Every time I’ve sat down to write about Daylight, the first arc of Matt Fraction and Jorge Jiménez’s Batman, I’ve found it difficult to articulate why I love it so much on a month to month basis. Maybe part of it is that it’s a book I really enjoy whenever I do read it, but one I don’t think about much outside of the proximity in which I read it. Or maybe I don’t love it as much as I think I do.
So I did what I do best. I re-read it a few times, took notes, talked about it with close friends, and really ruminated on it. If you’ve read my review of the first issue, you’ll know my love for it was twofold:
- The attempt at making it a story with Batman as the protagonist as opposed to a meta-narrative on Batman.
- The visual storytelling by Jorge Jiménez, Tomeu Morey, and Clayton Cowles.
Upon reflection, even as I kept trying to dig deeper and deeper into it, I’ve come down to this conclusion:
I love this book precisely because of how much I enjoy it in the moment, while I reside in its proximity. It’s a book that knows how long it should remain with me before letting go. But at the same time, the farther I go away from an issue’s release, I’m left thinking about one thing and one thing only – the art.
The best part about this current Batman run is just how episodic it all feels. These first six issues, collected as Batman: Daylight are all interconnected – they cover a hectic three days and three nights in the life of Batman that starts simple but ends in a long disaster. And yet it never feels too connected. You can pick up anything from #1-5 without prior context and be okay with not knowing what came before. That careful construction, deviating from decompression to simply making it one complete story per issue is the power that rests in Matt Fraction’s skill as a writer, something that you can point to from his days writing Hawkeye.
The other, equally great, part is how it the book looks. I cannot stress enough how much Jorge Jiménez and Tomeu Morey really have defined the visual aesthetics of Batman in the 2020s while also continuing to challenge and evolve themselves. Every issue is electric, you can feel the energy flowing as you bounce from wall to wall, this is a book that has perfectly paced itself thanks to its visual powers, inviting the reader to walk, jog, or run, without ever letting them feel like they’re lost at what state to be in. Every issue, there’s something to write home about in terms of the artistic prowess at display. Clayton Cowles places that bow on top as always to complete that visual flourish, the different caption boxes for the gadgets, the little indicators for time, all of those are so in sync with the visual identity of this book that really gives it that all-star feeling.
And that’s the thing, ultimately. Sure, describing it as something I only think about for a few days before moving on may make it come off as unremarkable, that there isn’t much to chew on, but that’s precisely why it works so well. On top of everything, Matt and Jorge understand that Batman is a comic book whose methodology of telling a story is visual, and they make sure that, no matter what, this is what it excels at. It’s slick, it’s cool. I don’t feel like I’m going through the motions when I’m reading it, I feel like I’ve got a damn cool superhero comic in my hands.
You can make the argument that it should be about more (and I’m sure it will be, in time), but I love the state that it’s in right now. I’m content with a Batman book chilling a little bit, Ram V, et al.’s Detective Comics was the book I obsessed over as it went on, and it gave me my fill for thoughtful Batman. I’m okay with a fun Batman, after most of the Rebirth era and onwards of this title has been an, on average, mediocre attempt at deep Batman comics. But on the contrary too, it’s not like other fast food superhero comics (that I will not name) I forget about as soon as I close the book. I do think about it, just not for more than a week at best, and that’s okay.
I love Gotham, I love how they’ve really given every corner of the city a real identity with its own gangs that really illustrate their own identity – something explored throughout these first six issues, with #4 giving us a look at the gangs in particular. I’m really into the new villain, the Minotaur, solving the Algorithm of crime is a fun premise, and I think it’s fun to have a villain who’s freshly trying to control crime in Gotham in this manner, as opposed to an ancient society who has been controlling it from the shadows all along, which we’ve seen a few times already.
Dr. Annika Zeller is a really fun addition to the supporting cast, her dynamic with Bruce is cute – and I like the return of Bruce using his charm for information, Fraction writes a really good Batman-using-Bruce-as-a-mask. Bruce’s friction with Damian is a welcomed return, it makes their dynamic more interesting. I also hope we get more of Bruce’s Alfred hallucinations. As someone who would rather Alfred not come back, Fraction and Jiménez have a fun way of showing a Bruce still trying to reconcile with the trauma of his loss while not losing that iconic dynamic, something essential to a good Batman story.
At the end of the day, this truly is my favourite ongoing right now. I love how it’s constructed, I love how it speaks. By the time you’re reading this, #7 is out, and it’s so damn good. The team keeps knocking it out of the park every month, and I can’t wait for what’s in store next.
