After Infinite Crisis and One Year Later, the goal for the two main Batman books was to bring on two giant names to pen the titles. The first is a name whose run you’re probably still reading with regularity. Maybe even starting with their collaboration on Arkham Asylum with Dave McKean and working your way through the years. Parts of Grant Morrison‘s run remain eminently re-readable and a permanent highlight of the Batman mythos.
The other big name is probably still more associated with his writing for animation and Batman: The Animated Series. Which, admittedly, is a great thing to be associated with since the cartoon is a high watermark in the industry. But his run on Detective Comics kind of fell in the shadow of Batman, despite really being no less entertaining. Especially as it began to cohere at the tail end of the run, when writer Paul Dini was joined by Dustin Nguyen.
And they brought back Hush. Again.
“I use just enough anesthetic to keep from screaming. I need the pain to keep my memories sharp.”
Batman: Heart of Hush by Dini, Nguyen, Derek Fridolfs, John Kalisz, and the lettering army of Travis Lanham, Steve Wands, John J. Hill and Jared K. Fletcher is probably more of what you’d expect from a sequel to the original Batman: Hush arc from Loeb & Lee. It’s a cold, calculated villain seeking revenge on Batman through striking at what and who he holds dear.
This Hush again has tightened his bandages, is wearing the “H” riff on the adult Robin costume, is dealing with highly medical practices, and elaborates on the backstory of Tommy Elliot’s childhood. Going deep into his issues with his mother and resentment that he felt towards Bruce Wayne. Utilizing elements of Bruce’s wider friendships and “weaknesses” to strike at his very heart. It’s a far cry from the unhinged gangster during Gotham Knights. In addition to revealing a hitherto unknown tie to another member of Batman’s rogues gallery.
Dustin Nguyen’s art is incredible here. With thick shadows and deeply inky pages aided by the finished lines from Derek Fridolfs, the art here is at a period where Nguyen’s work most reminded me of Phil Hester. Slightly angular figures, deeply expressive faces with just a few simple lines, and a preponderance of shadow, it’s wonderful work. John Kalisz balancing out the dark colour palette of the modern day sequences with singular colour washes, as a bit of a call back to Batman: Hush, for flashbacks here. Though not taking the same almost watercolour approach there.
And, despite having four letterers, almost one per issue, Travis Lanham, Steve Wands, John J. Hill, and Jared K. Fletcher keep a consistent approach to how this looks. While there’s sadly not a return to Hush’s whispered affectation from earlier, there is a fair amount of mixed-case narration boxes as Dini goes deep into Hush’s thought processes.
“He’s using innocents and enemies he knows I have defeated time and again. Testing me, wearing me down…”
While focusing on revenge and Tommy Elliot’s dark mirror to Bruce Wayne’s life, the arc also helped reveal further deeper connections between Batman and Catwoman. A love that was cut short by Batman’s apparent death in Final Crisis. Hush’s story didn’t end in Dini, Nguyen, Fridolfs, Kalisz, Lanham, Wands, Hill, and Fletcher’s Batman: Heart of Hush, though. While it may have been the end of their run on Detective Comics, and the end of Bruce Wayne at the time, the remaining threads, the creative team, and a new Batman, would return in a new ongoing series, Batman: Streets of Gotham.
Classic Comic Compendium: BATMAN – HEART OF HUSH
Batman: Heart of Hush
Writer: Paul Dini
Penciller: Dustin Nguyen
Inker: Derek Fridolfs
Colourist: John Kalisz
Letterers: Travis Lanham, Steve Wands, John J. Hill, & Jared K. Fletcher
Publisher: DC Comics
Release Date: July 10 – November 12 2008 (original issues)
Also available collected in Batman: Hush Saga Omnibus and the Batman by Paul Dini Omnibus
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