Batman 47 review

Since Jim Gordon became Batman, there’s been a deadly menace in Gotham City. Mr. Bloom is creating some kind of seed that gives people strange superpowers. He’s basically turned himself into a horror movie villain. In the last issue, Batman tracked Mr. Bloom down into a warehouse, only to find his mechanical suit fighting against him. Things didn’t look too good at the end of Batman 46.

Batman 47 continues exactly where the previous issue left off. The fight ended up pretty intense, with Jim pulling off a few moves that would make the original Batman proud. He ends up disabling a bunch of the seeds and capturing Bloom, but since this all happened at the start of the issue, you know something goes wrong. Oh boy do things go wrong.

The Jim Gordon half of the story is great, and the other half of the comic is equally great. It focuses on Bruce Wayne’s continued journey of self-discovery. Even though he doesn’t remember being Batman, or any of his fighting abilities, he still retains his old self’s ability to solve riddles and mysteries. His ongoing struggle is strongly hinting that he may return to the cowl sometime soon. And of course the issue ends with him running into a surprise appearance that I won’t spoil.

The art by Greg Capullo is great as always. The opening fight scene flows well, capturing the intensity of the battle. You can almost feel some of the harder hits that Jim takes. The environmental detail is also impressive, whether it’s the warehouse full of debris, the dark subway tunnels during Bruce’s journey or the ending where everything goes wrong. The colouring by Fco Plascentia is also great. Although much of this issue takes place in a dark warehouse or equally dark scenes at night, it’s often bright and colourful, thanks to explosions and street lights of course.

What few reservations I had about Jim Gordon as Batman are now gone. It’s a great story, and although he’s clearly not Bruce Wayne, Jim is almost as capable behind the mask. Meanwhile, Bruce’s journey brings into question how long it’ll be before he returns to the role of Batman. I’m fine whether it happens by issue 50 or not until 60 or beyond. Batman fans should at least give this storyline a chance.

9.5/10