In Batman #155, Batman investigates the murder of Mayor Nakano at the hands of Jim Gordon.
Batman #155 main cover by Jorge Jimenez & Tomeu Morey. Image: DC Comics
Batman #155
“The Dying City” Part Three
Writer: Chip Zdarsky
Artist: Jorge Fornes
Colors: Tomeu Morey
Letters: Clayton Cowles
Cover: Jorge Jimenez & Tomeu Morey
Variant Covers: Tony Harris, Jeremy Clark, Jonboy Meyers, Bjorn Barends & Nimit Malavia
Release Date: December 4, 2024
This comic book review may contain spoilers
Batman #155 opens thirteen weeks prior to the ending of Batman #154, which saw the reveal of Jim Gordon as a homewrecker who seemingly had an affair with the mayor’s wife, Koyuki Nakano. Gordon shuffles into the office of his private detective firm with Harvey Bullock, dripping with sweat. Gordon is tired, defeated, and feeling the burn of too much work with little payoff. Bullock tells him he has a new case, someone who asked specifically for him.
We transition to a diner booth where Koyuki Nakano is going over what Gordon found on her husband. Though she suspected cheating, it’s the opposite. Mayor Christopher Nakano is working too hard, and that cold, lifeless husk that Koyuki is living with is the result of being burnt out. Gordon knows from personal experience, as he expresses to her, taking her hand as she sobs.
For those who read the Arkham Tower saga in Detective Comics way back, Koyuki mentions her deep depression, wherein she was institutionalized for a while in the new Arkham that found itself under the grip of Psycho-Pirate.
Jorge Fornes takes over art duties in this issue, and for this opening, it’s a perfect transition point. It’s slow, moody, and drenched with that detective atmosphere that Batman fans crave. The Gordon we see here, as well as the style and tone cascaded by Fornes and colorist Tomeu Morey, is reminiscent of Batman: Year One.
Time leaps forward five weeks, and we see Koyuki and Gordon walking through a park together, sipping hot coffee. They’re friendly now, discussing their children and sharing about their lives. Koyuki encourages Gordon to leave the private eye work behind, as it’s making him miserable, but he laments that the only job for him is commissioner. The mayor, apparently, won’t return Gordon’s calls, to which Koyuki notes that they’re both being iced out.
Just then, armed men come to snatch Mrs. Nakano away, but Gordon leaps to action, firing at one of them. This scene ends with Gordon and Koyuki cradling each other beneath the rain.
Here, the creative team is gently easing us into Gordon and Mrs. Nakano’s relationship, using the classic tropes of a dreary, rainy cityscape and noir-ish undertones. Morey’s colors are muted, and with the rain, evoke the feel of a Bogart film or maybe something more contemporary like Taxi Driver. One can almost hear that sleepy, grim Bernard Herrmann saxophone score.
A week later, and Mayor Nakano is looking over photos of Koyuki with Gordon. A week after that, Gordon and Koyuki are in bed together. Gordon is bitter about the mayor appointing Vandal Savage as commissioner while Koyuki dreams of her, Jim, and her son moving away to Metropolis.
Time passes still, and it’s now three nights ago. Gordon arrives to check on Koyuki at her home, but she’s gone. It’s just Christopher Nakano there, and he confronts Jim. The two argue with the mayor threatening to take their son away from Koyuki if she runs off with Jim. A heated argument turns fatal as Chris throws a punch, and Jim reacts with his gun.
As Jim aims to fire, all goes dark, and we’re in the interrogation room at the GCPD in the present day. The paneling throughout all of these time jumps have kept that gritty, moody pacing. What unfolds before readers’ eyes, artistically, is a work of beauty. It’s a haunting tale of passion reminiscent of classic suspense and romance comics. The art and the coloring lulls readers into believing that Gordon would fall this hard for Koyuki, that he would pull his gun on the mayor.
But does it make sense? That’s the lingering question.
Batman #155 variant cover by Jonboy Meyers. Image: DC Comics
At the station, Harvey Bullock goes over the facts with Jim, who tells him that he aimed but did not fire. Jim asks Bullock to pass a message to the Batman, to let the Dark Knight know that someone else pulled the trigger.
On the rooftops of the GCPD, Batman tells Bullock that he believes Jim and that he’s going to prove it. In keeping with the theme, the depiction of Batman is closer to an early incarnation. It’s reminiscent of Batman: Year One, but it’s also close to the look and feel of Batman in those old serials from the 1940s. Gone is the modern, armored Batman and back is the masked detective, dashing off into the night.
The next day, Bruce Wayne awakens from a nightmare of his father in bed with another woman and of Jim Gordon, drenched in blood. He tries to see this supposed “half brother,” but Leonid Kull stops him. Elsewhere, Edward Nygma tells Rowan, his insider at Wayne Enterprises, that he intends to scoop up Bruce’s shares that are about to hit the market in order to pay for this new claim to the Wayne throne. When Rowan presses what’s going to happen to her, Nygma tells her that she’s being forced into early retirement.
Back at the GCPD, Batman confronts Gordon with all the evidence he found. Indeed, Gordon killed Nakano and cleaned up the crime scene, but there was something weird about Jim’s glasses. After a brief analysis, Batman deduces that Mad Hatter is involved somehow and his trademark mind control technology is being used.
Just then, the alarms go off, and armed officers gang up on Batman. The Dark Knight fights for his life as he pieces together that NygmaTech is actually NygmaTetch. Riddler has to sign his work, and this is how he did it. It’s a reveal that undermines the moody tone of this issue, one that feels more in line with the Joel Schumacher films, but overall, this issue is better than the previous two.
It’s less obsessed with juggling a bunch of subplots and more focused on the one, primary subplot here — Gordon’s alleged murder of Mayor Nakano. And that’s a good thing. Hopefully Chip Zdarsky can keep the pacing and focus as he weaves this back into his story that involves the Court of Owls, Riddler, a supposed half-brother, a new vigilante named Commander Star, and now the Mad Hatter.
