31 December 2014

Revisting Batman Hush

I first read Batman Hush in 2002/3 when it first came out as a twelve issue story arc in the monthly Batman comic. I am not a great reader of DC comics but this was something of a relaunch by the then, and now, superstar combination of writer Jeph Loeb and penciler Jim Lee.

Hush lived up to expectations and has been a best selling graphic novel ever since.

Unexpectedly it was a conversation on Rolls Royce cars in the pub that led me return to it and a ridiculous digital price of £2.99 that made me buy it there and then.

That same ease of purchasing has recently tempted me to buy old collected editions of things like Swamp Thing, American Flagg, Dreadstar, Dan Dare and Federal Bureau of Physics. More on these late as and when I get around to reading them (don't hold your breath).

I'm not sure how we got on to Rolls Royces but we did and tales were told of driving them, getting lifts in them and famous people we had seen in them. That led me to repeat the story I had been told of Ben Kingsley apparently deciding which Rolls to take his children to school in according to the colour of the suite he was wearing that day, e.g. brown suit meant the brown Rolls. On reflection, if you have to make a choice like that then using what you are wearing to make it seems sensible, it is just not a problem that many of us face.

And that led me to think of Batman Hush.



Here we see Batman and Robin in Batman #615 (part 8) about to go after The Riddler who had just stolen an armoured car with $11 million in it. Obviously they need the Batmobile.



Then Batman reminds Robin that they have a whole host of Batmobiles to choose from. And in doing so, Loeb and Lee produced a simple explanation for why the Batmobile keeps changing in each new incarnation of Batman in comics, tv and film; it's not THE Batmoible, it's A Batmobile.

The simple idea shows why Loeb is a good, if inconsistent, writer and the double-page spread shows why Lee is such a good artist for superhero comics.

Having bought Batman Hush (again) to illustrate a point about Rolls Royce cars, I'll now have to read it (again), which is a bonus!

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