Spoilers for Forever Evil and whatever Johns has written for DC follow..........
I was reading Forever Evil yesterday and the only real 'hero' still active in that event is, you guessed it, Batman.
Forever Evil has many great things going about it. Firstly, it showcases various villains becoming the last bastion of humanity's defense and thus, allows a man, who writes layered villains better than any one else, to do what he does best. His revamp of Sinestro from a mustache twirling purple buffoon to the nihilistic anti-hero he is today is the stuff of legends.
He has done the same with Flash's Rogues (who were pretty much a joke before he took over) and Lex Luthor.
The event has been generally good, with good characterization of the villains of the piece, the Crime Syndicate and the heroic villains like Luthor and Captain Cold.
But I have to ask.....what is his problem with Bruce Wayne aka Batman?
The last mega event that spanned the DC verse which included Batman was Final Crisis (in which Bruce shot Darkseid and then got omega-beamed. Yeah,that happened).
I haven't read much of Geoff Johns writing on Batman. It is limited to Infinite Crisis, Batman:Earth One, GL:Rebirth and the new 52 Justice League, not to mention the current Forever Evil.
But the guy can't write Batman it seems. GL: Rebirth was the start as he wrote a Batman who was petulant and moaned when Hal came back to life (he was suspicious. I mean, who wouldn't be after Hal after he almost destroyed the entire universe before he died?) and got a punch to the face from Johns favorite GL Hal Jordan.
The first draft was worse. Apparently, Batman was possessed by Parallax and then shot Tim Drake/Robin. No wonder it was rejected.
I'm not putting Rebirth down here. It was an amazing story that somehow managed to be consistent with GL lore and then managed to improve and extend it manifold.
But I digress. Infinite Crisis was Johns' next attempt and it came off better. He wrote Batman-Earth 2 Superman and Batman-Nightwing interactions very well.
When Batman asked Dick whether the Robin years were good for him and Dick said yes, Johns was able to get to the core of the Batman-Robin balance. Even latter, when Bruce pointed a gun at Alex Luthor, it was because Nightwing was almost dead (and sounding from it, DC top guy Dan Didio wanted it that way).
Bruce was suffering from the post OMAC crisis and I felt his isolation and burden of guilt were well written. So, Johns triumphed there.
Batman Earth One was something of a in the middle thing. Bruce was made 'human'. He didn't travel the world and instead trained with his father's old war friend Alfred (yes, Alfred) and so, he wasn't all that good. Cobblepot almost killed him and it was Alfred who saved Bruce's hide. But I could excuse this as alternate Earth thing (I don't expect this Bruce to last long).
Now, he shepherded the New 52 in and no surprise, GL continuity was almost unchanged (not that I complain) as was Batman's. Through Bruce's large Robin panel made no sense in the 5 year thing New 52 had adopted.
Johns was reunited with Batman in the New 52 Justice League.
The first arc telling how the Justice League assembled 5 years ago 'Origin' was downright awful (they recently made a movie. It's bad but still better than the book) and resembled a Jim Lee DC audition sketchbook more than a Justice League comic.
The heroes came off as petulant and cringe-worthy, especially Superman. But the worst treatment was reserved for a certain pointy eared guy.......
Johns made Bruce into an awed naive simpleton, who needed to give up both his identity and his purpose to gain the trust of a man he could easily have manipulated into helping in the Pre-52. Not only that, in earlier portions of the arc, he made jokes about a guy wearing a Bat costume (even Barry Allen did it. Barry!)
The problem is, most people don't know how to write Batman in a Justice League like ensemble. He's a human, normal like us (but pushed to the max both physically and mentally) and standing alongside God-like individuals fighting such is hard to fathom.
I've always viewed Bruce as the master strategist, the man behind how Superman can defeat a guy like Darkseid. (the Superman/Batman: Apocalypse movie came close when Bruce threatened to blow up the planet unless the New God gave Kara back. Appearing in person there was kind-off dumb though.)
The major thing that endeared Bruce to us and made him such a popular hero was his ground level stories with psychological shades that hit very close to home. Now, I've never seen Johns attempt a Batman solo thing except for Earth One, so I have no idea how he would write a Batman story like Snyder or Morrison.
But Johns' struggles with Batman's role in the Justice League are evident every time you pick up a new 52 Justice League book. One moment, he makes Bruce look like a fish out of a pond while at other times, his survival exceeds belief.
I've seen Johns write Bruce throwing a batarang at Darkseid. And I think Darkseid winced (I did).
This in no way reflects his performance on other heroes. He redefined both Green Lantern and Aquaman, enhanced the Flash and did a good Superman.
But Batman is something else.......
We are now in Forever Evil territory. This was supposed to be an event bereft of the heroes (I have no idea how that's still possible. I mean, there are other heroes beside the teams right? Batgirl, Birds of Prey,Grifter, Red Hood, Etrigan.....) and showcase the New 52 villains playing hero against the Earth 3 evil counterparts of the Justice League.
But then we saw 'Batman' on the cover. Was it Bruce?
I hoped it wasn't. As the days wore on, I speculated. Could it be March (the guy from Night of the Owls) following in the footsteps of his absent alleged brother or was it Dick Grayson, somehow able to free himself from the Syndicate and take up Bruce's mantle again?
No, it was Batman. Eternal survivor. For anyone under any false impressions, I really like Bruce. His portrayal as the uberman under Morrison was excellent. That Batman could survive a nuclear explosion with some 5 year calculations. This Batman....not so much.
You see, Snyder's human Batman works within the context on his own work and we get some great stories. Paired with 'superheroes' it doesn't. Only Morrison's did.
Now this starts inconsistencies, especially for someone for whom Bruce is a hard subject. How do you involve him in such an event? For me, Bruce is the ultimate boy-scout (not in the Superman friendly sense, but in the readiness department). He's prepared for everything. He knows.EVERYTHING.
Contingency, thy name is Batman.
That's the only way he can survive in the crazy metahuman DC world. While I was watching War, this scene was a sore-point. Earlier, while talking with Hal Jordan, he said he had researched Superman intensely, and later he even revealed he knew Superman is Clark Kent.
I was totally expecting Superman to x-ray him and find out there was a lead-lined cowl and this prevented Bruce's secret coming out (creating a situation like All Star Batman, but this is the first and last time I'll reference that god awful storyline). So, imagine how disappointed I was when he was x-rayed and Superman said matter-of-fact 'Bruce Wayne'.
Now onto Forever Evil. Bruce is somehow one of 4 'heroes' to survive the Crime Syndicate's arrival. And surprise surprise, all of them are humans (Steve Trevor, Catwoman, Batman and Constantine) with only one versed in magics. Bruce is a survivor we know but the reasons of his 'survival' are pretty weak.
Trevor was teleported by Xanadu while John seemed to do the same (actually his house did, but that is another thing altogether).
How the f*** did Bruce and Selina escape? Johns writes it as 'they were out of range'.
That isn't a very good explanation.
Then, we get to the Luthor-Batman confrontation. Firstly, Bruce as I said should be the ultimate strategist. He knows how the game will finish even before the opponent makes a move. That's his super power.
So, why did he take a almost dead Sinestro Corps power ring as a weapon against Power Ring? Doesn't he know by now how Lantern Rings worked? I suspect while he pored over Green Lantern lore or even asked Hal Jordan, he learns about the Power Battery.
When he confronted Power Ring with such a thing, he promptly lost and was made to look foolish. And again, when Sinestro arrived and handed Power Ring his a**.
It all felt like 'How can you make a Sinestro entrance look cool' kind of thing. I agree that Sinestro deserves a cool entrance, but not at the cost of diminishing Bruce's character.
Then, in the next issue, he was saved by Luthor from a B-grade villain like Copperhead and again acted like a petulant child trying to convince Luthor's group to follow him so that he can rescue Nightwing, instead of playing along until a time came when he could play his hand. I get that Damian's death is probably still fresh and so, he was a little emotional.
But that's the thing. Bruce knows when to show what. He wouldn't act like that in-front of people he was trying to get behind him who had no reason to trust him. Saying 'we need to save this guy' will only lead to more loss of ground.
As you can see from the above cases and panels, Johns has some serious problems writing Batman. I do consider the fact that writing Bruce properly in a JL setting is one of the hardest tasks for a writer. But then, that is what Johns needs to do right.
For now though, he's doing it all wrong.
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