Batman Hush
This is just the general run by of Hush, issue by issue.

Batman: Hush
written by Jeph Loeb
Art by Jim Lee

Batman 608
Hush Chapter 1: The Ransom


Recap: Basic story is that a boy from a rich family was kidnaped by Killer Croc. He asked for a ransom, and everyone wanted to pay it, but Batman. So they lured Croc away with the money in a briefcase, while Batman ripped through his underlings and freed the kid. Then Croc appeared and fought Batman, who of course won. While the fight was going on, Catwoman stole the money, and Batman chased her down. However, his batline was cut, and he fell down into the streets of Gotham, leaving Catwoman to give the money to the true mastermind behind all this, Poison Ivy.

My thoughts: Why does Batman need all this computer crap in his cowl? Wouldn’t that be awfully heavy? I prefer my Batman with a small amount of equipment, not a computer on his head. This issue read more like Dark Knight Returns than I’d like.

Batman 609
Hush Chapter 2: The Friend

And in this issue, Huntress has to rescue Batman, who is badly hurt. She succeeds in doing so and gets him in the Batmobile. He goes off to the Batcave, where Alfred works on trying to heal him, but the damage is far beyond his abilities. Batman, using Morse Code, recommends a character I’ve never heard of before, Thomas Elliot, who is a doctor. Gee, isn’t that convenient? Tommy rescues him, and we get a glimpse of the mysterious character known as Hush.

In short, I made my guess that Thomas Elliot was the main villain of the arc. We’ll see how right I am later. Oh, and they misused the word “irony” in this story. That bothers me badly.

Batman 610
Hush Chapter 3: The Beast

Tommy’s dad died in a car wreck when Bruce’s dad couldn’t save him, after Bruce promised Tommy that his dad would be fine. And suddenly, we have a reason for him to dislike Bruce and want to go through all this trouble to kill him. Also, Batman finds out that Catwoman was not responsible for her actions, and that Croc wanted the money to get himself fixed up. Amanda Waller shows up, yadda yadda yadda, someone blows the tire off the Batmobile... and then Batman and Catwoman kiss.

Note, that last bit is disorganized just a hair, but that’s basically the entire issue. The story is progressing nicely, but there is still no major swerve here, and I really doubt there will be.

Batman 611
Hush Chapter 4: The City

This issue showed Bruce’s earlier adventure in Metropolis with Tommy. It was decent groundwork. Batman and Catwoman tracks down Poison Ivy, and just when it looks like they were going to take her down, Ivy unveils her new champion, Superman! Next issue, Batman vs. Superman!

Very cool things in this issue? Batman believes that Gordon knows his true ID and that Perry White knows Superman’s. This is easily the best issue of the bunch. We’ll see how it goes from here.

Batman 612
Hush Chapter 5: The Battle

I love these chapters, simplicity at it’s finest. Batman wins the battle, but only because Catwoman kidnaps Lois Lane and almost kills her. Superman and Batman works out an interesting idea to track down Ivy, they use Krypto the Superdog to find her. At the end of the issue, they are no closer to knowing who is behind this than they were at the start.

I find it interesting that Batman wins in the short term, but he knows that Superman would win in the long term. It sounds right to me, and it can keep both sides of the fight happy.

Batman 613
Hush Chapter 6: The Opera

Batman, Tommy, and Selina are at the opera. Harley Quin interrupts it for an armed robbery. Hijinks ensue. She mentions that she has a part to play and wants to kill Batman even if it goes against the book. She leaves after hurting Catwoman, and Batman chases after her. There is a gun shot, and Tommy lays in the alley with a bullet hole, the Joker above him.

Another decent issue.

Next issue: the Joker and Batman, duh.

Batman 614
Hush Chapter 7: The Joke

This is a simple issue of Batman trying to decide if he should kill the Joker. For the Joker’s part, he claims that he is innocent of killing Tommy, but Batman doesn’t seem to care. Neither Harley Quinn or Catwoman can stop him, and just before he’s about to kill the Joker, Jim Gordon appears and convinces Batman to not kill the Joker. Gordon promised that if Batman kills the Joker, than Gordon will hunt Batman down himself.

At the end, the masked figure flips a two headed dollar coin that is disfigured on one side. “He is innocent. Get the joke?”

So the masked man seems to be Two-Face. This issue was the best of the bunch thus far.

Batman 615
Hush Chapter 8: The Dead

Riddler has been left out from being bettered. Not that I’ve really seen anyone be bettered in this book, villain wise, but Riddler wasn’t at all. Makes me think that he has a much bigger role to play. Two Face is fixed, apparently, and knows that the Joker is innocent and has gotten him off. The big issue here is that the Lazarus Pit has been mentioned and that means that Ra’s Al Ghul is coming in soon.

Big issue this time, Bruce revealed who he was to Selina, who wasn’t that surprised.

This issue has been a major step down from others.

Batman 616
Hush Chapter 9: The Assassins

Batman kidnaps Talia from a Lexcorp jet to lure out Ra’s. When he finds Ra’s, they have a fight and Ra’s drops a major clue. “Who in your life would want to come back to life.” Maybe Tommy isn’t as dead as one would think?

Also on the undercard, Catwoman fights Lady Shiva and loses, big time.

This issue is a lot of “Eh”

Batman 617
Hush: Chapter 10: The Grave.

In this issue, Robin and Catwoman have a bit of a skirmish, but the real fight is between the Huntress and Catwoman. Turns out, Huntress betrayed Batman, but no one is certain who too. When Scarecrow shows up, Batman beats him. Scarecrow remarks that Batman’s mind must be under the influence of someone else. Suddenly, Robin is shown being a hostage of Hush, who takes off his mask to reveal that he’s Jason Todd.

It’s not really Jason Todd, he doesn’t come back until he’s the Red Hood, but that’s another bad story. This story was okay at best.

Batman 618
Hush Chapter 11: The Game

This is a basic battle between “Jason Todd” and Batman. At the end of the fight, Jason turns out to be made out of clay. And that brings about Clayface into the game. We do find out who betrayed Batman, and that was Harold, the man who helped make all the computers in the Batcave. Before Harold could tell who it was that he gave the information to, Hush kills him. Next issue, Hush vs. Batman.

This issue was bad.

Batman 619
Hush Chapter 12: The End

Aptly named, no? We find out that Hush really is Tommy Elliot (that was not hard to see) and that he was mad that Bruce’s dad saved Tommy’s mom. He wanted the money from the inheritance. Harvey Dent and Gordon show up to help Batman, and Harvey shoots Hush. Harvey reveals that he was the one who shot the fake Tommy. Superman finds that Batman has a homing beacon in his head, and melts it.

And the big person behind all this? The Riddler! He discovered who Batman was, and worked with the rest of the Rogues to get after him. However, he couldn’t tell anyone that he knew, because then the riddle was worthless. And just to reset the status quo, Catwoman and Batman end their relationship....

In short, this didn’t do much other than reveal that the Riddler and Catwoman knows who Batman is. This entire arc is rated a 6 out of 10.


Tommorow, depending on my papers, the GLA mini series from Marvel.

Let me know what ya'll think.