THIS WEEK: Batman: Bad Seeds – Sunset #1 kicks off this fall’s Bat-crossover event in compelling fashion!
Note: The review below may contain spoilers.
Batman: Bad Seeds – Sunset #1
Writers: Matt Fraction and G. Willow Wilson
Layouts: Giueseppe Camuncoli
Finishes: Cliff Rathburn
Colors: Tomeu Morey
Letters: Clayton Cowles
In a way, Batman: Bad Seeds – Sunset #1 is as much a victory lap as it is the start of DC’s fall Bat-event. A celebration of the state of affairs that brought us to the first part of this 24-part event (if you count all the tie-ins), before tossing at least some of that status quo out the window and building new stories from the aftermath.
Did you know there is an ongoing Poison Ivy series that will reach issue 50 this year? (The month after this event concludes, timing that is undoubtedly purposeful.) Did you know the current Batman run was nominated for Best New Series at this year’s Eisners? (A nomination that is both laughable, because “new, Batman, really?,” and entirely deserved, because this run has been that good.) Those achievements alone, both of which Bad Seeds is built upon, would be worth celebrating. But writers Matt Fraction and G. Willow Wilson, who tackled this crossover’s opening salvo together, are not greedy. So they’ve invited the rest of the Batman line to their celebration, to show readers everything else that’s currently going right in Batman’s corner of the DC universe.
In Bad Seeds – Sunset’s first few pages, Fraction, Wilson, artists Giueseppe Camuncoli and Cliff Rathburn, colorist Tomeu Morey, and letterer Clayton Cowles cleanly lay out the crossover’s central conflict. Gotham elected Poison Ivy mayor and installed Vandal Savage as its police commissioner. Both “former” super-villains are, it turns out, incredibly unstable, even compared to your typical politician. So while Savage has taken over the streets with his violent Tactical Urban Combat Officer (TUCO) squads, Ivy has quickly and cleanly lost the support of both Gotham’s people and its police commissioner. Her solution? Hand Gotham over to the Parliament of Trees, so they can deal with Savage while Ivy hightails it out of the city – hopefully with her lady love, Harley Quinn, in tow.
That setup is all the context you need before diving into the rest of Bad Seeds’ opening chapter, in which the creative team shows just how dire things are about to get for not only Ivy, Savage, and Batman, but everyone in Gotham City. Most all your Bat-faves are here, and they each get a moment to shine as The Parliament of Trees’ takeover of Gotham begins. However, if you haven’t been following Batgirl or Catwoman or Nightwing, don’t worry. The Bad Seeds – Sunset creative team knows you may need a quick intro to who’s who and what’s what across the Bat-line these days, and they introduce the crossover’s large cast in succinct yet compelling fashion. (The scene in which Batgirl’s brother, Tenji Turner, freestyles on the way to a noodle shop was a personal favorite of mine. Fraction and Wilson nailed every character’s, regardless of whether they’ve featured in Batman or Poison Ivy.)
There is a version of Bad Seeds – Sunset that could have gotten bogged down in backstory, character intros, and the other table-setting that comes part and parcel with an event. That could have felt much more exposition-heavy and included far fewer interesting character moments and much less action. Instead, this issue’s creative team consciously keeps things moving, and smartly balances quick looks in on the crossover’s larger cast with a focus on Ivy, Savage, and Batman – the crossover’s primary players. The result is a fast-paced whirlwind ride of an issue, rendered in intense, dynamic fashion by Camuncoli, Rathburn, Morey, and Cowles. A lot happens in this issue’s 48 pages, and its ending should sweep readers right along into next week’s Batman #13.
While I am unlikely to pick up all 24 parts of Bad Seeds (24 comics is a lot of comics), this opening chapter got me excited for the portions of the crossover I am planning to read. And hopefully, it will tempt other readers who have been enjoying Batman or Poison Ivy to sample some of the other currently-outstanding titles in the Bat-line. If Batman, or Poison Ivy, or this issue were less good, perhaps I’d be less excited for a Bat-event to take over the line for the next two months. But as with most things DC these days, the Batman line is firing on all cylinders right now. So yes, let’s set The Parliament of Trees loose on Gotham City. Let’s get nearly every Bat-tile in on the action and have a 24-part hootenanny. Let’s celebrate the fact that Poison Ivy, of all books, is one of DC’s current longest-running titles. Let’s have a big, bold Bat-event, where we shine a light on how good the line is currently and push things forward into a new chapter. Let’s do some goshdarn superhero comics, in the way only great Big Two superhero comics can.
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