It’s rare that DC Comics will put a creative team together to work on a series starring Batman. For example, the last few teams have been Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee, Chip Zdarsky with various artists, Joshua Williamson, James Tynion IV, and so many more. In 2025, however, DC announced that legendary writer Matt Fraction (Hawkeye) and amazing artist Jorge Jiménez (who’s previously done art on Batman) were to be the new creative team for the Dark Knight.
It was easy to guess that these two would create something special, but five issues in, and it’s already exceeding my already-high expectations.
Batman creative team
- Writer: Matt Fraction
- Artist: Jorge Jiménez
- Colors: Tomeu Morey
Balancing Bruce and the Batman
There are some staples when it comes to Dark Knight comics; among them is Bruce Wayne's life being separate from his work as a superhero. That usually means that you’ll see more vigilante stuff than billionaire playboy. So far, there has been a comparable amount of both, and they’ve been equally good. Especially in the newest issue (Batman No. 5).
In an attempt to fund Dr. Zeller’s work (more on her later), Bruce took her out for dinner. This leads to the two fleeing from people trying to kill Zeller to stop her work. While most of the issue was Bruce in hero mode, it was amazing watching him hide his secret identity with an overabundance of charisma. And when he couldn’t hide it, he knew it was better to protect Dr. Zeller than his life as the Caped Crusader. This is something that he’s always done, and it shows that the creative team understands the character.
New characters
A mark of a great creative team is when they have the ability to create new heroes and villains in a pre-established world. Comic book fans complain when the same characters are continuously used, and that thought is justified. Repeatedly seeing the same things can become stale. So far, Matt Fraction and Jorge Jiménez have given readers a few new additions to the DC Comics lore in Batman. Among them are Dr. Annika Zeller and Gotham's crime families, the Torus.
The Torus is a mysterious character who runs Gotham’s underground with fear and fairness, but zero tolerance for failure. That latter was shown perfectly in issue No. 4 when he had the crime bosses’ loved ones executed in front of them. Before he carries out the act, he says: “When one of us earns, we all earn. When one of us bleeds… we all bleed.”
On the flip side, Dr. Annika Zeller is working on a way to take the insanity out of criminals. Admittedly, this could take a person’s personality away from them, too. That’s why Zeller’s work would be by choice. Thankfully, an example of the possibilities is shown with Waylon Jones, a.k.a. Killer Croc.
In issue No. 1, Zeller makes an impression on Batman. Instead of fighting Killer Croc, he takes his mask off and sits with him, and Waylon talks about his brain being bad. This hit Bruce in his heart. Batman has always believed in rehabilitation, but Gotham City doesn’t make it easy. This moment helped rejuvenate his desire to help even the worst of criminals.
The art is incredible
One of the things that got me pumped about this series was Jorge Jiménez’s art before Batman debuted. Like most creators, Jiménez posted images of pages from the first issue. It was a nice tease of things to come. However, the part that grabbed me was the new arsenal of gadgets and the gorgeous design of the new Batmobile. Plus, he didn’t just throw some pictures out for comic book fans. In the images were blueprints of the designs. It was like looking into the mind of Bruce Wayne as he was creating tech.
The combination of art and writing has been a match made in heaven, Valhalla, and the Field of Reeds. Seeing as their issues are continuously in the top five sellers of the month, there’s a good chance Matt Fraction and Jorge Jiménez will be creating Batman comics for a long time. I, for one, hope that’s the case. Stay tuned to Bam Smack Pow to see if that’s true.
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