Green Lanterns #16 Review
When we last left Simon and Jessica, the Green Lanterns of planet Earth, they were having a touching moment, and also pancakes. However, pancakes are unfortunately going to have to wait as Batman contacted the Lanterns on the Justice League Frequency requesting their assistance in Gotham.
We open with Simon and Jessica flying to Gotham with some nice narration from Simon about how he’s seen other planets, the vastness of space and even the realm of the dead, and yet none of that could ever be quite as intimidating as Gotham city.
Elsewhere, a man is going crazy trying to kill his friend and possibly himself as it’s “the only way to keep them both safe.” The man is clearly terrified, even more so once Batman shows up. Evidentally, Batman is exactly what the man is so frightened of and he attacks him on sight. Batman doesn’t want to hurt the man, but he’s clearly beyond reason. That’s when the Lantern shows up and incapacitate the man long enough for the cops to show up.
According to Commissioner Gordon, there have been multiple cases of Gotham citizens behaving in such of manner, occurring up to twelve times an evening at the same time. There’s no connection between the victims other than the fact that they were all reportedly acting terrified of Batman. Simon, doesn’t exactly blame the victims, as, well… Batman is kinda scary. Simon also suggests that maybe it’s the Scarecrow, you know, that guy who lives in Gotham and specializes in inducing fear in his victims. Batman and Gordon, very condescendingly I might add, that they’ve already ruled out the Scarecorw as A. there’s no way he can be in twelve places at once and B. no traces of anything resembling Scarecrow’s fear chemicals were found in the victims systems. Batman believes that this is the work of the Sinestro Corps, hence why he called the Green Lanterns in the first place. Simon and Jessica shoot down that theory because A. their rings have the ability to detect the yellow energy used by the Sinestro Corps and right now their now getting any readings and B. the Sinestro Corps rarely if ever does things on such a small scale. If the yellow lanterns were behind this, there would have been an all out attack by this point. Batman completely dismisses this well thought out and logical argument by saying remind Simon that “I’m the detective around here.”
That’s when Bats and Gordon spot the gun at Simon’s hip. To remind you all, Simon carries a gun because he’s a pragmatist who doesn’t want to be left defenseless if his ring ever loses charge. Batman absolutely hates guns and would never use or allow his allies to use them under any circumstances, despite what Dawn of Justice would have you believe. Batman’s stance on guns is understandable given his history. However, what’s not understandable is the argument that follows. We’ll go into it in detail at the end, but suffice to say, this argument about Simon’s gun amounts to nothing and doesn’t really do Batman or Simon’s characters any favors.
Jessica, thankfully serving as the voice of reason here, is reminded of a series of viral videos that depict Batman as someone the citizens of Gotham should be afraid of. Once Jessica pulls up the video, the rings start going off, alerting the lanterns to the presence of yellow energy.
Back at the Batcave, our heroes are studying the viral video searching for any king of hidden subliminal messages or the like. Alfred catches a glimpse of the video and attacks Simon immediately. Having been caught off guard, Alfred takes Simon’s guns and threatens to pull the trigger if they try to prevent him from killing the bat.
Our comic ends with the reveal of the true mastermind behind all this chaos, The Scarecrow. But that’s impossible, it can’t be The Scarecrow the “detective around here” said so. What Works:
I actually really liked Simon’s narration at the beginning. I’m a sucker for any time a comic tries to sell to you the mystique and terror of Gotham City, and the fact that Simon, who has been plenty of terrifying places by this point, is still greatly intimidated by the city works great to that effect.
What Doesn’t: Okay, little things out of the way first. I didn’t like that they made the interior of Batman’s cape purple. I don’t mind it when they do this for Stephanie Brown’s Batgirl or other characters with a similar aesthetic as that was how they were designed and it makes them look distinct. However, when Batman does it, it just looks tacky and distracting. I don’t especially like this one scene where Jessica encourages Batman to be more like The Flash so people will be less afraid of him. I get where Jessica is coming from here, but what she doesn’t realize is that Batman’s MO is using fear as a tool just as he would a batarang or a grappling gun. He’s not trying to make friends, he’s trying to serve as a symbol that his enemies should fear.
And now, on to the meat and potatoes. Batman and Simon are both assholes in this comic. Let’s break it down shall we. First, I want to make it clear that I actually like that Simon carries a gun. It makes sense from both a practical and character standpoint and it has in fact come in hand many times for Simon in the past. I also very much appreciate why Batman isn’t okay with it as his parents were killed by a guy with a gun, but this entire argument between the two is completely idiotic. First, Simon and Jessica are members of the Justice league whom we saw the two fighting alongside in the previous issue, including Batman mind you. It’s safe to assume that they’ve been working together for at least several months by this point, and you mean to tell me that the world’s greatest detective didn’t notice until just now that Simon carries a gun? Second, there’s Simon getting very unreasonable when asked to get rid of his gun. Gordon, an officer of the law, sais that without a carry permit from the Gotham registrars office, Simon cannot carry a gun. That’s, actually a fair point, and if Simon complied, this whole asinine argument may have been avoided, but no, Simon has to throw a tantrum like a four year old who just got his toy taken away. The worst part of this is when Simon refers to the gun as “his robin.” First of all, dude, Jessica is standing right there. I know that Jessica is more like Simon’s equal partner in this venture rather than a sidekick, but she’s still closer to being his Robin than an inanimate piece of metal. All I could think of was a image of a protestor I saw on the internet holding up a sign that read “I dream one day women will one day have the same rights as guns.” Apparently not if Simon Baz has anything to say about it they won’t. Then, Simon brings up the argument that Batman has a car that shoots missles, flamethrowers and all other manner of unpleasant and potentially lethal devices he keeps in that belt so it really doesn’t make sense for him to be getting all worked up over a gun. Not an invalid point, so then, here’s a compromise. Simon gives up the gun, at least until he leaves Gotham, and in the meantime, Batman lets Simon borrow one of the numerous nasty weapons he keeps in the Batcave for the duration of this crossover. But instead of proposing such a reasonable solution to the problem, we get Simon and Batman yelling at each other like stubborn children, which brings me to my final point, the fact that Batman is an insufferable jackass in this comic. Simon and Jessica present perfectly logical reasons as to why the Sinestro Corps cannot be behind this attack, and Batman, so sure of his detective skills, which I’ll remind you lead him to the undeniable conclusion that The Scarecrow couldn’t possibly be behind these attacks even though he totally was, that even when presented with facts from people with more hands on experience with power rings and the Sinestro Corps than himself, refuses to accept the possibility that his hypothesis might be wrong. Seriously, somebody give this man a job with working for the Trump administration. Even worse, when Jessica reveals the viral video, Batman seems almost offended by the idea that Jessica may actually watch them, and even later makes a sarcastic comment about it like a petulant internet-troll. It is only by virtue of the distinct lack of prostitutes on display that I am assured that this comic wasn’t written by Frank Miller, because this sort of behavior borders on that of Batman’s “All-Star Batman and Robin” counterpart.
Overall: 1/5
I was really looking forward to this comic, as Batman and Green Lanterns have been the two titles from DC rebirth that I’ve enjoyed most consistently, but whatever excitement I had was gone faster than the audience after Joel Schumacher’s Batman & Robin five pages in. This is character assassination on a huge scale, and sadly, two of my favorite characters get the brunt of it. It’s especially jarring after the excellent issue 15 which we covered last month. It’s possible that this arc may turn itself around, and if that’s the case, maybe pick up the trade, but for now, avoid this garbage, save for the purposes of review.