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Batman #38 Review: A Scary History Lesson

By Nick Tylwalk

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If Batman is the super hero who almost always has all the answers, it only stands to reason that some of the best Batman stories come from the times when he doesn’t. For Batman #38, Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo take that concept and push it even further, as not only is the Dark Knight hard up for clues on how to stop the Joker’s latest scheme, he refuses to believe the ones he’s given.

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Granted, they’re pretty difficult to swallow. While there’s still some zombie movie-esque action in this issue — Gotham City is still overrun by Joker-ized citizens, after all — the meat of it is Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson (albeit remotely) playing detective as only they can. Once they find a man who knows the truth, it turns out to be almost too impossible to swallow.

That goes for us readers too. I won’t go so far as to call it a retcon as some other reviewers have, but it certainly casts a lot of what we thought we knew about the Joker into doubt. It certainly would explain quite a bit, going all the way back to his very first appearance 75 years ago, to be honest, but it also raises even more questions that I hope are explored before the end of “Endgame.”

I should say, too, that while Capullo has been masterful on the art side blurring the line between what’s real and what’s not during this entire run, this might be the first arc in which Snyder has matched him. By the time you reach the end of this issue, you’re in the same boat as Batman, uncertain as to the truth and possibly hoping what you’ve just read is another of the Joker’s lies.

In case there’s any doubt about whether this team has been working to set up “Endgame” the whole time, the reveal on the final page loops us all the way back to the first few issues of this volume. For one of the middle chapters of a high profile arc, there’s no letting up here, and all the pieces are moving into place for one heck of a third act.

SPOILERS PAST THIS POINT!

Still protecting the young man, Duke, he rescued last issue, Batman heads to check on Jim Gordon, finding him wounded but alive. That’s the good news. The bad news is that he’s been infected by the Joker virus too, and he has to be tranquilized by Julia Pennyworth. She delivers some updated info on the virus before leaving to take Duke to safety.

Batman manages to fend off several attempts on his life, including one that involves a tank, while he talks to Dick. Together, they deduce that the Joker is hopped up on something giving him regenerative properties while the people suffering from the Joker virus are undergoing the exact opposite. Three people formerly locked up in Arkham Asylum might have the answers and have aided the Joker, but only one is still around: Paul Dekker. You might know him as Crazy Quilt, though they never call him that in this issue. Dick also wants to help with whatever plan Bruce might have, but the Dark Knight is forced to admit he doesn’t have one.

Tracking down Dekker, Batman receives a crazy yet not completely implausible story about how a chemical compound has existed for centuries that can heal the body on a cellular level. Dekker insinuates that Vandal Savage encountered it in its raw form, Ra’s al Ghul uses a corrupted version of it in his Lazarus Pits, and the “pale man” encountered it long before Gotham rose. Yes, he’s saying the Joker is effectively immortal.

Unconvinced, Batman asks Julia for an update on the virus and finds out they have 24 hours or less to save the people already infected.She also does a facial recognition scan throughout Gotham’s history and says that either Joker has been around for hundreds of years, or someone is doing the best photo doctoring job ever. Meanwhile, Dekker takes an injection of what he thinks he gave to the Joker, but it either mutates or degenerates him instead, and he falls to what appears to be his death.

Determined not to let it end this way, Batman says he’s going to do something he never thought he would, going to visit … the Court of Owls? Uh, wow.

Favorite Moment: Crazy Quilt. That is all.

Final Thought: I’ve seen people online compare this issue to Swamp Thing’s “The Anatomy Lesson” story by Alan Moore, in terms of the way it flips previously held beliefs about a character upside-down. It’s certainly an amazing twist, but there are two more issues to go, and there could still be a few more swerves before it’s all said and done.

Next: Previously in Endgame: our Batman #37 review

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