A Sense of Doubt blog post #3785 - Review of Batman #159 - Hush2
Hello, Welcome to Comic Book Sunday for June 29th.
- Batman #161 by Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee delayed, now releasing July 23 instead of June 25 from DC Comics
https://comicbookroundup.com/comic-books/reviews/dc-comics/batman-(2016)
the issue:
here it is again -
I had high hopes for Hush 2 as I enjoyed the original Hush, which I re-read to prepare to enjoy the new series.
I also engaged in a little history and shared a popularity poll showing Batman as the #1 favorite hero in comics, though polls vary, and another had Spider-Man number one instead.
Then I reviewed the comic.
In issue #158, Batman is investigating a crime in progress by Joker's henchmen to dump Joker-ized piranha in the city reservoir. Inexplicably, the Joker manages to come out of hiding (from an open truck) and cold clock Batman with a crow bar, such that Batman falls into the water and is attacked by the Joker-grinning piranha. While the fish eat Batman as he drowns, the Joker is captured by a giant, bare-foot warrior that we later learn is called the Silence and is working with Hush. Batman is rescued by Talia Al Ghul because her son's father cannot be allowed to die. Cut to gratuitous torture of the Joker by Hush. Cut back to the Bat Cave as Batman repairs his new suit and so must don an older one with the yellow logo. Batman then tracks the Joker to an abandoned circus and finds him near death but with Hush's calling card so the Bat knows who he is dealing with.
Issue #159 picks up from that final scene after a brief memory as he takes the Joker to his old friend (and doctor) Leslie Thompkins in Park Row (also known as Crime Alley, where his parents were killed). Though Thompkins believes that the Joker is beyond her abilities, Batman is adamant that she save him as Batman does not kill or allow others to die because of his inaction. Thompkins saves the Joker's life but cannot provide the kind of hospital care he needs, and so, because Batman believes that the Joker would not survive anywhere else, he takes him to the Bat Cave. Soon after, Jason Todd, former Robin, now known as Red Hood shows up and fights Batman. Jason is enraged that Batman saved the Joker's life given that the Joker killed Jason (who was then later resurrected in a Lazarus Pit). For the second comic in a row, Batman is uncharacteristically and too easily knocked out, this time by Jason. Cut to Nightwing and Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) who are reluctantly partnering with a revised, muscle-pumped Riddler because of his ability to predict Hush's actions. Back in the Bat Cave, Batman wakes up to find the Joker gone, a confirmation that Jason is working with Hush.
Can you say "contrivance"?
Two of the three lowest ratings are from the same two who gave the lowest scores for the last issue: Comic Book Revolution (this time a 5.5 compared to last issue's 4.5) , and Batman News who holds at a 4/10 for both issues. However, Batman News who gave issue #158 a 7/10 drops to a 3/10 for this issue, and I can't help but agree.
Below, three poor reviews and the conclusion of a good one, which is pure nonesense.
Watch for my review of issue #160, which is already out, soon.
Thanks for tuning in.
Jason Todd/Red Robin/Red Hood resources
https://community.cbr.com/threads/jason-todd-red-hood-appreciation-2024.169988/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Todd
https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Jason_Todd_(Prime_Earth)
https://batman.fandom.com/wiki/Jason_Todd
http://moa.omnimulti.com/Jason_Todd
https://bleedingcool.com/comics/jason-todd-kill-joker-batman-big-bad-h2sh/#google_vignette
Batman
#159 review
By Jackson Luken April
23, 2025
In the original Hush story, Jason Todd, the second Robin who had been murdered by the Joker, “came back from the dead” only to turn out to actually be Clayface the entire time. When writer Judd Winick read that scene, he decided that it was too good of an idea to pass up and started working on a story that would bring him back for real. That’s what led to the 2005 story Batman: Under the Hood. He would even retcon it so that the “Jason” that Batman fought in Hush actually was the real Jason, but switched with Clayface at the last minute. However, this story seems to retcon that retcon, as Batman mentions how the “Jason” he fought in Hush wasn’t actually him.
In Under the Hood, Jason Todd returns from the dead as the eponymous “Red Hood”. He then takes over Gotham’s underworld thanks to the training he received from Batman but without any of the hesitation for killing. Part of this was to prove he could do what Batman never could, but far more importantly it built up to a confrontation where Jason admonishes Batman for never killing Joker after what happened to him. The story’s climax involves Jason trying and failing to force Batman to finally kill the Joker in an ultimatum. It’s an emotional scene, but seemingly not one Jason has been able to move on from.
The reason I bring up this little history lesson is because Batman #159 goes to great lengths to try and recreate that scene all over again. Batman already has Joker in custody, but that’s not enough to try and match the drama of the first time he and Jason fought over him. No, for that Batman needs to be trying to save his life.
This setup is something that’s happened a few times in Batman comics before, and it’s almost always a huge eyeroll. Yes, Batman has his no-killing rule that’s baked firmly into the character, but it’s always such a huge stretch to go from that to “I must save Joker at all costs”. I’m not saying that he should get away with a Batman Begins-style situation where he clearly sets someone up to die and intentionally does nothing, but why is Joker getting special treatment? I don’t exactly see Batman making sure that every single Gothamite’s medical bills are fully paid to handle any procedures they might need.
Most of the time when writers need a “wouldn’t it be crazy if Batman had to save Joker’s life?” scenario, they at least come up with a justification like Joker being the only one with the code to stop a bomb or something. None of that happens here. As far as I can tell, he just feels that letting Joker die would be playing into what Hush wants. Sorry, but that doesn’t feel like enough of a reason to go to these lengths. After a brief stop at Leslie Thompkins’ clinic so that she can get her own brief introduction and character recap, Bruce takes Joker to his cave. That’s when Jason shows up.
All of this setup is just so that Jason and Bruce can have the same argument they’ve been having since he came back from the dead. “Why won’t you kill him? Don’t you know what he did to me? Crowbar!” It’s honestly tiring. Worse than running in circles, this is actually a regression for Jason. I have plenty of problems with the way his character has been handled over the past couple of decades, but at least there was something. He mostly moved on from directly fighting Batman and became a mostly-ally who even shows up to help with bat family adventures. In fact he literally just did that in the most recent issue of Detective Comics. Now we’re completely back to square one so that this story can continue its “playing the greatest hits” approach.
There is of course one way this improves on the original Red Hood confrontation: it realizes that it would be sick as Hell if Batman fought with guns. That’s right, folks; after all the belabored anguishing over Batman’s strict adherence to his personal code, he gets to break this one as a treat. His no-killing rule is so inviolable that he will go to the ends of the Earth to save Joker’s life specifically, but he’ll start shooting at Jason if it gives him the advantage of being “unanticipated”. I guess as long as he’s not going for a kill shot it’s fine. This moment really takes the melodrama to the absurd.
Do you know what the best part is? After all that yelling and shooting over whether Bruce should have killed Joker when he had the chance, Jason doesn’t kill him when he has the chance. He eventually runs off with the Joker after knocking Batman out by cold-cocking him with the butt of a gun (never mind the fact that Batman had just explained that his cowl is armored so this shouldn’t work) and Batman says Jason wasn’t here to kill Joker but to help Hush. If that’s true, then what was any of this for? Why are you even fighting? You can’t get mad at Bruce for not killing Joker and then do the exact same thing because you’re working as part of Hush’s master plan for the second time (or possibly first depending on how much of that first time was retconned).
So long as you can ignore everything that’s actually happening, Jim Lee’s art is still impressive to look at. If last issue fell short of big, spectacular splash pages, this one certainly makes up for it. You’ve never seen Jason yelling at Bruce drawn so well. In fact there are a number of pages that are reminiscent of pages from the first Hush (though at times maybe a little too reminiscent). There is, however, one major exception.
We get our first look at the Riddler in this story as part of a teaser for a subplot involving Dick and Barbara, and it’s a strong contender for the worst outfit he’s ever worn. Lee seems to have fully embraced his 90s roots with leather, military-style jacket and boots, a question mark tattoo over his eye, studded metal knuckles, and plenty of unnecessary straps and pouches everywhere. On a character more oriented towards brawns rather than brains this might work, but this is the Riddler we’re talking about.
Recommended If
- You never tire of Batman and Jason fighting
- Batman should value Joker’s life over all else
- You think Batman and Jason should shoot at each other over Joker
Overall
Batman #159 is a rehash of every argument Batman and Jason have had over the past twenty years in the worst way. It would be exhausting enough if it were just the same conflict as always, but this is actually a major regression of their relationship to recreate its status quo from when Jason was first resurrected. In order to get to that point, it requires everyone involved to act in absurd ways so that every ounce of melodrama can be squeezed from them. What results is a story that will only upset fans of the characters.
Score: 3/10
Batman #159
Written By: Jeph Loeb
Art and Main Cover: Jim Lee
Variant Covers: ANDY KUBERT, GABRIELE DELL’OTTO, JULIAN TOTINO TEDESCO, JIM LEE, JOE QUINONES, MICHAEL CHO, SIMONE BIANCHI
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: April 23, 2025
This comic book review contains spoilers.
Batman #159 opens with Batman rushing the Joker to Leslie Thompkins’ Park Row Clinic for emergency care. Batman injects him with a serum to induce a medical coma, and Leslie stitches him up but says he’ll still require round-the-clock care. Bruce takes him back to the Batcave to monitor him and study his brain signatures, but he is ambushed by his former partner and rival, Red Hood, AKA Jason Todd. Jason attempts to kill the Joker and knocks Bruce out. When he finally comes to, his car and the Joker are both missing.
Meanwhile, the Riddler meets with Barbara Gordon and Dick Grayson at the Gotham Clock Tower and offers to help take down Hush.
Analysis
Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee continue their Hush revival with Batman #159, an issue as simplistic as it is confusing. In the years since the original Hush storyline, there have been several status-quo-altering changes that Loeb now has to reckon with, since this story takes place in the mainline DC continuity. Most notably, the resurrection of Jason Todd and the subsequent decades of development between him and Batman. His way of handling this is to mostly ignore everything that has happened since the original 2002 storyline.
Batman talks about Jason Todd as if he has barely interacted with him since Clayface impersonated him in the original Hush over 20 years ago. He says, “Tommy has brought out this piece on the board before. This feels different. This time my attacker moves exactly like the real one would… I thought we had made amends.” It’s a truly bizarre way to have Bruce talk about his surrogate son, with whom he’s maintained a tumultuous but complex relationship over the past few decades. It’s as if Jason’s only relevance to Bruce is through his connection to Thomas Elliot, a character he has barely crossed paths with in recent years.
Even more bizarre is the way Jason talks about the Clayface impersonation incident as if it just happened: “I know all about how Clayface impersonated me. Games you played with Tommy Elliot. Like tonight.” I don’t have the slightest idea what he’s talking about here. For those who don’t remember, Jason worked directly with Hush and Clayface to mess with Batman in the original Hush story, which is clarified in Batman Annual #25.
We don’t know precisely why Jason wants to kill Batman and the Joker yet (besides the obvious), but does this feel familiar to anyone else? Loeb has regressed Bruce and Jason’s character development back twenty years to retell parts of Batman lore that have already been successfully digested by the comic-reading public. We know everyone liked the end of Under the Hood when Batman tried to stop Jason from killing the Joker, so why don’t we just do that again? The climax of this issue is a beat-for-beat retread of Batman #650, which DC has done so many times now. Not only that, but it ignores the hundreds of stories told between these characters in the years since. Can Jeph Loeb really be doing something so transparent?
The original Hush felt like a blockbuster movie that brought in all the elements of Batman’s world: his past, his relationships, his love life, his identity. It paid off decades of storytelling and was full of huge elaborate set pieces like the opera house and the Daily Planet. So far, this is to that what those straight-to-video Disney sequels from the ’90s were to the classic originals: a handful of the same elements inside a cheap, hollow replica of what made the original special.
I could go on about how Batman is taking the Hippocratic oath with the Joker to absurd and obscene levels, but I would risk sounding as repetitive as DC. Instead, I think I’ll just ask what’s going on with the Riddler. If you’ll remember, at the end of the last arc he weighed maybe 120 lbs soaking wet, and now he looks like Dave Bautista. Clearly, Jeph Loeb doesn’t care about continuity — he’s ignoring most of the last 20 years of comics. I know Jim Lee has always been really excited about continuing the mainline Batman book from 1940, but it really is pointless if you have no connection or awareness of its current iteration. This would’ve made much more sense as a standalone non-canon sequel to the original story.
Jim Lee shows a slight improvement from last month with a few cool panels of a grizzled, chin-stubbed Batman. Although perceptive readers will notice his now self-aware tendency to obscure the character’s feet whenever possible is back. The angles are still awkward, and the character poses are robotic. Little attention is given to the subtle character intricacies that set his best work apart. The focus is on the full-page splashes like Batman in the ‘Thinker’ position on page 10 or Batman and Jason pressing guns to each other’s heads near the end. The connecting panels offer no more than what’s necessary to get to the big stuff. This is early-’90s Jim Lee, for better or worse.
Scott Williams’ inking in Batman #159 is anything but precise, playing into the looseness of Jim Lee’s more-is-more style of linework. Alex Sinclair’s coloring does this issue no favors, with the brief flashback panels being a notable exception. We see a very brief reprise of the wonderful watercolor flashbacks from the original Hush storyline with a depiction of the moment Leslie Thompkins came across a recently orphaned Bruce Wayne. They’re not Jim Lee’s best drawings, but they still provide a nice reprieve from the issue’s incessant and largely nonsensical action. Ditto the red, black, and white dream sequence of the Joker killing the Waynes.
But these moments aside, I found the color choices for Leslie’s clinic and the Batcave relied on cold, washed-out shades that gave off a pedestrian malaise. It’s as if the Joker’s pale skin permeates entire pages with whites, light greens, and greys. Even the unmotivated red backgrounds during the Batman/Red Hood fight at least provided some much-needed contrast to amp up the stakes.
Final Thoughts
Batman #159 remains a disappointing and confusing follow-up to the original 2002 storyline. The characters are reduced to their most primitive iterations, and even the art is unexceptional.
4.0/10https://www.comicbookrevolution.com/batman-159-hush-2-review/
FINAL THOUGHTS
Batman #159 leans too much on telling yet another chapter in the never-ending Batman and Joker narrative. This leads to easily forgetting that this is supposed to be part of the sequel to Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee’s Hush story. The only thing that saves this second chapter from being a complete dud is the development involving Nightwing, Oracle, and Riddler. That and Jim Lee’s high-quality artwork. But even then, that is not enough to save this from being a disappointing second chapter to the Hush sequel, aka H2sh.
Story Rating: 3 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 5.5 Night Girls out of 10
https://butwhytho.net/2025/04/batman-issue-159-review-joker/
Batman Issue 159 opens old wounds and tries to heal new ones. Loeb explores Batman’s morality to its most extreme limit, placing him in charge of keeping the Joker alive. It’s not just saving the clown’s life; he has to protect and monitor him in case his condition worsens. The mesmerizing idea demonstrates how unshakeable Bruce Wayne’s beliefs are. It doesn’t matter who you are, he will try to save you. The execution of that concept is phenomenal, and the consequences are gut-wrenching and eye-opening.
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- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 2506.29 - 10:10
- Days ago: MOM = 3650 days ago & DAD = 304 days ago
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