Batman No. 68 review: A tale of two parties

In the penultimate issue of the Knightmares arc, Batman revisits the night of his bachelor party and tries to figure out what went on at Selena’s own last night of freedom.

Batman No. 68: ‘Knightmares Pt 6: Solitude ’

Writer: Tom King

Artist: Amanda Conner

Tom King waited, in what seems to be the final issue of his Knightmares storyline, to write the most endearing and emotional issue of that arc. Well, it started off that way before it took a pretty dark turn at the end, when it’s finally “revealed” that Batman has been under some sort of mind manipulation, which has triggered these PTSD nightmares.

If you’ve been paying attention, this isn’t much of a revel as it’s been pretty obvious and apparent that this was the situation, and really the only mystery yet to be determined is who and specifically how, Batman got there.

In Batman No. 68, King’s final nightmare for Batman, explores his relationships with Clark, and what he thinks Selena’s relationship with Lois Lane is, through the façade of his and Selena’s bachelor and bachelorette parties. We obviously now this is Batman mental construct, since the events of the bachelor and bachelorette already happened in the Batman: Prelude to the Wedding tie-in issues.

Credit to DC comics and artist Amanda Conner

The parties instead were used by King to dissect Bruce’s emotional connection to Selena and how he believes Selena always had doubts in marrying him. There are moments of rare emotional Bruce moments in Batman No. 68, which really makes us the readers buy in on the love that Batman has for Selena, building up and justifying his mental state since issue 50.

“She’s more important that the galaxies,” is Bruce as vulnerable and stripped down as he has ever been written and we get the sense that he really is/was in love with Selena. While the other five issues explored different aspects of Bruce’s psyche; fear, anxiety, trauma, doubt and heartbreak, this issue was a little different as this one explored social and romantic relationships, or lack thereof and how Bruce feels alone and how he thinks Selena feels alone.

Being the ever constant Ying to Bruce’s Yang, Clark is the personification of how Batman feels about the Batman/Bruce Wayne dynamic. Clark lets him know that he has Bruce figured out: be hates being Batman but loves the fact that he HAS to be Batman. That personal conflict for Bruce can’t be easy, and goes a long way into why Bruce, and Batman, are the way they are.

Credit to DC comics and artist Amanda Conner

Knightmares, Part 6: Solitude is also the most charming issue in this arc, as King does a good job in writing the relationship between Lois and Selena, as they have the time of their lives in the fortress of solitude. There is also a charming quality about the awkwardness between Bruce and Clark as they “celebrate” Batman’s last night as a free man. That dynamic of charming and loneliness is classic King juxtaposition and writing. This obviously ends towards the end as we see Batman tied up with hookups on this brain.

As the Knightmares is about to wrap up, we can start to look at it as a whole. While many might feel differently, what made this so appealing and made it a test to story writing was that it wasn’t cohesive and was random. This is exactly what real nightmares feel like, and the readers have accompanied Batman, down this tour of his complicated persona.

Ever the self-evident writer, King even tweeted back to knowing, that the set up for Batman No. 68 was going to be an emotional rollercoaster.

Something King and the editors have done well during this run, is choosing an appropriate artist and their art style that fits within the context of the nightmare. Amanda Conner’s cartoon-style art amplifies and accents King’s writing in this issue and the art allows the reader to not feel so tense as we read one of the heavier thematically issues in Knightmares.

This abruptly changes when Conner’s art is replaced with Dan Panosian who draws a sharper and stricter page, which lets the reader know that the theme and tone of the issue are about to change in a major way. The change is abrasive, which relates to a real life mood swing, and is pretty well orchestrated by the Batman creative team.

7/10

Batman No. 68 the penultimate issue to the Knightmare story, and brings a little levity to an otherwise dark topic.