Comic Book Autopsy: The Gotham War

May 2024 · 3 minute read

Batman had a rough time in 2023. With Chip Zdarsky at the helm, Batman has encountered an AI he created . He has discovered an alternate personality, been sent to an alternate universe, encountered an alternate version of the Joker, lost his hand and then journeyed through countless alternate realities only to return home and have his body hijacked by Deadman during a massive crossover event that send DC characters into their own nightmares.

Having fallen into an eight week coma after Deadman hijacked his body, Batman wakes up to a changed Gotham. Crime is down and Gotham’s criminally insane villains are having trouble finding good help. While that appears to a be a good change, it is quickly revealed that statistics cannot be trusted.

Batman quickly discovers that Catwoman has taken a new approach to Batman’s war on crime. Violent crime is down because Catwoman has trained all the Gotham henchmen to be thieves. As a result, all the criminals are stealing from the rich and avoiding violence.

Batman isn’t happy, arguing crime is crime. Other members of the Batfamily aren’t so concerned. When Catwoman calls a Batfamily meeting in the first part (The Gotham War: Battle Lines), different members of the Batfamily start taking sides. It’s an interesting setup that promises some interesting Batfamily conflict.  

The standout issue of the whole story has to be Batman #137 (part two). Everything from the gorgeous cover by Jimenez through to the surprise ending works well and makes for a good issue. This issue does deliver on the promise of Batfamily conflict.

Unfortunately, after part two, most of the other parts are either running in place or repeating what’s already happened. Batman #138 provides more Batfamily fighting, but it feels like a repeat of Batman #137.

There are a couple of betrayals and the story contains Professor Pyg, Mad Hatter, Scarecrow, Firefly, Two-Face, Black Mask, and Ventriloquist. What an impressive collection of villains you might say…unfortunately they are all window dressing and do very little (hopefully we’ll see at least a couple of these take centre stage for a couple of Batman stories in the near future).

Gotham War Reading Order:

The final part of the story makes a good attempt to raise the stakes and add danger, but it moves away from the Batman and Catwoman conflict and removes most of the other members of the Batfamily.

Ultimately, the Gotham War appears to have been more focused on setting up for the new directions of Batman and  Catwoman comics and establishing the presence of a supervillain in Gotham (and to a lesser extent the new Red Hood comic). The story contains some admirable attempts to bring together various storylines (like Batman and Catwoman’s relationship, Batman and Red Hood’s relationship and the after effects of the Knight Terrors event).

Different reviewers have taken shots at the inconsistent art and the inconsistent storylines, but for this reviewer, the biggest problem with the Gotham War story is the title ends up feeling like clickbait. Looking back on the whole story, there isn’t a great deal of war. Nothing in comparison to Tom King’s War of Jokes and Riddles or James Tynion IV’s Joker War.

If, at the end of reading a storyline, we feel like we didn’t get a bare minimum of what we were promised in the title and advertising, we are never going to feel great about the story.

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