I AM BATMAN #0 Spoilers and Discussion

[sifighter]

It is time, the start of a new Dark Knight!.....well sort of, he's still got some growing pains to go through but he at least gets started in this issue. All we get is the big Mech suit armor not the costume we see on the cover of I AM BATMAN #1, so don't expect any cool flowing cape scenes, but you do get some action. I will warn however that this issue is also politically charged in a number of ways, as to what is going on in Gotham and even some of Jace's own motivation to be Batman. Now I will say you might want to have read Second Son before this issue, plot points go directly from there to here.

So what's going on? Well civil unrest in Alleytown mainly. See a lot of the civil populace are really scarred because of A-day might have put poison in the air they breath and so they were holding a protest that the police do not handle well. Chief Renee Montoya is also not happy about this knowing it will mean escalation in the next protest. She then puts the two officers we followed in Second Son in charge of the police detail for the next protest, this will all be important later.

Anyway we get Jace at work, where we actually get a nice scene between him and his dad. But it has an undercurrent of falseness to it because Jace is secretly using his dads work for his own purposes. Oh and while working he runs into apparently his long time love interest Hadiyah who he has been ducking calls from. But she forgives him a bit and they agree to meet later. But he doesn't have long as he's got to get to work on his target from Second Son and what is going on with some fake licenses for radical left-leaning political activists. But there is a bit of a problem with that....the radicals are all dead. And this in turn head dives into the protest plot.

See Jace has it all worked out, Arkadine has hired professional hitmen and has them disguised among the protestors to shoot at the police to start basically a huge protest between the people of Alleytown and the police. And as it begins with the hitmen opening fire and the police about to return it is when Jace shows up in his Big Bat suit....but while he handles the problem he also botches it up. Let me explain, see Jace knows that there are hitmen in the crowd of people and he's handling them however the regular people and police don't know that so all they see is a heavily armored Batman attacking the protestors. It doesn't look good is all I'm saying. But things turn worse when the Magistrate show up and start blasting up Jace's suit, forcing him to abandon it and hightail it out of there. To Jace he may have one the fight but he lost the war and he failed to take his father's privilege and power and turn it into a symbol for good....his words not mine. Not to mention he lost the battle armor which probably stinks.

But after talking it out with Hadiyah, Jace has come to a realization. He can't just appropriate a symbol, and he cannot be just a creature of myth or legend. He has to be a Batman of the people, and show them he's a force for good. And so he gets to work on his batsuit.

Overall I think its a good start, you definitely get into Jace's headspace of why he decided to be Batman in that he wants to take from the powerful and use it for the common man. But you also see that he's not use to being Batman yet so he makes mistakes. It definitely feels like Ridley's intention is for Jace to focus on the common man more then just being a vigilante who fights criminals for a personal vendetta. It definitely feels in line with Ridley's past work of the American Way and The Other History of the DC universe. I'm interested to see where this goes and can't wait for Jace to officially suit up next month. I guess my only concern is how Ridley will handle Jace should he get involved in the wider DC universe, but that is a wait and see kind of thing for now.

[sifighter]

So question for everyone, did it help to follow the digital or physical copy of second son for this? Digital finished a while ago whereas physical ended last month so I was wondering how it all lined up.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

So question for everyone, did it help to follow the digital or physical copy of second son for this? Digital finished a while ago whereas physical ended last month so I was wondering how it all lined up.

This issue feels like issue 5 of Second Son to me. So it's better if you read those first.

[lordozone]

It was pretty bad. I preferred Batwing. I didn't read Future states, but it was written like a mediocre CW series.

[Askia]

Once again with Ridley's writing... its just so smooth to read.

I think it worked pretty well to set up Jace, but he doesn't feel ready to take up a mantle. Not in the sense of experience/skills/etc., but Jace seems to lack conviction. His final realization on the last page is a start, but I'm curious of how fickle he will be in the next couple issues. I hope he goes all in, because he's not going to inspire anyone if he does this lackadaisical.

[MajorHoy]

Once again with Ridley's writing... its just so smooth to read.

I think it worked pretty well to set up Jace, but he doesn't feel ready to take up a mantle. Not in the sense of experience/skills/etc., but Jace seems to lack conviction. His final realization on the last page is a start, but I'm curious of how fickle he will be in the next couple issues. I hope he goes all in, because he's not going to inspire anyone if he does this lackadaisical.

The set-up for Jace still seems slow and undefined. There's also the question of why is he essentially stealing an identity without and previous claim / permission to use it? Shouldn't he be his own person and develop his own identity that doesn't borrow so heavily from The Bat?

Also don't like how his parents have been portrayed or how Luke really seems to be getting tossed aside in favor of Jace.