[REVIEW] Batman #52 - "The List"

[REVIEW] Batman #52 “The List”

This issue is special for more than one reason. First the number “52” is very significant for the DC Universe’s history since it is the fixed amount of realities that comprise the multiverse. After the “Flashpoint” event that rebooted the multiverse, the flagship “The New 52” was leading most DC titles, and this issue marks the end of the New 52 run for Batman. Even though the Batman title would resume with DC’s Rebirth initiative, when there is the opportunity to “end” somehow a run, writers have a chance to develop some kind of ending, closure, or at least an introspection of the character that makes you feel you were reading the comic book to get you somewhere. This issue is mostly the last.

“The List” moves the reader back and forth from some events of Bruce’s past and his present as a crime-fighting vigilante. Everything starts with a psychologist who’s trying to help Bruce cope with his parents’ decease that happened just two weeks before. Bruce is sheltered and taking all the burden for himself. The psychologist told Alfred that she gave him a notebook so he could write the little steps Bruce thought he would need to move on so he could eventually take them. What’s interesting is that throughout the issue, we’re taken to many moments of Bruce’s training around the world and when someone asks him why he is doing it, he doesn’t say a thing, but the panel shows that little notebook he's carrying in his bag. Even though we are not certain yet about where is all going to, the story foreshadows the notebook as a key item for the development of the story, which is a nice touch that makes the story the whole round in the end.

In the present, Batman is trying to catch an exclusive villain for this issue, Crypsis, and we know at first glance that he is too small for a city so dark, and for a hero so grand. He has a suit that lets him get through solid objects and makes him intangible and nearly invisible. Batman has faced way worse. He’s robbing a very small bank, but what he wants and achieves to rob is a key to get access to a security box in the vault. Batman tries to catch him but fails, and he seems really interested in that box. As we are taken to more scenes of training and we catch more glimpses of the notebook we can certainly assume that the box has the notebook inside. However, the fact that Batman still kept the notebook is just the tip of the iceberg. In the story we see some of the steps he wrote. Things like “Disappear”, or “Feel nothing”, which come as no surprise if we know Batman, but there’s one flashback that takes us to a moment of Bruce’s childhood in which Bruce is yelling at Alfred for writing a step himself, and we see Bruce violently ripping the page with it. We see that while Bruce was writing on the notebook he was filling himself with hatred and resentment, much to Alfred’s pain, which makes us connect with the two characters’ burden.

In the end, Batman managed to capture the villain by damaging his suit. The villain tries to makes Batman a crime partner telling him he spent a lot of time planning the ultimate heist which was finding Bruce Wayne’s secrets. He even calculated the amount of money he could ask Wayne for his “dirty” secrets. Batman smiles and lets him open the box; much to Crypsis’ disappointment, the notebook is what comes out. Batman knocks him out and takes the notebook back.

In the last scene, we see Batman and Alfred discussing about the notebook and Bruce thanks Alfred for his advice. We get to know that the piece of page that Bruce ripped off as a kid was taped back, and we finally see what Alfred wrote then, which was the step 52 (another reference to the mythic number): “Remember that your parents will always be proud of you”. As emotional as the sole phrase is, considering Bruce’s past, what makes this final panel so special is the fact that not only we are left thinking on Bruce’s parents, who are never shown in the story. We are inevitably led to think on Alfred as a parent figure for him. After 52 issues (and all the issues before Flashpoint), we get this sense of reason, if not closure. We get this feeling of why we’ve been following Batman’s adventures and why he is such an interesting character. Why he can’t be minimized to a damaged character with parents’ issues who just like to punch criminals to deal with his problems. He actually believes in the good he is doing, and he is conscious of the impression he would make to his late parents and to Alfred, who is a father to him – someone he makes proud. It is a beautiful message we get here, and one we can’t miss if we are in for an introspective, and sweet story when Batman is mostly about darkness and, sometimes, hopelessness. A nice addition indeed. And one that, luckily, doesn’t need any previous reading to catch on. Just to know Batman.

A special mention to the cover in which we see Batman nicely smiling. Something you don’t see every day. Right?

“The List” is written by James Tynion IV; drawn and inked by Riley Rossmo and Brian Level; colored by Ivan Plascencia and Jordan Boyd, lettered by Steve Wands; edited by Mark Doyle; and published by DC Comics. Cover art by Greg Capullo, Danny Miki, and Fco Plascencia. Batman and all the related characters previously mentioned are trademarks of DC Comics, so as are the comic book panels showed in this post for review purposes.