Grab your bat microphone. It's time to start the show. Like a quarter of owls, the mystery is starting to grow. Let there be no debate. It's about to begin. Key like Bruce Wayne, quick like Tim Drake, fierce like Damien. Grab your headphones, listen up. You know you love it. Drop the facade Like the Dark Knight Detective. They've got some perspective. They're a pure crime fighting collective. It's the Bat Pod.
Speaker 2Welcome to the Bat Pod. My name is Bill Beer And join me, as always, Joey Galvez.
Speaker 3Hey, how's it going, Bill?
Speaker 2Good, it's going real good. Tonight we're doing a bonus episode And the bonus episode is gonna be on Batman, number 59, and almost the exact opposite of what happened with 58, where I read it first and I texted you and said You gotta read this. You texted me and you're like You need to read this as soon as possible.
Speaker 3Oh yeah, this one was a big one, this one was so good.
Speaker 2There are no words.
Speaker 2This I said last issue was probably my favorite of the run so far. Uh huh, yeah, this blows that away. We are a proud member of the Nerdy Legion Podcast Network. The Bat Pod is a spoiler podcast. Please read the comics we're reviewing so you can enjoy the show. Let's go over the creative team And your writer is Tom King. Your artist and cover is Mikhail Genine. Your color artist is Jordy Belair. Your letter is Clayton Cowles. Variant cover by Francisco Matina. Associate editor Brittany Holzer. Editor Jamie S Rich and Batman, created by Bill Finger with Bob Kane.
Speaker 3I love that you put his name first.
Speaker 2Yeah, he deserves it. He hasn't been there only a small amount of time, so why not? So this issue starts right where 58 lefts off Batman confronting the Penguin. And you know I said last issue that I thought Batman figured out what was going on. Well, he didn't. He didn't know it was Bane To the Penguin. I don't think, from what I got here, he's telling him that it was Bane.
Speaker 3Okay.
Speaker 2Batman doesn't really believe him. In the one conversation He says Bane is an Arkham, he's in a cell, he's incapacitated.
Speaker 3Yeah, true, yeah, he's telling him. I don't believe you.
Speaker 2The way this issue is set up. You have the conversation with the Penguin And you have Batman going to confront Bane in Arkham.
Speaker 3Yeah, i love the way the pacing in this you know you kind of. Throughout the book You see the conversation playing out almost simultaneously as you see what's happening in the future. And then you see him going into Arkham And this is awesome where he confronts the police officers.
Speaker 2Yeah, that's pretty cool. According to the penguin, everybody is with me. There isn't anybody at Arkham, that's not. So all the guards there at Arkham, but he's like really, they're all holding like guns and they're like, really, you want to fight me, you fight me. You're getting a boot in the face and it takes out one guy and that's like everybody else is just like let's him pass.
Speaker 3He says right now, each of you has a choice to make. Do I pull that trigger and get a bat boot shoved through my face?
Speaker 2Well, i tell you the one thing. That was that seemed, i wouldn't say, off, but when he first went into the room I didn't know that that was Bane.
Speaker 3Yeah, I had that same feeling.
Speaker 2You know we didn't. We haven't seen them since that arc where he went and basically headbutted them and took them out. Yeah but basically he, he was reduced, as far as anybody knows that he's been reduced to, like You know he's talking for his mother. He still thinks he's in Santa Presca.
Speaker 3Yeah, you know what?
Speaker 2I'm saying He's begging Batman to stop hitting him and Batman says okay, i know what's going on here, so he's just gonna beat it out of them.
Speaker 3Yeah, yeah. Gordon comes in and tells him You know, he's been in here the entire time. We have him under surveillance, he's not left his cell.
Speaker 2Which we all know isn't true, isn't? right, but something big happens in this book. It's exactly what Bane wanted.
Speaker 3Uh-huh.
Speaker 2Batman over the years has worked closely with Gordon. They've been sort of friends. I don't know they're on like he calls him, jim.
Speaker 3I guess that's kind of a first-name basis, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, jim can't call him Bruce, obviously.
Speaker 2No, but Batman is so frustrated that Bane is like this whimpering little wimp or whatever you want to call him. Yeah, gordon's like calm down. He says we've had him under surveillance, video surveillance. I've surveilled him personally. Yeah that man just just breaks. He punches Jim Gordon Oh. Man, that was so crazy when I saw that for the first time It's like oh my gosh, yeah, we never seen anything like that before. he just lost it.
Speaker 3Blood spurts out of his mouth, his glasses go flying, he hits the floor. Batman is just. He's out of control and I think that's exactly what Bane wanted. He fractured, he broke him. He beat Batman mentally, emotionally, with. Everything that he's brought against him is his, you know. He broke up his marriage. He broke up his you know his relationship between his son, you know, by getting him shot and now with a good friend that and his partner He's.
Speaker 2He's getting rid of every single relationship that Batman has yeah, and as I'm reading this, i'm thinking This isn't really Bane, this is just Somebody that Bane has. it's a is double.
Speaker 3Yeah, it's a double.
Speaker 2So you see him laying on the slab as the doctors are checking out Bane at the very end and then the last panel You have a little smile coming from Bane.
Speaker 3Yeah, this was all set up that you know at that moment there that this is Definitely Bane. I had that same feeling. I was like you know, is this really Bane? You know he's got the build for it, but is this really him? I've never really seen him without his mask And he's acting like he's broken himself until that last panel.
Speaker 2Oh, it definitely is. And you know what Bane over the years He? he started out right before, not nightfall. He is a very smart, very strong villain. His strength doesn't necessarily just come from you know his brute strength. His mind is one of his strengths. And you know he hasn't always been written that way. I think the Batman and Robin movie where he was just he's run it.
Speaker 2Didn't help him any. You know, he just wasn't written the way he was meant to be written. This is the way that I imagine Bane would be yeah, this, this Bane here has has depth.
Speaker 3He's such a good character, he's such a good villain, uh-huh I, and I have to agree with you, though, because this Bane is cool collective. He's a hundred steps ahead of everybody.
Speaker 2Like he's been planning this for years.
Speaker 3Yes, you know, and he knows how to execute it perfectly.
Speaker 2Let me see if this makes sense to you.
Speaker 3Okay.
Speaker 2I almost think that he had Penguin doing these jobs because he knew at some point the Penguin was going to say, especially after he killed his wife, that he was going to go to Batman because Bane planned for Batman to come after him in Arkham. This was all planned out. So, Gordon sees his vigilante, his friend, cracked.
Speaker 3Oh yeah.
Speaker 2Can that relationship ever be repaired?
Speaker 3I don't know He threatened If you don't get out of there now, you know we're gonna. I'm gonna send every single GCPT officer after you And if that doesn't work, i'm gonna call the Justice League.
Speaker 2I tell you what this seems like the a low point for Batman at the moment, but we still have 59. We still have 40 plus issues.
Speaker 3How many times can Batman be broken?
Speaker 2What else can be done?
Speaker 3We asked that same question, a couple of issues back. You know what can, what else can happen, And then there's there's more. There was more here, right? I'm sure there's going to be even more in the future.
Speaker 2What we've had here is a slow burn up to this point.
Speaker 2Cause I remember us talking right after issue 50. I think it was the Ark after 50. And it's like, okay, they showed Bane in 50. When are we going to get something else? I think that was us being impatient, because if you have a hundred issue Ark, i don't care what writer you are, you can't tell your story in the first 20 issues. I mean, realistically, how many hundred issue arcs have there ever been that the same writer is on for a hundred issues and he's telling one story? I don't know if that's ever been done.
Speaker 3I'm not quite sure. I can't remember. I know, peter.
Speaker 2David was on the incredible Hawk way back when for a long time And I remember reading that. But there were several different, It wasn't like one long general story And not anybody in the modern age.
Speaker 3I don't believe. you know you got old school guys.
Speaker 2I mean, you had Scott Snyder, but his story, you know, was different arcs but it wasn't an overall arcing story.
Speaker 3One story, many different arcs. Yeah, tom King is a lucky guy for DC to be, you know, throwing all their money in his hat.
Speaker 2Well, yeah, i don't know If I would grade his overall. you know run and we don't usually do grades on here.
Speaker 3Oh, you're going to do a grade. No, no, no, i'm just saying that.
Speaker 2Oh, You know there's some arcs in there that really aren't very good. Oh yeah, i mean in the first 59 issues. There are some that I've disliked. The best ones that I've liked come after 50. To be honest, I did like the first arc, the I am Gotham arc.
Speaker 1Uh-huh.
Speaker 2We haven't seen in a very long time. We haven't seen Gotham girl, you know.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 2And that was the sole motivation to go after psycho pirate. That was the sole motivation to try to cure her and she's kind of disappeared In 50,.
Speaker 3Can you think back to issue 50 and all those people that we saw standing next to Bane? are we going to see all of them kind of play out coming against Batman in the future?
Speaker 2I would imagine. I mean, can you imagine when Thomas Wayne comes up against him again?
Ah right, That's what I want to see. We saw him a little bit in the last issue.
Speaker 2Gotham girl. I mean, there's the Joker, of course, but And in your favorites evil skeets. Yeah I. I don't know where they're going with that. No, really, i don't have any idea.
Speaker 3Right, yeah, i mean this.
Speaker 2this issue was so awesome, man, i was really excited when I read it you know you have your Batman villains, your top five or top ten, and I never thought at least lately, i never thought him being in like the top ten. I don't know if he was a guy that I would mention as of late night falls been out for over 20 years. It's been over 20 years since that story was told nightful.
Speaker 3Yeah, and I think that's one of your favorite ones, right?
Speaker 2Yeah, that's absolutely one of my favorite ones out there. I just you read a story like this and you're like, okay, give me 60. I think we're gonna see repercussions of his actions of maybe hitting Gordon or the police. Oh yeah, i got them city PD gonna come after him now, do you think or?
Speaker 3yeah, I don't know That's that's. That'd be an interesting one. Right to see GCPD Coming after Batman. I.
Speaker 2Don't really know where this is going, but I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 3There's so many different layers to this one. You got Bane, acting as if he's broken, and and he's got some form of PTSD. And then you've got Penguin. On the other hand, where Penguin is is completely broken himself. He's even talking about suicide there for a little bit and he, he's completely done.
Speaker 2He's ready for yeah, he's like if you arrest me for these murders, They'll find my body in Arkham right, yeah, and he's ready.
Speaker 3He's ready to die, and he's like. You know, i lost everything, though the one thing that I you know Well, i held dear in this, in this world, is dead. This is my wife, and, and I have nothing else to live for.
Speaker 2Penguin wasn't the one, one of the one standing at Arkham. I'm just curious what some of the others are. You know, what are they doing? What are the little things that I like to see, the inner pieces of the whole thing, and I hope we get that.
Speaker 3I don't know if you heard, but Tom King is gonna be absent from 64 and issue 65. Did you hear that? Yes, I did hear that so he's gonna be absent from those two issues And I guess he's gonna be doing a little arc with Josh Williamson with the flash or whatever little crossover.
Speaker 2Yeah, it did sound like that. It was a story that they already discussed and planned, so I don't think it's correct. You know, as a crossover of the flash. I don't know if it's, i don't know exactly what's gonna happen in that story. I didn't read the solicits for that, anything, but it should be very interesting.
Speaker 3I just hope that this, this story, doesn't kind of lose it, lose its attraction a little bit.
Speaker 2I don't think it will for two issues. You know what I mean. Oh yeah, i mean they've been giving us breadcrumbs I mean the smallest of crumbs and once in a while we'll get a bigger crumb. This is almost like a piece of cake. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, Right. Yeah, or a little cupcake. Let's say it's a little cupcake and And we've got cupcake and that cupcake tastes so good and you're like you want more, but all you got is crumbs.
Speaker 3That's a good one. Hey man, look, how about this? how about this artwork? I'm looking at that page there and where Batman grabs Bane's head. How awesome is that when he gives him that headbutt.
Speaker 2Yeah, that was pretty awesome. We did see that before, where he gave him a headbutt and says I am yeah, man, you know, that's why he's doing it here. Well, that's the only thing that seemed a little corny to me.
Speaker 3I mean, I'm talking about the artwork. I'm not talking about the artwork is awesome. The artwork is awesome.
Speaker 2But the actual scene where he says I'm trying to get you to say I am bane so I can head, but you and say I'm Batman and it'll sound cool, yeah we've already seen that. That's the only thing. it was like. You know, that's a little cheese there.
Speaker 3Dialogues a little cheesy. True, that's the only place I really found a little fault in. But I do love that. all those, all those panels there you know Batman's cape, It's all long and behind him and dragging on the floor in that middle panel where he's grabbing his head and his he's looks like he's got this anger in his face and they finally head butts him.
Speaker 2And I'll be honest, you know, what really seems weird to me is to see Gordon. I mean, it's still. We've seen it for the last what seven years. We see Gordon with his reddish brown hair, but before then you're all. He's always had white hair.
Speaker 2Oh yeah, sure It's still kind of weird to me to see you know him with no gray or white or anything like that. But I've been thinking about this a little bit. We're talking about the Robbins or last episode. We have Damien and Red Robin and none of them are like you know. Dick got shot, doesn't have his memory. Don't you think they would come running back to Gotham to help out or to see if he has needs any help or anything like that? I mean, they're like missing an action. That seems a little odd to me.
Speaker 2He has Alfred, but we don't get.
Speaker 3Yeah.
Speaker 2Too much interaction with anybody else in the bad family.
Speaker 3Yeah, you really don't know where, where, where either of the Robbins are Right.
Speaker 2Yeah, i mean, if you're not reading, like Teen Titans, yeah, or the Super Sons book, i mean you don't even see Damien. They don't even mention Damien in here.
Speaker 3Yeah, yeah, i think that is a little weird.
Speaker 2And if you think about it, all the way back to the new 52 started. How many times have you seen Damien at all in a Batman book?
Speaker 3Yeah, you haven't, Yeah it's.
Speaker 2it is a little weird, but yeah, that's kind of odd to me, but then he was in the Batman and Robin book.
Speaker 3Oh OK.
Speaker 2Of course, when the new 52 started, but he wasn't in the Batman book.
Speaker 3I do. I think that's a little weird as well.
Speaker 2This was an interesting issue. We had to just because our last recording was going to fall in Thanksgiving, recorded early before this book dropped. So next episode there were going to be two issues of Batman, so we had to get it out. We talked about doing this even before we read it. But then after we read it we're definitely like, yeah, we have to record and talk about this book. There's just so much going on that have to talk about it. So we just think of the cover.
Speaker 3That variant cover was really cool.
Speaker 2Yeah, the variant cover. I really liked the cover, the cover it has on a Dark Knight criminal, but the variant cover, yeah. you see Bane with his venom penguin.
Speaker 3Oh, yeah, that one, that one's awesome.
Speaker 2Batman sitting on a gargoyle Yeah, that was pretty awesome And I do, like you know that opening scene. You know how the credits are in movies or TV shows. When the action starts to roll and the credits It's only like, almost like a movie type. You know at the beginning where you see the credits And he walks up to Arkham.
Speaker 3This one definitely had a movie pacing. I really liked it a lot.
Speaker 2There's been another way that Tom King writes that I don't necessarily love. This rather enjoyed. But the other way that he writes he has, like, let's say it's a six panel grid or something like that, And he's telling one story on one side of the page And on the other he's telling something that somebody's doing similar.
Speaker 3And I don't care for that as much.
Speaker 2But this I liked, where you know you have a scene and then you jump to another scene and back.
Speaker 3Yeah, this one was really good. Yeah, I liked it a lot.
Speaker 2Was there anything else you wanted to add about this particular?
Speaker 3issue. I think we talked about it all. It was really good. You know, next to issue 50 and then next to the issue where we saw Dick Grayson get shot, i think this one might kind of top that. those ones, for me at least. I just want more books like this one. Excite me, get me into it.
Speaker 2I think we only might get a few of these as it goes on. Give a few breadcrumbs, as I said, and then hit you with one of these.
Speaker 3Oh yeah, Yeah, this was awesome. I liked it a lot.
Speaker 2So, as always, we are part of the nerdylegioncom podcasting network. Head over to nerdylegioncom and check out all those great podcasts. If you'd like to be part of the podcast, we have an email. You can send us an email or send us an audio clip. It's batpodpodcastedgmailcom. We are on Twitter. I am at Gotham Night 13. The show is at pod back.
Speaker 3And I'm at Joey Galvez, 84.
Speaker 2And we do have a show voicemail. If you'd like to call and leave us a message, we'll put it right on the podcast. That number is 4104490650. We are on iTunes. If you'd like to give us an iTunes review, we'd really appreciate it. We're also on Google Play and Stitcher. Was there anything else you wanted to add to this particular episode?
Speaker 3I always want to send everybody over to thebatpodcom. Go check out some really cool reviews, some really cool stuff up there, and just support us over there at thebatpodcom.
Speaker 2Awesome, some good stuff happening over there. We'll be back in about a week with our regular episode. Same bat time, same bat channel. We will see you later. Bye.