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When we pick up with Batman #135, Batman is zipping through the multiverse chasing a man named Halliday who discovered that in other timelines he became a fearless, untouchable killer called the Joker. (And if you missed the last edition, read this.)īatman #135 Image: Chip Zdarsky, Mike Hawthorne, Jorge Jimenez, Mikel Janín/DC Comics It’s part society pages of superhero lives, part reading recommendations, part “look at this cool art.” There may be some spoilers. Welcome to Monday Funnies, Polygon’s weekly list of the books that our comics editor enjoyed this past week. What else is happening in the pages of our favorite comics? We’ll tell you. Then it also fortifies a battered and bent Batman in the climax of a story arc and underscores that, deep down, the Batman of every universe is here to help.Īnd then it does something that only a comic book montage of Batman film, video game, and Elseworlds stories can do: interrogate the reason why so many damn Batman adaptations kill the Joker. The book’s multiverse sizzle reel tickles your nostalgia and makes your pulse race. But in Chip Zdarsky, Mike Hawthorne, Jorge Jimenez, and Mikel Janín’s Batman #135, the world-breaking actually tells the story. The first multiverse montages felt new and surprising, but like any trend, it’s devolved a bit into a rote brand exercise. Reactions range from “Look at all the actors they rehired!” to “Those guys look like guys I remember but different! Wow!” We’re not going to spend any real time with these characters, they’re just here to tickle the nostalgia of a clued-in audience. They might not literally be sizzle reels, but they have that effect - a view of an infinite multiverse that is really just there for the cool factor. Let’s be honest: Expect at least one in this summer’s multiverse-shattering The Flash. It seems like they’re everywhere in superhero adaptations these days, from the CW’s Crisis on Infinite Earths to HBO Max’s Titans, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness to Spider-Man: No Way Home. When I got to the page of Batman #135, in which Michael Keaton’s Batman from the 1989 movie pops up, I thought to myself, “Ah, they’re doing one of those.” You know, one of those multiverse sizzle reels.
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