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Batman (2018) # 52

By Mark Rodriguez

Bruce Wayne is serving jury duty on a case involving Mr. Freeze and some murdered women. Even thought Freeze confessed, it looks like he only said that to stop Batman from beating him within an inch of his life. The jury votes to declare Mr. Freeze Guilty, but Bruce Wayne holds them up saying he finds him Not Guilty.


One of the jurors discusses three main facts, the victims were found with their brains at a lower temperature, this caused both Batman and the police to pursue Mr. Freeze who was wearing his suit at the time, and Freeze confessed to experimenting on those women. The jurors want to go home and want Bruce to change his vote. Bruce says he agrees with the facts but not the context behind them. If they can discuss the facts and can't determine the context within an hour, he will change his vote to match theirs.

Looking back at the evidence, they review that the three women were killed through cold, and Freeze is someone with that ability. The police at first didn't disclose this until Batman checked all three women and found that similarity. That coupled with the fact that the women are all the around the age of Freeze's wife made Batman begin his hunt.

Bruce asks why Batman was able to catch the clue when the police couldn't and one of the jurors says it's because Batman is better. Bruce asks what if maybe the women died of natural causes but someone altered their body temperature sometime between the time the police inspected the women and Batman inspected them. Bruce screams why did Gordon miss that clue and Batman didn't as he slams his fist on the table.


Bruce says maybe they should ignore the presumption of Batman's supercompetence and factor in that both the coroner and Gordon are good at what they do and didn't find anything in the women because it wasn't there at the time, and Batman found it because it was later on. One of the jurors says it might be time for a break.

The jury discusses that Mr. Freeze was told by an associate he won't name that Batman was coming for him, which is why he suited up and rebuilt the freeze gun, which violates his parole, and also left his house while he was under house arrest. Bruce says a guilty man runs and an innocent man would have stayed to talk to Batman. Then he asks the jury if anyone's ever 'talked to Batman' and Mr. Freeze knows him.

Bruce explains Freeze has fought with Batman dozens of time and all of his plots have always ended in a fight. If Freeze knew Batman was coming for him, he'd know it was for another fight and not just to talk.


One of the jurors tells Batman that one of his sons would get in fights with other boys, and one day the boys were getting too violent. His son got a gun, but he made him turn it in to the police. The police said 'This is Gotham, keep the gun.'

One of the jurors says she knows Bruce will say that Freeze confessed to stop the beating from Batman, but he never changed his story. Freeze continued to say he did it to the police, days afterwards, without Batman around to threaten him. Bruce tells them the night that his parents died when he was ten, and how that fear never left him no matter what joys his life might have brought him. He thinks with the savage beating Batman gave Mr. Freeze, he was left too afraid to change his story afterwards. He says his confession doesn't mean anything.

One of the jurors says she gets Bruce's theory, but it only works in one way. Batman didn't try to find out why he found evidence that the police didn't, he just thought with his fists. Bruce's statements are saying that Batman was wrong, incompetent and out of control. She says if Bruce wants her to agree with him, he'll have to prove that. Bruce says he can prove it.

As Bruce was talking with the jury, we see scenes of Batman and Freeze's fight, ending with Mr. Freeze defeated and Batman on his knees, his fists soaked in blood.



My opinions

This was an interesting issue and we see how people in the jury view Batman and Gotham overall. I'm surprised Bruce wasn't called out for being as good as a detective as Batman for raising his theories. I mean, is Bruce having these amazing deduction skills something he wants the outside world to know? Plus, how far can he go without looking like some crazed Mr. Freeze supporter? I mean we know Bruce seeks justice no matter what, but to the outside eye, it does look like he's trying too hard to prove Freeze's innocence. Especially with him slamming his fists onto the table and whatnot.

So basically someone else got to the dead bodies before Batman could get to them for his investigation. Naturally Batman missed that since his mind was still distraught with Catwoman leaving him at the altar. We can only assume it was the mystery person that warned Freeze that Batman was coming for him. I mean, how else would this person know?

It was hard to describe the scenes of Batman fighting Freeze while also discussing the jury conversation, but I did like the overlay of both things as Bruce thinks back to that night. I also liked the lines like 'it's Gotham, keep the gun' which reminds us of just what kind of hellhole Gotham is at times. I can only assume it can't be that bad all the time or no one would live there. The action is pretty good, thought the art seems to falter at time at the character faces.

Bruce's face here is kinda odd and really ages him badly
I'll be reading next issue soon because I'm curious just how far Bruce can go to prove his point without revealing that he's Batman. I mean, he has no way of knowing as Bruce Wayne, that Catwoman broke Batman's heart after all.

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