It’s too bad that Streets of Gotham will be discontinued this spring, but at least with the current story arc, House of Hush, it looks like the series may go out with a bang. When Paul Dini writes for this series, it’s been great and so far this Hush story has been no different.
The Bedbug’s Bite opens with Bruce checking out a large gathering of people in Gotham and discovers that they are all sleepwalking under the control of Bedbug, just how Harley Quinn was last issue. These people are walking around subconsciously in their pajamas (including one naked guy) and looting the stores. In the crowd of people we see Penguin stealing a cash register in penguin pajamas and an old school nightcap, and Batman can’t help but take a picture with his phone. Batman fixes the problem easily and then pursues Bedbug. At first it everything seems under control and that another B-list villain is simply getting his ticket to Arkham or Blackgate, but Bedbug has some tricks up his sleeve and slips away.
Now the important part of the story is Hush continuing to learn about the Wayne’s and alongside the ailing Mr. Pierce, makes plans to take down Bruce. We get all of about two and a half pages of this. Nothing new is really given until the last panel where Dr. Death is thrown into the mix, though it is not apparent whether he will help them or get in their way.
Now first let me say that this chapter to Heart of Hush was ridiculously short. It was to the point that I felt a little cheated, especially since I paid $3.99. Of course the reason for the price is the co-feature about Ragman, which was roughly twice as long as the main title. Besides that, what little story we got in those few pages was very good. The inclusion of the Penguin in the mob was very funny, and the fact that Batman pulled out his cell phone to take a picture only made it better. Nguyen’s art was very good as usual and the story flowed well and read very easily. This one left me wanting more (I really felt that way this month), which to me is the ultimate measure of a comic. I’m very interested in what Dini has planned for the imminent clash between Bruce and Tommy, as well as how the smaller pieces will fit into the big picture.
Although there is not much wrong with this issue, it’s still hard to get a good feel on it. It touched on every aspect of the story, but ultimately there was little to no progress from the end of last issue to the end of this one. Obviously this was because there was so little story to work with. Overall this one was very good, but the length is a big knock against it. Even though I believe that quality is more important than quantity, the line has to be drawn somewhere. It will probably take you longer to read this review than to read the comic.
Batman: Streets of Gotham #18:
Reviewed by RiddleMeThis
