In Batman #153, it’s a fresh new day in Gotham City, one teeming with a score of new plots, a new vigilante, and a rising corporate giant in NygmaTech.
Batman #153 main cover by Jorge Jimenez. Image: DC Comics
Title: Batman #153 — “The Dying City” Part One
Writer: Chip Zdarsky
Artist: Jorge Jimenez
Colors: Tomeu Morey
Letters: Clayton Cowles
Cover: Jorge Jimenez
Variant Covers: Tony Harris, Jeremy Clark, David Nakayama, Marco Mastrazzo, Walt Simonson, Laura Martin, Daniel Sampere, Alejandro Sanchez, Kelley Jones & Jose Villarrubia
Release Date: October 2, 2024
This comic book review may contain spoilers
Batman #153 opens in an older area of Gotham City. A family is following a map down into a dark, dingy alleyway. Jorge Jimenez opens this book with the first panel looking down upon them from above, and in many ways, it feels like an homage to the opening of Batman 1989.
A man who looks an awful lot like a mugger stops the family. Rather than robbing or attacking them, this man tells them that the alley dead-ends, as it’s fenced off on the other side. Batman, looking down from above, is taken aback. James Gordon, who is enjoying a hot cup of coffee nearby, notes how it’s nice that Gotham City is so calm right now.
Through some expository dialogue, we learn that WayneTech has been rebuilding and improving Old Gotham. People are happier, and crime is down. Even Gordon is happier with his private investigator business, now that Harvey Bullock rejoined the GCPD. As the two talk, Batman looks up to the NygmaTech sign, glowing in the distance.
We jump to a news report that fills in the blanks since Batman #150. Edward Nygma has been exonerated after it was revealed to the public that he was experimented on in Blackgate by Daniel Captio (The Warden). He used his own cryptocurrency to start a tech business that has support from Bruce Wayne and part of WayneTech. Though Major Nakano isn’t keen on trusting Nygma, for some reason, Bruce is.
This feeds into Mayor Nakano at his office, where a visitor by the name of Leonid drops by. Through more dialogue, we learn that Leonid might be part of the Court of Owls and that he’s pressured Nakano to install Vandal Savage as commissioner and wants the mayor to embrace Nygma as well. The two bicker, with Leonid threatening to reveal some damning personal information about the mayor.
At NygmaTech Tower, Batman pays Riddler a visit. It seems everything we’ve learned is just a facade. Batman is wary of Nygma and his massive security company that sprung out of nowhere, and he reveals as such. The two exchange words, and the sequence is extremely Noir-inspired and moody. Jorge Jimenez crafts some beautiful paneling between the two, with exceptional colors by the ever-amazing Tomeu Morey. It’s a glorious display of neon greens and shadows, of a looming, dark Batman against a relaxed, lounging Riddler.
Back at the Nakano household, Koyuki drops a bombshell on the mayor. She’s going to leave him, no longer content with dealing with his coldness and anger after long days at the mayoral office.
Batman #153 variant cover by Walt Simonson. Image: DC Comics
At WayneTech the next day, one of the other investors tells Bruce that they can’t keep investing all this money in nonprofits, that it’s hurting the bottom line. We learn through their conversation that Bruce has been pushing a housing initiative among others, and that he has a reputation as a “commie” that is doling out “handouts to migrants.” If any of this reeks of the current political situation with the election coming up, this feels ever-so-present and wrapped up in the zeitgeist.
When Bruce leaves, we learn that this investor, named Rowan, is secretly working for The Riddler and is trying to push a merger between the two companies.
Meanwhile, a truck with some criminals is barreling down the streets in broad daylight, and a man garbed in American flags intercepts. Batman also joins the fray, stopping the vehicle. It’s then that this hero, Commander Star, pulls out a gun and fires. Batman’s about to stop Star when Commissioner Vandal Savage shows up and essentially deputizes Star. When Mayor Nakano shows up, who apparently was also nearby, he bickers with Savage. Nakano says they can’t have yet another vigilante running around. Savage agrees, then orders the GCPD to arrest Batman for “his many crimes.”
It’s a bright, colorful scene, with such kinetic action by Jimenez. The intensity of the art overwhelms the senses, but when you think about this moment for a second, it’s pretty silly, isn’t it?
Afterward, Bruce gets patched up at Dr. Leslie Thompkins, and on his way home, we get an inner monologue about how he wants to help this city but that it feels like Gotham is refusing him. When Bruce offers help to a homeless man, he’s called a commie. Elsewhere, Riddler tells a riddle that seems to imply a gun, right at the time that Christopher Nakano opens a door to his home to take two gunshots to the chest. It’s also at this moment that Rowan reveals that Bruce may have a “brother” who threatens his holdings of WayneTech shares.
The paneling, artistry, coloring, and lettering in these final few pages is on point, culminating and combining all of this silliness and exposition into an incredible murder and “smoking gun” mystery of Bruce Wayne’s brother(!?). It’s pulse-pounding, exciting, and makes readers instantly forgive the heavy-handed dialogue and overtly obvious theme of America during the 2024 election. After some weak plotting and stories in the latter half of Chip Zdarsky’s Batman of Zur-En-Arrh epic, it feels like he’s back. Batman is fresh, exciting, and something to look forward to again, and one can only hope this storyline continues to arc upward.
