In this review of Batman #14, as Batman searches for the whereabouts of Mister Freeze, Verity Pennyworth has some unexpected guests at Pennyworth Manor.
Batman #14 main cover by Matteo Scalera (DC Comics)
BATMAN #14
Written by MATT FRACTION
Art and Main Cover: MATTEO SCALERA
Variant Covers: DAN MORA, DUSTIN NGUYEN, RYAN SOOK, DAVID AJA, KYUYONG EOM, JIM LEE
Page Count: 40 Pages
Release Date: 10/7/26
This review contains spoilers
Under the cover of the Poison Ivy attack, three disgruntled cops try to burgle Pennyworth Manor. As Batman seeks Mr. Freeze in the sewers with Verity Pennyworth on comms, he finds a huge science fortress of Freeze underground. As Verity snarks on the boom-tube comms, she takes down the burglar cops one by one. Batman finds a badly injured Freeze in Nora’s arms, and fights off a distressed and furious Nora to save Freeze’s life. Freeze and Nora were having a fight to the death (or possibly to divorce), when Ivy’s attack interrupted, injuring Freeze. Nora says she hates her husband and wants him to die, but not like this. Batman says he needs her and Freeze to save Gotham and Freeze’s lives by turning the city into Winter to kill Ivy’s plants.
This will not end well… for them. (DC Comics)
Analysis
Matt Fraction and guest artist Matteo Scalera put together a very functional and fun chapter of Batman and Bad Seeds that pushes the Bad Seeds story into its endgame, picks up some lore from several years ago in a solid way, and develops the new character Verity Pennyworth a little bit more. Though that last bit still doesn’t give us any backstory for Verity (we NEED a flashback for her! I’m so annoyed that the Annual this year is going to the very dull Minotaur instead of our new majordomo!), we get her dry British wit and pure competence, as well as her commitment to Batman’s values in not killing. Brilliant action by Scalera, using a long string of sketched Verity figures to show the speed and force of her first attack. It’s also interesting that Fraction puts the class warfare lines in the mouths of his incompetent and clearly not very admirable cop burglars. Though the burglar dopes do get some Russian Tracksuit Mafia “bro” level banter about “vase or vahhz” pronunciation.
Peter Tomasi developed Mr. Freeze’s story from the frozen quagmire (pun intended) that it had been in since Heart of Ice, where writers kept trying to retcon him or change his origins or motivations, and instead pushed the character forward by having him actually cure Nora, but then she rejects him angrily and becomes her own villain. Fraction picks that up with some funny/tragic divorce battling between out His and Her Frozen Villains. Bringing up this older recent history (where Ram V didn’t really play with it in the execrable Gotham Nocturne) provides a nice emotional hook that Batman can use to manipulate Nora to help him save Gotham. The plan to use Freeze and his winter machines to kill the Ivy plants is a good one – perhaps a bit predictable, but also very cool (PUN INTENDED AGAIN). It’s nice seeing a past story relevant and useful for a new story, though of course I fully expect some twists in the Poison Ivy issue and Bad Seeds: Sunrise that closes out the story!
Backup Story: Rhetoric
Writer: Dan Watters
Artist: Scott Hepburn
Batman fights a new villain, Rhetoric, with telekinesis powers, who is trying to destroy Gotham systematically by destroying what Bruce Wayne does. A former Penguin thug injured by Batman and then tortured in Arkham, he lives only to tear down the systems Batman protects.
Analysis
Dan Watters gives a decent shot at an exposition heavy short story, just coming out and saying all the stuff Batman and Rhetoric stand for. The design is kind of generic looking, and I’m curious to see if Rhetoric is given a big storyline in the comics and if so, whether whoever writes him will agree with Batman in this story that “the ideologues are the worst.” Such an explicitly political villain always has the potential to topple over into preaching (something Punchline never did, for all that she was underused and underwritten). We shall have to wait and see on Rhetoric!
Our main cover by Matteo Scalera (also available in virgin foil variant for a big surcharge) shows Batman looking off to the side towards a huge Mr. Freeze head, as snow battles Ivy’s vines (with Ivy behind them both). Dan Mora’s variant features Verity, Batman, and Freeze in a nice tryptic. Dustin Nguyen continues his watercolor series of covers with Mr. Freeze serving as frozen backdrop to Ivy’s throne of vines. Nguyen also provides a 30th Anniversary Kingdom Come variant, featuring Batman in his flying power suit against some nice skyscrapers. Ryan Sook continues his own series of variants with Freeze covered with vines as Batman descends into his icy fortress. Kyuyong Eom provides a Spot Foil variant (again at a significant surcharge) with Batman turning into a weird monster as he stands in a broken Batsignal. Jim Lee draws a Clayface movie variant, with Clayface at a movie premier deforming into clay, trying to push away a reporter. Lee also provides a foil virgin variant of his Rhetoric cover to highlight the backup story. Dan Quintana, doing a series of glow in the dark Halloween variants (surprisingly with no apparent surcharge) shows Batman with a bunch of glowing eyed bats flying from his spooky cape, seemingly in a crypt of some sort. David Aja (1 in 25 incentive variant) has Batman in a vine and pollen attacked alley, headed off to fight!
Final Thoughts
Fraction ties together some pretty decent lore, characterization, and action with guest artist Scalera to push Bad Seeds into the endgame.
Batman #14
DC Comics Reviewed by Ian MillerFinal Thoughts
Fraction ties together some pretty decent lore, characterization, and action with guest artist Scalera to push Bad Seeds into the endgame.
