Thursday, December 8, 2016

Book Review: Batman: Heart of Hush

Book: Batman: Heart of Hush (issues Detective Comics #846-850) by Paul Dini

Illustrations and cover by Dustin Nguyen, ink by Derek Fridolfs and color by John Kalisz

Letters by Travis Lanham, Steve Wands, John J. Hill and Jared K. Fletcher


Edition: Paperback Trade

Description:

Revenge is a dish best served warm -- and still beating!

The man once known as Tommy Elliot has thirsted for vengeance against Bruce Wayne for nearly his entire life. Calling himself Hush, this brilliant archvillian has twice brought the Dark Knight to the edge of destruction using schemes as tangled and twisted as the bandages that hide his face.

Now, with Batman reeling under the mysterious Black Glove's campaign of terror, Hush has returned to strike the killing blow he feels is rightfully his to deliver. But this time only complete eradication of everyone and everything close to Bruce Wayne will satisfy his hunger for revenge.

Can Batman and his allies -- including Selina Kyle, the one woman who has come closest to winning his heart -- unravel Hush's deadliest plot yet? And once the bandages are peeled back, will Batman and Catwoman have the strength to face what is revealed?



Rating: 5 stars

Review:

I would consider Batman: Hush to be a modern classic, it's an excellent read. I read it some time ago but for some reason I never got around to reading Batman: Heart of Hush until now. In this continuation, Hush a.k.a. Tommy Elliot is still trying to seek his revenge on his old friend Bruce Wayne and his alter ego Batman.

Even as little boys, Tommy resented Bruce and as he got older it manifested into Bruce being the cause of all his troubles. In Batman: Hush, Tommy tried to use some of Batman's villains to destroy him but that plan didn't work out the way he had hoped. So in this story, Tommy set in place a new and more diabolical plan to go after Bruce/Batman and his love ones.

This was a very well-written story and an interesting follow up to Batman: Hush. I like how everything unfolds and it gives the reader even more backstory for Tommy. This is a story that's smart and full of action and drama and suspense as you see what's lurking beneath Hush's insanity in his desire to seek revenge against Bruce. You see incidents that helped fuel his delusions towards Bruce as well as seeing Tommy's anger towards his parents. I think Hush maybe one of Bruce's most dangerous villains because he knows so much about him including his secret identity. And that makes it easier to create a plan that strikes at his weaknesses and the people who mean the most to him with Catwoman possibly paying the ultimate price in Hush's revenge.

I don't think Paul Dini gets enough credit for having such a good grasp of these characters. He knows how to write these characters so they don't appear one dimensional instead there's plenty of facets and emotions shown. There are some interesting cameos in this which also includes Nightwing (Dick Grayson), Robin (Tim Drake) and Alfred Pennyworth. The story also introduces a new character Colin Wilkes who will later be known as the hero Abuse (for more on Colin see series: Batman: Streets of Gotham and Batman: Li'l Gotham).

There are so many things I enjoyed about this and one of them was seeing Bruce realizing how much Selina meant to him. While another was seeing Batman and the Batfamily going up against Hush. A wonderfully written story with revenge as the focus highlighted by Dustin Nguyen's delightfully animated artwork and great color by John Kalisz.

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