In this review of Batman #160 Batman crosses paths with more familiar faces from his past as he tries to unravel a new mystery.
Batman #160 main cover by Jim Lee (DC Comics)
Batman #160
Written By: Jeph Loeb
Art and Main Cover: Jim Lee
Variant Covers: Frank Quitely, Lee Bermejo, Gabriele Dell’Otto, David Nakayama, Ben Oliver, Inhyuk Lee
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: May 28, 2025
This comic book review contains spoilers
Batman #160 opens with Batman reviewing the footage of his fight with Jason in his makeshift hideout. He confirms that Jason is working with Tommy Elliot AKA Hush. Hush tells his accomplice that they need proof that Batman tried to save the Joker’s life over Jason’s. He also indicates that he’s the only one that can help Jason’s brain injury. Bruce sees that Hush left a scalpel made out of Damascus steel, the same kind Bruce’s father used. A flashback reveals that Bruce once asked his father to make Tommy a war game set out of Damascus steel but he was killed before it could happen.
Meanwhile, James Gordon comes home to find a tablet showing Batman attempting to save the Joker from Hush’s deathtrap. When Gordon tries to shut it off, it explodes. At the Gotham Clock Tower, Riddler tells Nightwing and Batgirl (Barbara) that Hush is after them. Nightwing’s first impulse is to find Jason but Riddler stops him. Batgirl leaves to check on her dad.
At the Gotham City Lighthouse, Nightwing finds Jason and the Joker and tries to reason with him. Jason tells Nightwing that Hush is the only one who can save him. In the midst of the fighting, Joker wakes up and points a gun at both of them. Finally, Batman goes to the Gotham Med Tower in search of the origin of Hush’s scalpel and he finds a woman who introduces herself as “Armori.” She reveals that she has been surgically enhanced and attacks him. He is hit with a hypersonic pitch and the hulking figure of Silence. Then, Damian Wayne busts in with Bane moments before Hush is able to get the Damascus scalpel to Damian’s throat.
Analysis
This is such a messy story. Jeph Loeb has fallen victim to cherry picking a handful of the most well known Batman stories of the past forty years, namely: Death in the Family, Hush, Under the Red Hood, and Batman and Son, and ignoring everything else. I hate that Loeb and Lee’s long awaited return as collaborators is for another post-modernist breakdown of Batman’s no-kill-code and his relationship with the Joker. I think Loeb is trying to push the “exploration” to its extreme by having Hush point out the hypocrisy that fans have been pointing out for years, but that doesn’t make it enjoyable reading. It just feels like more regurgitated plotlines from a guy who has only read a grab bag of Batman comics from the past decades.
If this version of Hush truly ends up being Tommy Elliot, then he’s been stripped of all the nuance and complexity he had in the original Loeb and even Dini runs. He’s essentially Jigsaw with a surgeon theme. Call him “the Scalpeler” or “the Surgeon,” remove the murder, and he’d fit right in in the Silver Age.
In the original Hush, each new character introduction was cinematic and carried weight. By the time this issue was over and Bane made his first appearance, it is treated like an afterthought. Even Lee’s art avoids any fan fair or emphasis, it’s just more paint on the wall.
There’s a mysterious hint that one of the characters in this story is operating in “two places at once.” Riddler says this in the Clock Tower with Nightwing and Batgirl, and then Hush says it again at the very end. It seems like Riddler could be referring to Hush or Jason, but it could possibly mean Batman or just be a red herring altogether.
I think this is Jim Lee’s strongest issue on Hush 2 yet. Jim Lee and Scott Williams’ lush black and white flashbacks make a comeback here for half a page and it looks gorgeous. I wish the whole comic looked like that, but narratively, there’s nothing in it that couldn’t have been conveyed in a thought bubble. Lee also seems to be getting his groove back with some of the action. I love the opening splash page with Batman on the bike, as well as the Gordon scene, and Batman’s fight with Silence.
Final Thoughts
H2SH continues to be a disappointing followup to the original story from a narrative standpoint. However, this issue does have some decent art and the MacFarlane homage on the cover is fun.
