On the next Major Spoilers Podcast, the crew dives deep into DC’s Hush.
From DC (referring to the Absolute Edition)
Hush
Written by Jeph Loeb; Art and cover by Jim Lee and Scott WilliamsThe complete 12-part saga written by Jeph Loeb (SUPERMAN/BATMAN, Smallville) with art by fan-favorites Jim Lee & Scott Williams (SUPERMAN, Uncanny X-Men) collected together for the first time in the oversized Absolute format!
This slipcased edition includes BATMAN #608-619 as well as the the 2-page origin of Batman (originally seen only on dccomics.com) and the special story from Wizard: The Comics Magazine. The year-long “Hush” — an epic tale of friendship, trust, and betrayal that spans a lifetime — reinvigorated the Dark Knight, pitting him against the deadliest members of his Rogue’s Gallery and introducing his newest foe!
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9 Comments
i think Hush was the first batman comic i read when i came back to comics around those years. and what a come back. i’m not a fan of jim lee, but the story is so good that i didn’t care about the art. after that i read a few batman stories written by jeff loeb, which were better than this one, but as a first, this was great.
I found Hush thoroughly overrated. It had an unheard of amount of hype, and is still one of Loeb’s better works (although, with Ultimates 3 and Superman/Batman on his resume, that isn’t saying much). I felt that the “bad guys are doing different things” concept was forced and unconvincing – the differences in modus operandi for Harley and Croc were subtle enough that I didn’t even notice a difference until the purple narration pointed it out. Generally, if a writer has to explicitly point out that something is “different,” that usually means that the idea is not as cool as the author thinks.
Hush should be enjoyed as a good mystery – because for all the hype, it still has that going for it. It definitely read better on an issue-by-issue basis. Aside from that, it’s one of those stories that tries so hard to be the “best ever” that it collapses under the sheer weight of its fan pandering. Plus, the resolution to the Batman/Catwoman romance at the very end felt like a kick in the nuts that instantly took the characters back to square one – a pet peeve of mine.
Gorgeous Jim Lee art, though.
When he first appeared he was the perfect anti-Batman, or rather the perfect anti-Bruce Wayne. He was clever, patient, methodical and charismatic. He used his own “death” to push Batman almost to the point of killing the Joker. In the 12 issues every member of the Bat-family get’s a role and most villains as well and somehow it never seemed forced. I particulary loved the fact that he hates Bruce not for breaking the promise that his dad could save his parents after the car accident that claimed his dad, but for the fact that he saved his mom because HE planned the accident to be what Bruce became because of tragedy, an orphan. This first series for Hush had a perfect ending in which moments before Catwoman and Batman kiss, Catwoman silences Batman’s fears by saying “Hush” which ends the relationship by bringing Bat’s fear of their relationship been orcastrated by Thomas to a boil.
Then the second series puke’s all over Hush, he’s rash, seems almost dumd at times and manipulates his pawns (Ivy and Prometheus) in a clumsy fashion and even gets outsmarted by the Joker at the end. Gotham Knight’s Hush run sucked!
The third series, “Heart of Hush”, has a return to the more methodotical Hush with his old manipulative ways and carefully laid plans, like how he used his girlfriend’s mob relations to get rid of the detective that had found out about him causing the accident when he was younger. He was great and planning to impersonate Bruce once he killed him to completely destroy his legacy was a true evil mastermind plan.
The current story line has Hush rebuilding himself fro mthe ground up in what is a beatifull comic version of “The Talented Mister Repley”.
The Aristottle quoting, anti-Bruce Wayne/Batman is one of the best Batman villains. The mirror image of Bruce Wayne. It’s interesting to note that everytime he and Batman fight he always has the upper hand and it’s one of Bat’s allies/enemies that has to save him/help tip the scale in his favor.
Truly awful dialogue RUINED this series. I point to Lois Lane’s and Clark Kent’s lines.
The way the Joker is portrayed is ridiculous. He should have been a much greater factor.
The ART is gorgeous. But the story is a HUGE LET DOWN.
By having the entire rogues gallery being mere bit-players in the larger story line completely neutralizes the effect of having them in story.
It’s like two different people wrote Batman the Long Halloween and Hush.
If a friend of mine came up to me and said, “Hey, HINY, I want to start reading Batman. I know his mythos is mired in years upon years of convoluted, inconsistent and hypocritical backstory. I want something that will bring me up to the Batman of today.”, I would reach into my bookshelf and give him the TWO* hardcover TPBs for Hush that I have.
That’s not to say that HUSH is the best that Batman has to offer today, but it certainly reflects the quintessence of Batman, and by default, the DCU as it currently stands. This is a brave(?) new world where the proud may fall (Batman), the meek may rise (Riddler) and the dead may walk (Jason Todd) but this new status quo is still subject to certain limitations;
1) Crossover Syndrome – A successful story cannot be written without at least one major character from another line appearing.
2) Lingo Limbo – The dialogue has to be understood by twelve-year-olds as well as remain relatively enjoyable for thirty-year-olds to read.
3) Deus Eccchhhs Machina – The protagonist overcomes adversity with nauseating convenience.
Now I realise that these along with the many other limitations are only there because of the nature of the beast that is comics in the 21st century. But just for once I’d love to see a great story that is crossover free, with mature dialogue and a real threat posed to the hero. Now I realise that also sounds like a fair description of the film Die Hard; but I think there are worse templates for this kind of entertainment. I acknowledge that I digress so let’s return to our original train of thought; Hush.
Batman versus a well-orchestrated rogue’s gallery is nothing new within his or any other character’s backstory, and I think Loeb handled it well, especially in the first half of the series where the reader is instantly made aware that this is no ordinary collaboration. Yet by the end of things, Batman’s picked off each badguy one by one, leaving Jason Todd and Hush for easy pickings. I’d love to see a sharkpile on batman one day. I don’t think his mutant power of Writer’s Whim could stand up to that.
Loeb has done us some favors with this series though; Hush himself is an interesting character to have created and employed in Batman’s life. I’m a little surprised nowdays when new characters appear that serve a function that isn’t already covered by another character. In a pinch I’d say that he shares more with Harvey Dent than anyone else; but that’s easily understandable since it was Loeb’s Dent from Long Halloween that fleshed him out so much. It also explains why Two-face is back, because such similarities between Dent and Elliot make the characters incompatible.
Also bringing back Jason Todd was not as stupid as I thought, and the character has injected interest into the Nightwing and Final Crisis lines for me.
Ultimately the writing on Hush is satisfactory and accomplishes a lot within a year of storytelling. In the slower moments between Jeph Loeb’s keystrokes I found great solace within and a reason to keep on reading with Jim Lee’s artwork.
Jim Lee’s stuff is great. The stuff of legend really. It was his cover for X-men 1 back in ’91 that got me into comics.
But check out this picture:
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a15/DrunkenHobo666/Comics/Batman-JimLee.jpg
Batman’s head is way too small.
His thigh is as wide as his abdomen.
His biceps are as wide as his thigh.
His obscured forearm would have to be about 15cm long for that posture to work.
I mean that’s just from a brief glance.
So Jim Lee does a bit of a Liefield at times,
but GODDAMN do I wish I could draw like that.
When the dialogue turned into Blues Clues or Bruce Wayne did his best “Dead Poet’s Society” I had Jim Lee to get me through HUSH. Of particular note is the cave of batmobiles spread, which, if I saw it as a poster I would buy straight away, and those dreamy pencil/watercolor insertions throughout the conventional art, which had me thumbing ahead and counting down the pages until I got to the next one. Much like Kingom Come, HUSH wouldn’t be half as good were it done by any other artist.
I realise I’ve been multitasking whilst typing this and it may not be the slightest bit coherent, but I hope something within makes sense. I haven’t written in for a while guys but I have never stopped listening. Keep up the great work.
-Hercules in NY
*(Volume One and Two respectively… a ridiculous and cruel ploy by DC to gain more profits as several combined TPBs emerged months later.
question about the omega sanction… if bruce’s soul is trapped in this place and his body is trashed… what body would he come back to?
perhaps hush?
I read Hush years after it came out so I missed any hype or bashing about it. So when I picked it up, I had little to nothing to go off of. I absolutely loved it. I liked the writing and I didn’t mind having his usual villains step aside for the arc. I felt like we got a little more into Bruce’s childhood and got to see who he hung out with.
I also loved the Catwoman soap opera material. Call it the romantic in me but their longing for each other warmed my heart. Whether it was chemically motivated or not, it was nice to see them explore some of those feelings.
Loeb also injected a good bit of mystery into the story. Who saw the Riddler finally living up to his self proclaimed genius? I wouldn’t have guessed him to be behind the conflict of the story. Especially after Loeb’s handling of the character in past arcs.
I personally think Hush was a good injection into the rouge’s gallery and has so much potential to grow and develop, as we’ve seen Dini start to do. It’s one thing to have a villain who is crazy and obsessed with you. It’s a completely different game when the villain knows who you are, who you were as a kid, was there to see some of your most vulnerable moments, and has insight into who is behind the mask, behind the face. That’s powerful.
I never really “got” Hush as his origins seem unconvincing and lacking. But i cant argue with the results (Very intriguing and thrilling stories filled with twists and a genuinely affected Batman) and the Hush character is one of my favorite Batman villains which is saying a lot since the Bat really does have THE rogues gallery!
Besides you have to give it up to a guy that didnt just use the Pile-Up of villains tactic known from Knight Fall, but who actually maximized the impact of each of the villains as to hurt bats the most. Using the Joker to push him morally and even the mostly dull Clayface to really mess him up…Undead Boy Wonder anyone? Hush has the skills and presense only the best villains like The Joker, Ras Al Ghul and Two-Face are known to posses, though i wont rate him as high yet…
When I first heard of Batman RIP I though only 3 villains deserve to kill the Bat: The Joker, Jason Todd (bashing him over the head with a crowbar) and Hush, that’s how much I like the character.