Graphic Novel: Batman HUSH, Jeph Loeb, Jim Lee, Alex Sinclair, Richard Starkings

Our second Graphic Novel Book Club was the beginning of this month, and because of the Summer Reading theme of heroes, we decided to go classic with a good Batman story.

Batman: HUSH
Jeph Loeb
illustrated by Jim Lee
inked by Scott Williams
colors by Alex Sinclair
lettering by Richard Starkings
ISBN: 1401229921
Batman's detective skills are tested by a mysterious rash of villainy that all seems to center around creating personal stresses and tragedies for the caped crusader.

I enjoyed reading HUSH, and I enjoyed the group discussion even more.  The consensus seemed to be that the story was as good as the framework of the genre allowed it to be: in other words, there wasn't really a possibility for character growth and change, as everything has to revert to roughly the status quo at the end of the run for the next person to pick up the torch and go.  While to some extent, that's inevitable, for a story like this that tries to have such dramatic stakes, it really saps the urgency and power of the events to know from the start that nothing essential is going to change at all.

I personally thought the artwork was breathtaking, but I was also taken aback by the choice to make the menfolks as physically imposing as semi-truck cabs, while all the women were quite literally half their size, and less than half their mass, and often contorted into unfortunate poses to accentuate their assets.  It was visually effective, but it was also more than a bit irritating.

The story was interesting, and it was nice to see a good villain's gallery (which is part of why it was chosen) for Bats to go up against.  It was also nice to see references to history and other characters in the universe, even though with such a crowded cast list it was impossible for anyone to be treated decently.  There were some really powerful and disturbing moments (Bats vs Joker was physically difficult to look at) and some interesting set-pieces (the Bats vs a certain boy scout) which were fun, even if the set-up was occasionally highly improbable.

It doesn't make me want to run out and grab all the Batman stories, but it does make me want to keep an eye out for Jim Lee and Alex Sinclair's artwork, because that was really the clincher for me.  The dynamic movement of the scenes, and the mesmerizing color choices was truly stunning, and the best part of the experience.