I’ve been on a bit of Batman kick lately after watching the movie on HBO Max starring Robert Pattinson plus listening to the Spotify Original Batman Unburied, which just ended last week. If you’re curious about it, check out my review of the first episode. Because of this recent interest in Batman, I was thinking to myself “I should read a Batman comic.”

A reminder I will be reviewing the following:

• Cover Art

• Story

• Overall Rating 5 star rating system from Comic Geeks App

Before heading to my local comic book shop, I also made a stop at my local dispensary to pick up some wax. I always place my order ahead of time and just go pick it up, I went with some live badder called Banana Punch, Ice Box Pie and Miracle Mango wax all from Billo. After the dispensary run I stopped at the comic book shop and took a look at the current Batman runs. There were quite a few but many of them were already deep into their issues released and I wanted to follow along with new series. In comes Batman: Fortress, which came out towards the end of last month (May 24) poses a very important question right on the cover, “Where is Superman?"“

So let’s dive into my first Batman comic.

Cover Here are a few things I like about this cover; one of them being the outline of Batman paired with some of the headlines indicates to me that we are going to have a lot of dark and crazy shit going on. “Where is Superman?” we see on the main monitor above Batman’s head, what does it mean? Is he dead? What’s going on? All of these questions made me itching to find out more. Not to mention, I feel like Superman always just shows up and cleans house. So the thought that he is currently missing and Batman has to handle this city-wide power outage himself was another reason why I ultimately chose this issue. Though because I picked up this issue a week after it came out, I was unable to get a view and any of the variant covers. Next time though.

Story Our story starts with pure darkness, Gotham is experiencing a total blackout. The stage? Wayne Manor, some dim-witted criminals think they can take advantage of this blackout and rob Wayne Manor. Phew, are they in for a surprise, me too. As these idiots make their way into what they think is an empty mansion, they get their asses handed to them by Bruce Wayne and his butler, Mr. Alfred Pennyworth. Yes, we get to see Alfred whip out some of his former British Special Forces skills and take out one of the would be burglars. The panel at the end actually makes me crack up! The dude is just laying there with his arm like backwards LMAO what?! Go Alfred!

After whooping some ass, Alfred lets Bruce know that the blackout seems to be far worse than what they think. Thinking it was just Gotham, we get a shocked Bruce and then cut to the next page. Detective Gordon is trying to get the Batsignal working unsuccessfully but then they manage to get it on with the help of a few police squad car batteries. Which seemed to piss one of the other detectives but Gordon doesn’t care. He needs the Batsignal on so he can get some help to the people of Gotham. But right as they get it lit, Gordon is told that Arkham Asylum has had a mass breakout, the Joker has escaped.

We get back to Wayne Manor/Batcave with Bruce and Alfred discussing the current blackout event. After seeing multiple cities across the globe experiencing the same blackouts, they come to the conclusion that it must be some sort of attack on the earth. Bruce tells Alfred to alert other members of the league to assemble at HQ and in the meantime, he is wondering where the hell is Superman?

Batman! BAM! We see Bruce suited up as the Batman and talking to Gordon. Gordon is letting him know the severity of the situation. They’re able to use landlines but power and radio comms have all been knocked out. Also the new electronic locks for Arkham seem to be useless since the backup generator took too long to turn on and a lot of the city’s worst criminals escaped before the generators came back on. Batman lets Gordon know of making some modifications for their radios to get some lines of communication going.

Now the next part has been the topic of discussion in the comic community. See the spread in question below.

For the next couple pages, Batman goes on a fighting spree and starts beating the shit out of everyone. As he is doing all of this, we are told that Batman doesn’t have time for looters in the sense that many of the places being looted all have insurance and they are at the bottom of his priority list. Instead he puts on the mask to stop the BIG FISH “the predators that lurk in the dark waters, feasting on the innocent, the defenseless… the ones who get off on the misery and suffering of others.” Which is a very important line in this entire stretch. It’s not that he doesn’t care for looters, there are just far more important things going on. All while this inner dialogue is going on, Batman stops Penguin from strangling a woman and Joker from taking over a school bus and a bunch of criminals in a dark alley.

Cut back to the Batcave and Batman fills Alfred in on a very “crimey” night in Gotham and then asks if he has found anything out from the scans he was running. There seems to be some type of “warship” over the Indian Ocean, we don’t know what though. Batman still has no clue where Superman is but the league is waiting for him at headquarters.

Overall Rating As far as my first Batman comic, I think this was a good choice. I enjoyed the storyline so far, there was a lot of action, a couple funny parts and a big sense of mystery still. Excited for the next issue. I gave this a 4/5 on Comic Geeks.

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