In this review of Batman #162, Batman battles his own teammates and family.
Batman #162 main cover by Jim Lee (DC Comics)
BATMAN #162
Written by JEPH LOEB
Art and Main Cover: JIM LEE
Variant Covers: DAVID FINCH, GABRIELE DELL’OTTO, ESAD RIBIĆ, JIM LEE, GERALD PAREL, JAE LEE, CHRIS BACHALO
Page Count: 40 pages
Release Date: 11/12/25
This comic book review contains spoilers
Batman #162 picks up with Nightwing, Robin, Huntress, Red Hood, Riddler, Catwoman, and Batgirl all teaming up to take Batman down. Batman injects Batgirl with a sedative to occupy the team while he is pursued by Catwoman into a church. They briefly talk about their history together before Batman is captured by Damian and dragged along behind his motorcycle like a ragdoll. He fights Riddler and Red Hood before using the Batmobile to deploy explosives, dropping him down into the sewer system. There, he encounters none other than The Joker.
Analysis
Batman #162 features lazy writing from pretty much all angels right from the start. Batgirl is awkwardly standing with her back to Batman telling Nightwing to stand down because she can handle Batman on her own? This is supposed to be the same supergenius who spent two decades as Oracle and now she rejects help and sets herself up for sedation without so much as a fight. What a slap in the face to Barbara Gordon fans. Bruce knowingly associates this in his mind to what the Joker did to her in the Killing Joke and admits that Dick and Barbara may never forgive him but that didn’t stop it from being his first impulse.
The next scene is even better, as Catwoman says both her and Batman know she could kick his ass if she wanted to, which I don’t think any of us are buying. Then she says Barbara is the closest thing to a daughter Bruce will ever have which the internet has already derided for its blatant erasure of Cassandra Cain. Batman responds by saying “she started it!” which, setting aside its juvenility, I’m not even sure what he means. She started it by standing in front of him and telling Nightwing to stand down?
Jeff Loeb seems determined to depict this era of Batman as an overgrown petulant child, and while that may be a small element of his psyche, it’s so overplayed here that it just makes me wonder if he even likes the character anymore.
Batman gives absolutely no resistance with a remotely operated bird with a rope attached, binds him up and drags him behind Damian’s bike. I just don’t know how to make sense of this story when every single plot beat unravels with the slightest bit of thought. Forget the fact that Damian would almost certainly have killed Batman if there was any semblance of physical reality present in this story.
Riddler has one of the dumbest lines I think I’ve ever seen him say, and that’s saying something: “question, what time is it to expect the unexpected? Answer: Nygma time.” There is a convoluted confrontation between Red Hood and Huntress before another tired reveal of The Joker.
For all the issue’s faults, I do think this is the best Jim Lee’s art has looked since the beginning of this run. For one thing, there are a ton of fun easter eggs like his depiction of Brian Bolland’s shooting of Barbara Gordon, and the death of Robin’s parents, although I think that is literally just a Tim Sale panel repurposed. Batman turning his head to see Hush on the rooftop at the bottom of page 4 is a direct echo of the original Hush. The stained-glass church scene looks pretty good too although probably not as good as it could look.
I enjoy the way Scott Williams and Alex Sinclair use blacks with often obscuring parts of Batman’s costume giving him a kind of three-dimension depth (of the kind that’s lacking in the writing). However, I find that the colorful mix of tones in the Bat-family’s different costumes comes across a bit garish in how brightly they are depicted. Most of the modern costumes are far from each character’s best and moments like the issue’s first page just look a little goofy, especially Damien’s along with Catwoman’s absurd cleavage cutout.
Final Thoughts
Batman #162 is a pretty terrible issue, maybe bordering on ‘so bad it’s good.’ There’s so much to laugh at and meme here, and Lee’s art has a few highlights. Depending on what you want, you might want to pick up this issue just for morbid entertainment but I can’t recommend it on its merits.
