Overview: In Batman: City of Madness #2, Batman learns the truth about Gotham Below while the Batman Below attempts to create his own Robin.
Title: Batman: City of Madness #2
Writer, Artist & Colorist: Christian Ward
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
Main Cover: Christian Ward
Variant Covers: Tula Lotay, Bill Sienkiewicz
Release Date: December 12th, 2023
This comic book review contains spoilers.
The middle issue of this miniseries picks up right after the events of Batman: City of Madness #1. Batman (Bruce Wayne) has been having a busier night than usual and responds to a Batsignal call at the Pink Palace. The establishment appears to be run by the Flamingo, but the reason Batman is there is for Arnold Wesker. During the ensuing fight, we get some backstory on Ward’s version of Wesker. His vision for the character’s origins are equally creative and dark. It’s hard not to feel a little sympathy for Wesker, and I think having the reader connect with the villain in some way and on some level, is what makes for a good Batman villain. It’s also hard to not draw comparisons between Wesker’s dark childhood and the mentor figures that helped him process his trauma versus Bruce’s childhood and the mentor figures he had around him to guide him through that turbulent period. To add to this sympathetic portrait, Wesker is ultimately able to turn against Scarface and smash him on the ground. As he is being led away, he alludes to the flashback we saw earlier and comes across as someone who could have been a better person if he got help early on. Again, this is the perfect characterization for a Batman villain.
Elsewhere, Two-Face is meditating in his cell and comes into some psychic contact with the third voice in his head who belongs to a version of Two-Face from the Gotham Below. The colors on the page of Harvey Dent’s accident are incredible. Gotham Below is a twisted reflection of Gotham City where the Batman Below originates from. I’m not sure how I feel about the concept of Gotham Below. It’s exact nature (whether it is an actual physical place in the same dimension located beneath Gotham or if it is some dark world in a different dimension that can only be accessed through a portal) can be interpreted either way. My preference would be the latter, but in any case, the concept has been done quite a bit recently in Scott Snyder’s Dark Multiverse and other places. By the end of this series, I think we will have a better idea on how this version differentiates itself from previous versions of the concept.
As the Talon takes Batman to meet with the Court of the Owls, the Batman Below brings Jevoney to his base with the intention of making him Robin. Speaking of Robin, Nightwing (Dick Grayson) makes his first appearance in the story by crashing into Alfred Pennyworth’s study barely conscious after a brutal fight with Clayface. Alfred is able to patch him up and mentions that Gotham seems more unstable. Bruce seems darker as well. Dick responds by wondering how much of this is due to them putting on masks and “encouraging” this type of madness. This question is a great theme to bring up in this story, however I do wish the execution here was a bit different. The way Dick brings it up feels very sudden and more like telling versus showing. On the other hand, the aforementioned Wesker origin flashback and a page later on in the book comparing Batman Below’s relationship to Jevoney with Batman’s relationship to Dick are great examples of showing versus telling.
Batman: City of Madness #2 variant cover by Tula Lotay
Batman meets with Lord Strigidae and the Court of Owls, and Strigidae reveals the existence of the Gotham Below to Bruce. Batman Below is trying to convince Jevoney to give into his dark impulses and kill a man who looks like someone who may kill someone’s father. This is, of course, a dark inversion of Bruce’s mission to stop what happened to him as a child from happening to anyone else. Lord Strigidae explains that the barrier between the worlds has been broken, and he needs Batman to fix it. Batman Below has taken Jevoney to Gotham Below and this threatens to upset the balance and engulf Gotham in the nightmares of the other world. Two-Face learns of all this through his psychic-dream connection with his counterpart from Gotham Below and relays it to Nightwing when Nightwing comes to talk to him in Arkham. Dick calls Batman to transfer the information. It’s a bit convenient that he’s finally able to reach him at this moment when Batman is further underground that ever before and Dick couldn’t reach him before. But what follows is perhaps my favorite page in the whole issue. We see Batman having a moment of self-reflection and potentially even doubt as he thinks about his role in creating Robin, and Ward contrasts it with Wesker’s origin story. That one image says so much about Batman’s relationship with Dick, his mission in Gotham, the nature of the villains, and the cycle of violence. It also says that Bruce still isn’t able to process or communicate his thoughts and emotions because he is unable to tell Dick how he feels. Batman and Talon go through the portal to Gotham Below as Lord Strigidae discusses a backup plan to bury Gotham Below if Batman fails.
I have mentioned a few things regarding the art already, but I want to reiterate what I said in my first review, Ward continues to be one of the best artists in the business. His use of color, particularly in the second half of the issue, is absolutely incredible. I feel most comics artists stay within a particular range of colors for any given issue, but Ward’s range is extremely varied all while still keeping consistent color themes for particular locations. The colors related to Gotham Below also tend to be more chaotic and less consistent, which fits thematically with that place.
This issue pushes the story forward effectively and plays with some interesting themes about the nature of Gotham City, the psychology of Batman villains, and the relationship Batman has with his city and allies. I do wish this series was a bit longer because it also feels like there are a lot of characters and themes on the table that aren’t going to be explored as much as I would like.
Editor’s Note: DC Comics provided TBU with an advanced copy of this comic for review purposes. You can find this comic and help support TBU in the process by pre-ordering this issue digitally on Amazon or a physical copy of the title through Things From Another World.
