I AM BATMAN #4 Discussion/Spoilers

[sifighter]

I want to start out this issue by saying it’s still good, but I think it’s the weakest of the run so far. The reason is because this is pre-moving to New York house clean up and Ridley now has to do something with all the Fear State boxes out in the garage now that his roommate Tynion is gone...odd comparison I know but it felt appropriate.

But it’s a fair comparison because Tynion is gone and Fear State is over but Jace still has Magistrate issues. The issue opens up with the Seer storyline which I also have a bone to pick with because Jace is never going to get to deal with that storyline himself. Sure he can deal with the crazed militia that was established but Batgirls has the Seer now I believe. By the way that Militia is going no where from the look of things based on the guard who kills himself later on as Jace does some investigating.

Anyway things aren’t good in the Fox home right now, because Lucius is clearly losing it. He’s actually upset with his wife for not killing Batman (Jace) last issue when she had the chance. Which gets into a conversation of how they have issues and they need to get help but Lucius thinks it will make them look weak when the city needs them to look strong. Ridley is really painting a good picture of Lucius barely hanging on after everything that happened to it and it really gives credibility to the idea that the Fox’s may be in for a divorce. But hey thankfully Tam appears to have awaken out of her coma which is at least some good news.

Oh and Ridley is even taking one of his police characters with him to New York as well, there is story reasons but knowing about the big move makes it feel weird.

Now there is a reason I said the magistrate boxes have to be done with and it’s part of my problem with this issue. I’m not going to bury the lead, Simon Saint is murdered and the Magistrate program or a version of it by the names of T.A.L.O.S is attempting to go national with Lucius Fox's help. This kind of bothers me for a few reasons.

1. Jace has had only tangential connections to the Fear State event at best so for his book to kill off one of the big villains that was introduced this year in Infinite Frontier #0 feels very wrong. It doesn’t feel earned and maybe should have happened in the Omega issue a little while ago.

2. This is basically just Ridley morphing the Magistrate because it’s clear he very much wants to use the idea of it to inform his Batman run. But that too feels weird when Batman and the Bat-family so effectively took it down, so it feels weird to just have Ridley come in with a new big bad who is assuming control.

I feel like maybe Jace should have been a bigger focus in the Fear State event if this was going to be Ridley’s story going forward. Now it feels like Ridley picking up Tynion’s scraps and going home to play with them himself. Like Ridley’s story has no real agency on its own while he’s in Gotham which is why I’m hopeful for when Jace is in New York because Ridley is a good writer and Jace is a good character that needs more focus and agency.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

The issue is Ridley wrapping up Fear State and setting up the move to NY.

It's a decent issue overall. I think you could headcanon Lucius's shift in demeanor to PTSD. Punchline's fear gas did a number on him.