Posted in: Batman, Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, DC Comics | Tagged: Batman#158, jim lee

Just How Meta Is Batman #158 Hush 2 By Jeph Loeb & Jim Lee? (Spoilers)

So just how "meta" is Batman #158: Hush 2 by Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee? Bleeding Cool digs in.... (BatSpoilers)

In ten days time. Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee are returning to the pool for Hush 2 in Batman #158, twenty-plus years on. Tommy Elliot was a childhood friend of Bruce Wayne who attempted to murder his own parents and inherit their fortune, but Bruce Wayne's father saved Elliot's mother's life. Tommy grows up to become a neurosurgeon and tries to destroy Bruce Wayne… and Batman. Thought drowned, the 20th-anniversary reprint showed that he survived… and yes, Hush 2 feels like a cash grab, an act of desperation. But how much do they admit it? Quite a lot, from what I understand. This is not just a sequel but a sequel about sequels.

The comic, as we have seen in previews, has Batman dealing with a Joker who is committing old crimes, poisoning reservoirs, Joker fish, and the lot. But why is a Batman rogue who strived for originality stuck on repeats? A bit like Jim Lee and Jeph Loeb are? Both dropped into the drink…

We have a Joker rescued from the waters by The Silence, working for Hush, whose powers suggest anything but, deafening the clown prince of crime, before dragging him off and leaving a, well, clown shoe behind.

While it is Talia Ghul, mother of Damian Wayne, who rescues Batman, saves his life and then just nicks off in a helicopter, without a buy your leave.

While Batman returns to the Batfamily in Batgirl's Gotham Clock Tower with a case and a clue shoe…

The Joker, however, is tortured by Hush, as if that will get him anywhere. But this is where other aspects of the Batman and Joker legends return.

Because Batman follows the clue on the show to an abandoned circus fairground and finds himself fighting his way through a hall of mirrors…

Because all this is done in the manner and fashion, using the locations and imagery of primarily, Batman: The Killing Joke with just a soupcon of Batman: Death In The Family... which is all over Batman #159. Hush is punishing the Joker for his crimes against Jason Todd, Barbara Gordon and Jim Gordon explicitly, purely because Bruce Wayne, the boy he grew up with, won't. So Hush is doing the job for Batman… Hush was originally fake-teased as the returning Jason Todd, Robin II back from the dead, until DC Comics would later do that for real. Are there similar teases to be played out in the sequel? Batman #158 by Jeph Loeb, Jim Lee and Scott Williams is published on the 26th of March.

BATMAN #158
(W) Jeph Loeb (A/CA) Jim Lee, Scott Williams
THE HOTLY ANTICIPATED SEQUEL TO THE SMASH-HIT STORYLINE! Jeph Loeb! Jim Lee! An all-new epic saga begins here. Hush returns! Retail: $4.99 In-Store Date: 3/26/2025

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