “nonsense comics”, not to mean that the story is nonsensical (well it is, to a degree), but because it turns into a story devoid of any themes, extremely shallow with a layer of pretty art over it, which is a shame because the ideas the first half does try to play with are genuinely so interesting and you can tell that there is a story there, a good one, one that wasn’t explored in the slightest.

Before I dive further into that though, let me talk about the art. Out of all my complaints with this event, the art isn’t one of them. Jimenez with Morey, Leon with Gandini, and Cizmesija all kill it. Cowles, Gattoni, and Peteri are also fantastic on letters, no notes. Aside from the Hawthorne, Di Benedetto, and Fajardo Jr. bits – which are the opening and ending one-shots – this event is always gorgeous, always visually appealing, which is a testament to just how good these artists and how good they make these stories look sometimes even when they aren’t.

Now, let’s talk about the story. Throughout its eight issue runtime, Gotham War juggles a few different storylines across its narrative. The big one is the ‘Gotham War’ itself, where Catwoman is taking all the henchmen from the various rogues of Gotham under her wing and teaching them to be burglars, while making sure they only steal from the rich and donate some of their earnings to charity, which creates a rift within the Bat-Family where they decide if this is a ‘crime’ or not.

There are three big character beats: Batman struggling with the influence of Zur-Enn-Arrh that exists within him, pushing the people close to him away and becoming more and more rigid, seeing the world in black and white, in absolutes. There’s Catwoman trying to deal with Batman’s return and the effects that might have on her plan, and Red Hood, who is “helping” Catwoman under the guise of trying to track down the Joker. Then there’s the rogues, planning to take revenge on Catwoman, along with a Vandal Savage plotline halfway through the story.

But that’s getting too ahead of ourselves, so let’s start at the beginning.

Honestly, I think the initial premise is super interesting. As someone who’s been into Zdarsky’s Batman run so far for the most part, I’m into seeing him slowly fall deeper into the grasp of Zur, becoming more stoic, more rigid, and more alone. It sets up the eventual theme of him realizing his family has his back, and he needs them as much as they need him. Is it the same tried and tested character arc we saw with him in King’s run, and then Tynion’s? Sure, but hey, if it works, it works, right? Especially with the new spin on it. Taking that into account, the idea that Selina is trying to bring meaningful change into Gotham? Fantastic, and the way she’s doing it really does bring in the ability to do some social commentary, spun with Rosenberg’s Jason, which is honestly the best Jason Todd has been written as a character since Morrison. Sign me up.

Then you read the actual book, and while there are parts that are still good, there’s a lot here that isn’t. For better or worse, when we look at a lot of superhero comics, we need to put some suspension of disbelief into our reading, especially when we look at these things through the social and political contexts of today. That’s why I think Bruce Wayne not being a billionaire is a fresh change of pace amongst other reasons. I know he’s still rich, but his not being a CEO grounds him somewhat and prevents the reductive conversation surrounding the morality of the character from coming into the discussion, but I digress.

But therein also lies the problem. If the book is going to try to address that point critically, then that means I should also be engaging with the book through that critical lens. If it tells me, “Hey, we’re going to set up a premise that shows you why Batman’s way isn’t particularly working,” then going into it with that suspension of disbelief would be disrespectful to that book. To that end though, I think it still succeeds to a degree. Through the subtext of it all, I like that Zdarsky attempts at some exploration into that, using Zur’s corruption of Bruce, which is something that we can understand is happening in the background and also based on how he speaks. He uses it to frame Bruce as “the antagonist”, who views these things in black and white when they should be viewed in gray (or at least, that’s how I read it), and I think that’s an interesting way of addressing the problem, without going “Hey, our main Batman is a bad guy.”

However, you can’t really do that if your surrounding story doesn’t build on that notion or does interesting things with it. The Batman title tries its best, the Red Hood title is totally its own thing, but the Catwoman title is doing something altogether different, trying to weave in the plot of the Savage family and the villains who want revenge into play. It’s entirely too much, and as a result, the event loses its focus on what it wants to be. 

It’s a big problem with the conflict between Bruce and Selina too. From Bruce’s end, seeing as he’s corrupted by Zur, the way he views her in absolutes makes total sense, but from Selina’s end, it just reads as off. Especially when you take into consideration their journey together through Tom King’s Batman run, and later on the ending of that relationship in James Tynion IV’s run. The drama that exists between them gets resolved way too fast, in a way that just reads as something meant to check off a list rather than to say anything interesting about how they’ve changed as people during the time they’ve been apart.

That is the biggest problem with Gotham War at the end of the day, it doesn’t say anything interesting about these characters, nor about ‘Gotham’. That interesting beat about how the villains are planning to strike back and take revenge on Catwoman for taking away their henchmen? Shoved to a few pages in the last issue. Bruce slowly starting to view things the way Zur does? Only within the Batman title. Some look into how the Bat-Family feels about everything? Barely there, although their eventual fight about it in Batman #138 is fantastic. 

The best part about this entire story is Red Hood. I love that he picks Selina’s side, not because he agrees, but because he knows the consequences of training them to be better. It doubles as continuing his own storyline in Rosenberg’s other book, The Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing. I like that Batman injects Jason with that drug. It’s the most interesting thing to happen to the character in years! It leaves him in a fascinating position, and the way that ends up being followed up on in the Joker series is just as good. 

Yet, I just keep thinking about the Vandal Savage threads that are introduced right at the end of Batman #137, which ends up enveloping the whole narrative, and I keep asking, “Why?” There is such an interesting premise here, and there’s so much you can do, so much you can say, so why reduce it to regular superhero nonsense that’s more about setting up future stories than actually addressing the conflicts of the story, than actually exploring the themes the story is trying to represent? 

That’s the disappointing thing at the end of all this. It’s the missed potential, the fact that in this sea of “Batman against the Bat-Family / the city of Gotham is in chaos” stories that take up Batman stories as of late, the initial premise could have been an interesting spin on that narrative, but yet, here we are.

In good faith, I can’t suggest picking up Gotham War unless you’ve been reading Batman or Catwoman. I guess if you’re reading Batman, it’s worth trekking through because “Mind Bomb” started off fantastic (in Batman #139), and it builds on the character arc Bruce goes through here. 

But if you want meaningful superhero comics featuring Batman, just stick to Detective Comics.