Batman # 159 Hush 2

 By Mark Rodriguez

Batman's old enemy Hush has returned. He captured the Joker and tortured him to near death, leaving Batman in a position where he could easily just walk away and leave his oldest foe to die. What will he do? 

"Hush 2 Chapter 2 The Rook" opens with Bruce flashing back to that fateful night in Park Row, which was renamed to Crime Alley. Batman drives along the Batmobile with a half-dead Joker next to him. He's not sure what bothers him more, the decision he made or that Hush made it for him. As he recalls the death of his parents, he comments that it wasn't Alfred that first found him, but a woman that didn't even know him. She was Leslie Thompkins, who heard the gunshots and took in the lost boy. Every year they would visit Crime Alley together on the anniversary of his parents' deaths. Not many people knew Bruce's secrets the way she did.

Batman brings the Joker in to see Leslie, telling her he has a low pulse and is barely breathing. Leslie says she not set up for this sort of thing and he could die from her own inadequacies. Batman says he knows. She asks why he brought him here when he needs a fully staffed ER. Batman says she was closer. Leslie says he didn't want to be seen in public with him.

Batman narrates that he didn't want to chance that Hush wanted him to be seen in public with the Joker, so he had to find a place that was unexpected. Batman shows Leslie what was done to the Joker and says she will need to use all of her power and all of her skills. Batman ponders that Leslie saving him as a boy has now led this to her doorstep.

Leslie looks at Joker's condition and doesn't know where to begin. Batman begins to wonder if it was a mistake bringing him to her, and tells her to do her best. Joker starts to wake up and Leslie asks if he has any 'bat-gas' in his utility belt. Batman says in his state, the gas might kill him so he injects him with something that will put him in a coma. Leslie tells Batman to take a seat as she gets to work.

Bruce has a nightmare where Joker was the one that gunned down his parents. He promised to rid the city of evil. Leslie wakes Batman up, and he asks if the Joker is dead.

Leslie says whatever Batman gave the Joker let him live long enough so that she could save his life. She has Joker needs to be taken to a real hospital as his jaw is wired shut. Batman says he isn't welcome anywhere. Leslie suggests Arkham, and Batman says in his condition he'd be killed. Leslie says that leaves one option. Batman ponders that he had saved Joker's life, just the way Elliot wanted him to.

Batman takes the Joker to the Bat Cave. This is the last thing he would have wanted but he sees this as an opportunity to study him. He wonder what makes Joker the way he is.

Batman tells the Joker that he could have just dumped in the bay, or found a furnace, or an open grave. Or he could have just left him to die. He says he won't do what Hush wants. He thinks this is a game, but they are at war and Batman says that he won't be the one to lose.

Batman studies the Joker, narrating that he once thought he just used face paint like a clown. The Joker also seems to have no fingerprints or toe prints. He wonders who would care if he did just disappear. Suddenly a gun is pointed to the back of Batman's head. 

Batman asks how the man got in the cave. The gunman says he knows how Batman thinks, and he'd never put himself in a locked room without and exit, which serves as an entrance for him. Batman says if he knows him so well, he knows his cowl is reinforced, so his gun will jam, ricochet or explode. The man aims his gun at the Joker, saying he's not bulletproof. Batman shoves the man's arm out of the way as he shoots, which causes a power grid failure.

The grid will reboot in less than 20 seconds, as Batman fights the gunman in the dark. His voice is muffled so Batman can't tell if this is the real one, and Tommy has played this trick before. Batman makes the man drop one of his gusn and then he does the unexpected. Batman grabs the gun and shoots towards the man's mask. The power comes back on as Batman and Red Hood both have guns up to each others' throats. 

Jason tells Bruce he knew that he had to make sure. Jason knows that Clayface once impersonated him as part of Tommy Elliot's mind games, similar to the current evening. He tells Bruce to drop the gun since he knows he will never shoot, while he would. He says he will finish what he came to do. Bruce asks him if he's been talking to Tommy. Jason tells Bruce to drop the gun.

Bruce says that Jason isn't mad at the Joker, he's only the blunt instrument being used. Jason smacks Batman around with his gun, saying he can still feel how the Joker's crowbar was cracking his skull. Batman tackles Jason up against the Batmobile and tells him to take it out on him since he know he feels that he got him killed.

Batman says he feels the same way. Jason was his Robin but he was also young and shouldn't have been put in harm's way. It was his job to protect him. Jason asks how he would have saved the Joker's life and smacks him with his gun, knocking him out.

Elsewhere in the Gotham Clock Tower, where Batgirl works as Oracle and lives as Barbara Gordon, she is talking to Nightwing. Nightwing asks how 'he' got in the Clock Tower and Batgirl says she let him in. She says he's a lot smarter than many people give him credit for. She says if what he says is true, then they can only trust each other now. Nightwing asks the man why he would be helping them. The Riddler says they don't know Hush the way he does. He says that Dick, Babs and even Bruce are going to need all the help they can get. 

Batman comes to, wondering how long he's been knocked out. Jason is gone, as is the Joker and the Batmobile. Batman ponders that Jason said he came to finish what he came for. It wasn't to kill the Joker. Jason is working with Hush.

 

My thoughts- 

So this one went pretty quick, mostly because most of the second half of the comic were ads, alternate covers, interviews and those single or double-page spreads. There are also preview pages for an upcoming Batgirl series and an upcoming Superman Summer series, where apparently Lois Lane has similar powers as her husband. I don't know guys, maybe save all the interviews and stuff as exclusives for the trade paperbacks down the line.

It was cool to see Leslie again. At first I thought her comforting Bruce the night his parents were killed was more comic retcon stuff, but after doing some research I see that is how she was first introduced in Detective comics # 457 back in 1976. Leslie is still looking alright a good 49 years later.

 

 

So this issue raises a whole lot of questions... The Riddler knows who Bruce, Babs and Dick are? Also, what is with this slightly beefier more serious bad-ass look all of a sudden? I guess nobody reads anybody's notes anymore since the Riddler was in the very last story arc before this one and he was still his same old dorky self, except he owned a security company. Exactly how many months or so passed between 'The Dying City' and 'Hush 2'?

The weirdest thing in this issue was BATMAN GRABBING AND FIRING OFF A GUN? I thought Batman's whole deal was to be completely averse to guns. Not counting the super early stuff where the Batman we know today is better established, I think one of the few times Batman held a gun was when he used against Darkseid. That was some super sci-fi space gun and wasn't necessarily going to kill Darkseid the way a regular gun would kill a person. This is a regular gun, and while obviously not aiming to kill, I'm surprised Batman still open fired. Then he's holding the gun up to Jason's throat???? What is even Batman anymore??

The Joker is pretty much a means to an end in this one... since of course the Joker just has to somehow be involved in any major Batman story nowadays. It's like the one joke, whenever the Joker isn't in the scene, someone has to ask 'where's the Joker?'. I mean, yeah, we all love the Joker, but the dude is being seriously overused, even in stories where he's not the main villain.

I'm not sure exactly what Hush's deal is with the Joker. So he nearly killed him, knowing that this will push Batman's hand to save him, and thus leaving him with the fact that he saved the Joker's life on the back of his mind. But now Jason kidnapped him for some reason? I hope they don't make this entire story about the lengths Batman is willing to go to save the Joker. He already did so this issue and we already know that he will. 

One thing that just hit me was Batman reminded the readers that Jason was killed by the Joker but brought back to life by Talia Al Ghul, who just so happened to be in the previous issue. It sounds like we haven't seen the last of her during this story arc, so how will she factor into whatever Jason and Hush are up to? Guess we'll find out next issue, but already the story is getting pretty weird. I'm kinda concerned it's not gonna be the good kind of weird.