Batman #38
Writer: Tom King
Penciller/Inker: Travis Moore
Colorist: Giula Brusco
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Publisher: DC Comics
Review by Greg Brothers
It is an idea that we have seen before. A young child’s parents are murdered. Batman does what he feels he needs to do to comfort the young child. He allows Bruce Wayne to be the sounding board and the support that the child needs to make it through the day. Meanwhile, Batman heads out to gather evidence and solve the crime.
Throughout most of his run Tom King has taken the time to explore the more personal side of Batman/Bruce Wayne. Batman #38 is a story that reminds readers that Batman is considered one of the world’s greatest detectives. Panel after panel we see Batman looking at the evidence to solve the murder of the child’s parents. We see Bruce Wayne unable to sleep as his mind continues to run through the clues that he has uncovered. Each step seems to lead somewhere too obvious, and the body count is starting to add up. It is not until the end that everything comes together to reveal the true villain.
The brilliance of Batman #38 really shines through in the art: the panels that counterbalance each other as Bruce comforts the child, all while remembering his own trauma; the subtleness of the colors; the light surrounding Bruce Wayne, versus the dark that fills the panels of death and evil. It takes a particularly good artist to make traditional panel work seem compelling. And, that is exactly what we get in Batman #38. Particularly evocative are the nine-panel pages where the child is meeting with Bruce Wayne. The thing is we never see Bruce in those panels, only the child looking to Bruce for answers. This leaves it open to the reader to determine how Bruce is reacting to the child’s grieving, and that is important in keeping the mystery of the killer alive.
Verdict:
Buy it. Batman #38 is the polar opposite of the two-part double date arc that just finished. It is that ability to shift from a light feel-good story to a dark and gritty murder that shows how brilliant of a writer Tom King is. The layers, the characters, the small minute details all make this a must-read comic right now. Batman #38 is a one-shot that serves as a buffer, to shift away from the last few arcs. That makes this a perfect jumping on point for new readers or people who may have dropped off early in the series.
