In this review of Batman #158 Batman battles the Joker and investigates the reappearance of an old foe.
Batman #158 main cover by Jim Lee (DC Comics)
Batman #158
Written By: Jeph Loeb
Art and Main Cover: Jim Lee
Variant Covers: Jim Lee, J. Scott Campbell, Gabriele Dell’Otto, Dan Mora, Tony S. Daniel, Sean Murphy, Lee Bermejo, Simone Di Meo
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: March 26, 2025
This comic book review contains spoilers
The Story
Batman #158 finds the Joker on the loose again, repeating old tricks like poisoning Gotham’s reservoir and filling it with laughing fish. When the Joker kicks Batman into the lake, Batman activates his cowl’s electrifying failsafe to kill the deadly fish before Talia Al Ghul rescues him. Meanwhile, a hulking figure named “Silence” and none other than Hush himself kidnap the Joker. Hush tortures him by forcing a nightmarish dental device into his mouth, strapping him to a spinning wheel of death, and hurling knives at him like a circus performer—except every blade lands.
Back in the cave, Batman discovers that someone has compromised his suit’s circuitry and the Bat-family’s communication signal. He warns Nightwing and Batgirl (Barbara) before cutting contact. Using forensic traces from the Joker’s shoe, Batman tracks him to an old fairground—one longtime readers may recognize. There, he finds the Joker still tied to the wheel, surrounded by television screens projecting his past atrocities. Batman knows only one person could orchestrate this: his old childhood friend, Thomas Elliot.
Why THIS story?
The first comic I ever read was Batman #608. I was around six years old, and it completely captured my imagination, sparking a lifelong passion for the art form. I’m not alone—since its publication, the original Batman: Hush storyline has become one of the best-selling and most highly regarded Batman stories of all time. Yes, it has its detractors, especially in recent years, but no one can deny its impact on the industry or its ability to captivate thousands of young fans like myself.
Flash forward to last October, when DC announced that after 23 years, the original creative team of Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee would reunite for a direct sequel.
The response was… muted. Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee are comic book royalty, and any project from them should generate excitement. But why this story? Why now? Loeb has stayed busy with his recent Long Halloween revival, but as DC’s president and chief creative officer, Jim Lee hasn’t done interior Batman work in years. The last notable example I can recall is a backup story in Detective Comics #1000, and before that, All-Star Batman in the mid-2000s. It’s been a long road to this moment, so I hoped they had a story worth telling—not just a marketing ploy to slap big names on a cover and coast on nostalgia.
It’s odd that a Hush sequel beginning in Batman #158 would bring them back together, considering how self-contained the original felt—and how many sequels (Heart of Hush, for one) have already followed it. But despite my reservations, I wanted to keep an open mind. These are some of my favorite creators, after all.
Analysis
Like Batman #608, Batman #158 mostly teases what’s to come. Hush is back to playing mind games, using the Joker as his pawn. Right away, I get the sense this is aimed at new or old-returning readers rather than monthly regulars. This is a Joker story, no different from countless others we’ve seen before, and Loeb and Lee cram in as much fan service as possible—though it’s all surface-level. We get the laughing fish, the Killing Joke fairgrounds, Jason Todd’s crowbar beating—all just empty nostalgia. It’s unclear how big a role the Joker will play in the wider story, but I hope he’s just a hook to lure readers in and not another excuse for DC’s tired “Why won’t Batman kill the Joker?” dialectic. Or whatever depraved absurdity they’ve used to prop the character up in recent years.
With the caveat that Lee’s work in the original Hush ranks in my top three favorite artist showcases in all of comics, I have to admit I’m disappointed by what we get in Batman #158. The Jim Lee of 2025 is very different from the Jim Lee of 2002. Back then, he was fresh off legendary runs on Chris Claremont’s X-Men and WildC.A.T.s, at the absolute peak of his craft. DC gave him an unprecedented offer to take on their flagship character with their top writer—his first major project for the company. If you haven’t revisited the original Hush in a while and think this new project looks the same, I urge you to flip through those old issues. What Lee accomplished in that 12-issue run was remarkable.
Now, Lee returns with nothing left to prove. He’s had major successes at every comic publisher, served as DC’s chief creative officer for seven years, and describes this return to Batman as an exercise to “see if [he] still has it.” If that’s the benchmark, then yes, he still has skill—especially considering his workload. This issue looks fine, but it doesn’t recapture the magic of Hush.
A side-by-side comparison makes the gap obvious. The original Hush endures not just because of Lee’s name or his X-Men-era cross-hatching, but because of its bold, cinematic execution—Scott Williams’ inks, Alex Sinclair’s colors, the page layouts, and even the sound effects elevated it to a level rarely seen in other comics. The lines were clean, the staging was dramatic.
Batman #158 sees Lee adopting a rougher, sketchier style, channeling Frank Miller more than Neal Adams. It’s not entirely new for him—he experimented with a bulkier, Miller-esque Batman in a pinup for Legends of the Dark Knight #50 back in the ‘90s. Whether or not you like this shift is subjective.
Even Batman’s “new” suit is just… the old Neal Adams one with the golden oval. Don’t get me wrong, I love that suit, but like DC’s “new” logo, it reflects the company’s current trend for it’s mainline publications: playing it safe. That sums up most of the choices in this issue—safe.
But regardless of what you think of his Batman, the iconic compositions of the original Hush are simply missing here. The action feels chaotic and disjointed, Sinclair overuses monochrome color, and Williams’ inks amplify the disorder. The whole thing looks rushed—and worst of all, uninspired.
At least Lee brought back the Bat-beard, so that’s something.
Final Thoughts
One of the most iconic teams in comics has returned, but this first issue doesn’t feel like a story either was burning to tell. It feels tired, like they’re going through the motions. Here’s hoping it’s just a slow start.
