Comic Recap/Thoughts: Batman Volume No. 1: I am Gotham, Part 1

Hello everyone! Hope you all had a fun and safe Holiday! I am excited to be doing my first Batman recap! Okay, technically this is not my first Batman post because I did cover The Three Jokers already, but this volume will be different for many reasons. The first is, I love Batman and don't really care about the Joker. The Bat family is what drew me into comics. I also love Tom King and will read anything he writes. Unlike most of these Rebirth titles, I have read a lot of Batman over the years. I am really excited to recap this story for you all and I really hope you, like me, catch some Batman fever.

This volume includes issues #1-6 and Batman Rebirth #1. I want to keep this a reasonable length so this is going to be two parts. This part will include the Batman Rebirth #1 and issues #1-3. 

Batman Rebirth #1: On Monday it is spring, Alfred is picking some fruit in the garden, when the doorbell rings. It is Duke Thomas and he is here to take Batman up on his offer. (This goes back to the New 52, long story short, Duke was kind of a Robin and he and a bunch of other Robins all fought crime. Also his parents were poisoned by the Joker and are currently both very mentally ill. The offer is not clear at this point.)

On the next page, Batman is fighting Calendar Man (go here if you want to read more about this villain). Calendar Man has released a bunch of deadly spores and is going on and on about the spring. Batman takes him out and radios Jim Gordon about the air. Since the spores are everywhere Batman has to shock the air via his body. 

On Tuesday it is summer, Bruce is working out, by doing pull-ups from the top of Wayne Tower (like a fucking lunatic). Lucius Fox agrees with me, but is there to tell Bruce that he found a way to get all his money back (it got taken away from him in New 52, but you know, one page and he gets it all back). Lucius tells a nice story about Bruce's father and I think it is meant to convey that both Bruce and his father are crazy, but people need to be crazy enough to believe that things can be better. 

On Wednesday it is fall, in the Batcave, Duke and Bruce are looking in on Calendar Man, who is in jail and looks way older. I guess his body ages with the seasons. He dies in winter and is reborn as a young man in the spring. Batman tells us the Calendar Man is somehow speeding up the seasons, there must be more spores hidden. As they walk through the cave, Duke wants to know what he is doing there. Batman offers him a place to live. Duke figures he doesn't need Batman to be a good Robin. Batman takes Duke to a stand with a pretty dope looking outfit and tells Duke he doesn't want him to be a Robin. Batman hopes to try something new.

On Thursday it is winter, Batman is diving into a body of water that is frozen over. He is telling Duke he needs to count. As Batman is diving, Duke is telling us how long he has been down there. (He couldn't take an oxygen tank, the valve would just freeze.) At five minutes Duke begins to panic, telling Batman to get back up to the surface! Batman however is real stubborn, he finds the weather/spore machine that was under the water and blows it up.

On Friday it is spring again, Calendar Man wilts (it is a little gross). Bruce and Duke are beating up a tree and talking about how each time CM comes back he is a little different and a little smarter. Bruce tells Duke they will just have to be better after each fight too. Alfred is again picking what I can now see is an avocado. He splits it in half and drops it into a hole that leads to a cave full of bats.

I am Gotham Part One: A kid, who looks like Damian, but I think is just a normal kid, is flying in a normal plane, on its way back to Gotham. On the roof where the Bat Signal is, Jim tells us (because Batman already knows) three surface to air missiles were stolen from a military base. Two have been recovered but one is still missing. Before Jim can even finish explaining, the missile is launched and hits the plane. (Quick note: The gang named Kobra comes up here. Think that will matter later.) 

Batman is on it. Alfred reports the plane is heading right for Gotham Square, many many people will die. Batman tells Alfred to hail Clark and get Duke on the radio. Batman gets in the Batmobile and tells Duke to give him an angle. Duke tells Batman he needs to hit the Robinson Bridge in fifty-two seconds. Batman hits the jump right as Alfred tells him he can't get ahold of anyone in the League. Batman basically says cool, as he launches himself out of the jumping Batmobile.

Batman radios Jim, while still flying in the air towards the plane, telling Jim to get emergency crews to Blackgate (the prison). Jim thinks Batman is crazy, he has three minutes and right now the plane is heading for Kane Plaza (a skyscraper), not the prison. Batman assures Jim he can push the plane, because he is on the plane. (Of course he is.)

On the plane, a man is losing his shit, wishing he had flown to any other city. The kid from the beginning looks out the window to see Batman on the wing adjusting and placing little engines. All the while Alfred is giving him facts about all the things in his path. Batman is literally striding the plane as Alfred lights up the little engines at the directions of Batman. Alfred points out that this is a great plan and at the angle of landing, all the people inside will survive, but there is no way that Batman would be able to.

On the top of a building, watching Batman "flying" the plane, an unknown man has killed the person who launched the missile. The unknown person just says, "Observe the clock, Batman." (I think this is a reference to the Doomsday clock and some Watchman story that is coming in the future.)

In a perfect Tom King 9x9 panel that definitely didn't make me cry, Batman tells Alfred where to find messages he made for all the boys and that Duke should want to keep training, Dick is a great teacher. He is still giving Alfred directions and we see Alfred getting sadder and sadder. Finally Bruce asks if his parents would have been proud, if this is a good death? Alfred tells him yes and that he is proud too.

Right as the plane is about to hit the water, we see two little figures lifting the plane back up. Batman thinks it is Clark. It is not though. We meet two new characters, Gotham and Gotham Girl.

I am Gotham Part Two: In Gotham City at the Statue of Justice, Solomon Grundy is fighting Gotham and Gotham Girl. The two power houses are doing okay, but destroy a lot of property. Batman is there to help and in fact takes the big guy down. Batman gives Gotham some notes about how to do better and then literally bounces away. Gotham follows him and asks for Batman to help them be better, but at that moment he doesn't get an answer.

Later, Bruce is looking at the Bat computer thinking about how he was ready to be dead. He might not be dead now, but some other big disaster might kill him, then it will kill Dick. They (the Bat-family) are not strong enough. Alfred points out Bruce has 250 guests waiting for him.

In his office, Jim is working overtime. His assistant tells him to call his daughter and that someone from his bank has been waiting for a long time, so she is out for the night and is letting the guy in. A very banker looking guy comes in, but admits he is not from the bank. He confesses that he is the one who let Solomon Grundy out of Arkham. Dude's name is Bob Castro and he used to work on munitions in the Army. He didn't want to do what he did, he had to. Then he stabs himself in the neck while saying, "The monster men are coming." 

Bruce is dressed very nicely now and dancing with a very attractive woman. The Bat signal goes up and he dips. In the hall, Duke and Alfred join Bruce at the entrance to the cave. Bruce is going to bring in Gotham and Gotham Girl. There is a funny joke made about trust that to me is the perfect humor of Batman. 

Batman introduces Jim to Gotham and Gotham Girl. Jim takes it okay, then tells them about the guy who just stabbed himself in the neck in his office. They wonder if Kobra is involved. Jim mentions the monster men but that doesn't mean anything to anyone. Jim is still chatting with Gotham and Gotham Girl, when they all notice that Batman is gone. Even with super vision, they cannot find him and are flabbergasted. Jim just says, "It's Batman." 

In Arkham a prisoner is being shown a series of photos showing emotions, while being asked if he feels these emotions. The prisoner, named Roger, does feel all of the emotions, and the person he is talking to is Professor Hugo Strange. Also in the room is a high ranking military looking guy and none other than Amanda Waller. 

I am Gotham Part Three: Back then, in Gotham City at Park Row, a family (mom, dad, and boy) were walking down an alley. The dad is narrating about how living and growing up in Gotham, it becomes a part of you and you become a part of it. In the alley a man with a gun attacks the family, punching the dad and is about to steal the mom’s necklace, but the robber's hand is grabbed by Batman, who just says, "No." Batman does then give a small speech about how they will feel scared for a while and it is okay to be scared, because everyone gets scared. Being scared gives you the chance to fight fear and to be brave. 

Back to now, we see the couple from the ally are older now and are talking to an FBI agent. Seems this couple has a boy and a girl, named Hank and Claire. The dad continues to tell us about how after the attack his son Hank became obsessed with Batman and because Hank was into it, so was Claire. The two kids did all the things they could, volunteering, training, and studying things like forensics. While overseas volunteering, the kids asked their parents for a lot of money. Asking no questions the dad just sent the money. A month later the kids came back and at the same time Gotham and Gotham Girl appeared on the scene. 

The agent tells them that he is just there about the money, it was a lot and they were wondering if it was fraud. The mom calls BS, they know he is asking if the kids are now the two heroes flying around Gotham. The Agent (Agent Malone, a classic Batman alias) thanks the parents and tells them they remind him of another set of parents he used to know, who died too young. 

As Bruce is driving away Alfred reports that a suicide bomber just blew up a bridge. Before she pulled the trigger, she was yelling about the monster men coming. The bridge is still in the process of falling so Batman calls in Gotham and Gotham Girl. Gotham is struggling to hold the bridge up while Gotham Girl is getting people off it. 

Now Hugo Strange is narrating, mirroring the words the dad had said about Gotham, but shining it in a much darker light. While Batman is racing to the bridge to help, Hugo is reminding us about all the bad things that have happened in Gotham. Hugo is talking to Amanda Waller, while watching the bridge scene on a tv screen. He explains that living in Gotham makes you embrace the horror and then become the horror. Hugo plans to somehow use the prisoner Rogers to fix Gotham. While Batman and his current sidekicks save everyone on the bridge, Huge declares, "I am not Goham. I am better than Gotham."

 

Back on the now stable bridge, Batman tells G and GG that he will go investigate and ask them to keep an eye out for trouble. Gotham starts to tell Batman about this time when he was a kid, but Batman just jumps away while telling Gotham that he did a good job with his fear.   

Gotham and Gotham Girl are just hanging out, thinking maybe they are making progress with Batman, when there is a large explosion. They fly off to check it out and I love a good sibling chat. They enter the burning building ready to help people only to find Professor Hugo Strange, Roger Hayden (aka Psycho-Pirate) and a lot of military guys. Hugo tells us that Psycho-Pirate's power is mastering all emotions, both his and everyone else's.    

Welp, that is a lot to take in already. Two new heroes in Gotham and maybe some monster men that are coming. What is this Hugo Strange up to and what does it mean to be Gotham? Tune in later this week for part 2 of this volume, as well as my thoughts and favorite line. 

                  

Next Post: Batman Volume No. 1: I am Gotham, Part 2

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