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A review by unladylike
Batman: Detective Comics, Vol. 6: Fall of the Batmen by James Tynion IV
4.0
4.5 stars
I jumped back into this series after going a while without reading much, due to starting a new job *at the library!* This is the volume that finally gets to the climax that various events have been leading to since the beginning [of this run]. Actually, it was seeing the plotspoiler of this volume, in an adjacent Bat-comic series, that prompted me to go back and read this run of Detective Comics in the first place! Clay Face has been one of my favorite Bat-villains since watching episodes featuring him on Batman The Animated Series as an elementary and middle school student. I recently was wondering why I'd never seen Clay Face in action as a mini-boss in any of the Batman Arkham ______ video games. No more than a week later, I'm getting further in Arkham City (having previously played all the other games - Asylum, Origins, and Knight) and all of a sudden I'm facing off against Clay Face, though he really wasn't used well in my opinion, and the battle was brief and almost impossible to lose. Anyway, back to the book.
I was tempted to give this 5 stars, simply because Tynion writes so many of these characters so well, and the story is woven beautifully, with facial expressions drawn with so much clear emotion.
The one thing that kept bugging me was how little sense it made for the Possible Future Tim try to kill Batwoman in order to stop this foretold and foreboding cascade of catastrophic events. Merely by telling the Bat-family (or at least Present Tim and Bruce) "Hey, protect and save Clay Face right fucking now so Batwoman isn't pushed to murder him, as she's done in my timeline!" so many other strategies could have been put into play to prevent it, and maybe find a way to save or benefit Future Tim as well? I had to silence that internal voice that was irate about this plot point that only served as an absurd means to an end (the plot itself).
There are two panels - I think a conversation between Dr. [Victoria] October, Batman, and/or Red Robin - that I read as foreshadowing a not-too-distant return/resurrection of Clay Face. They're discussing an advanced retreat (or, I think, strafe of a sort) they'd been working on with Clay Face in their training sessions over the past 6 months to a year. Batman ends up blasting Clay Face with Mr. Freeze's Ice Gun (!!!) and then shattering him (presumably to collect and seal in a hundred small containers until he thaws?), only to confirm that his sentience had left a massive fighting shell or "husk" behind while moving along into the sewers, probably making some really gross sound that we don't have a word for yet. Splooching? So what if part of Clay Face had been alerted or prompted to send off a safety portion of himself elsewhere that could lie dormant with his essence or whatever. That's my theory, and as far as I know, it could have already been revealed in the ongoing comics that I don't read.
I enjoyed imagining James Tynion IV and Tom King and some of the others producing this generation of Bat-comics, standing around talking and coming to terms on interwoven plans between the titles.
I jumped back into this series after going a while without reading much, due to starting a new job *at the library!* This is the volume that finally gets to the climax that various events have been leading to since the beginning [of this run]. Actually, it was seeing the plotspoiler of this volume, in an adjacent Bat-comic series, that prompted me to go back and read this run of Detective Comics in the first place! Clay Face has been one of my favorite Bat-villains since watching episodes featuring him on Batman The Animated Series as an elementary and middle school student. I recently was wondering why I'd never seen Clay Face in action as a mini-boss in any of the Batman Arkham ______ video games. No more than a week later, I'm getting further in Arkham City (having previously played all the other games - Asylum, Origins, and Knight) and all of a sudden I'm facing off against Clay Face, though he really wasn't used well in my opinion, and the battle was brief and almost impossible to lose. Anyway, back to the book.
I was tempted to give this 5 stars, simply because Tynion writes so many of these characters so well, and the story is woven beautifully, with facial expressions drawn with so much clear emotion.
The one thing that kept bugging me was how little sense it made for the Possible Future Tim try to kill Batwoman in order to stop this foretold and foreboding cascade of catastrophic events. Merely by telling the Bat-family (or at least Present Tim and Bruce) "Hey, protect and save Clay Face right fucking now so Batwoman isn't pushed to murder him, as she's done in my timeline!" so many other strategies could have been put into play to prevent it, and maybe find a way to save or benefit Future Tim as well? I had to silence that internal voice that was irate about this plot point that only served as an absurd means to an end (the plot itself).
There are two panels - I think a conversation between Dr. [Victoria] October, Batman, and/or Red Robin - that I read as foreshadowing a not-too-distant return/resurrection of Clay Face. They're discussing an advanced retreat (or, I think, strafe of a sort) they'd been working on with Clay Face in their training sessions over the past 6 months to a year. Batman ends up blasting Clay Face with Mr. Freeze's Ice Gun (!!!) and then shattering him (presumably to collect and seal in a hundred small containers until he thaws?), only to confirm that his sentience had left a massive fighting shell or "husk" behind while moving along into the sewers, probably making some really gross sound that we don't have a word for yet. Splooching? So what if part of Clay Face had been alerted or prompted to send off a safety portion of himself elsewhere that could lie dormant with his essence or whatever. That's my theory, and as far as I know, it could have already been revealed in the ongoing comics that I don't read.
I enjoyed imagining James Tynion IV and Tom King and some of the others producing this generation of Bat-comics, standing around talking and coming to terms on interwoven plans between the titles.