Posted in: Batman, Comics, DC Comics | Tagged: alan scott, Bad Seeds, green lantern, harley quinn, Minotaur, poison ivy, The Joker, Things To Come, Vandal Savage

Working Out How Batman #8 Will Change Things To Come (Big Spoilers)

Working out how the upcoming Batman #8 will majorly change things to come in Gotham for DC Comics (Big Spoilers)

Bleeding Cool previously talked about Matt Fraction's appearance on the BIFF! BAM! POW! podcast talking up Batman #8 and #9, drawn by Ryan Sook, how Batman #8 as a deliberate breather. "It takes a moment to catch up with a couple of different he explained. "Three parallel conversations happening the same evening… scenes" as the issue shifts focus to three key figures, a hero, a villain, and a reporter, whose encounters "will reverberate across their city forever." Fraction says he apologised to Sook for the lighter action load, but promises it sets the stage perfectly for the real fireworks in Batman #9 subtitled "Operation Peregrine" that will be "balls to the wall," with escalating chaos involving paramilitarised forces and high-stakes confrontations.

But what can we surmise from what has been solicited, teased and shown in the Things To Come variant covers, as well as, basically, what I have been told is coming by Batman boosterists? Okay, here we go. The story is called Three Old Men in Gotham, so that rules Poison Ivy out. The cover shows us Alan Scott, the Golden Age Green Lantern and a Gotham resident. He is the hero. It also shows us Vandal Savage, the current Gotham Police Commissioner. He's the villain. And we have seen in recent issues, the reporter will be former Gotham Eye hack, Jack Dean, brought back into the game by Huston Gray…

…a kid with footage showing that Vandal Savage was framing Batman for murdering Gotham police officers.

And it looks like his plans may be going up in flames. I am told to expect a story split into three, across the pages, jumping from one to the other, following narrative and visual parallels of framing and content. The kind of thing Watchmen did a lot, but not a tool that has been much used since, following each character's journey through the entire issue, with Batman and the Batfamily in the background, but very present, interacting with the three figures in one way or another.

And as we can see, Mayor Poison Ivy is going to join with Vandal Savage's pursuit of the Batfamily through legal (if corrupt) means, for her own gains, power play and machinations.

She has sacrificed Harley Quinn to gain this position; Batman is nothing in comparison. And if she wants to transform Gotham, she will need the police to make the… hard changes coming. This is Bad Seeds.

I am told that the case is made that the very presence of the Batfamily, vigilantes on the streets of Gotham, goes against the belief in law and order. And fosters doubt in the official government, doubt that threatens to scupper Poison Ivy's other, transformative plans for Gotham. Vigilanteism as a solution to crime is like "screwing for virginity" and is portrayed as the true cancer in Gotham. This is also Bad Seeds.

Vandal Savage was originally a Green Lantern: Alan Scott villain, of course, making his first appearance back in 1943, which might add to the context of his appearance in Batman #8 as a cancer in the DC universe.

While for Jack Dean and the kid, black side characters in Gotham, the police are as institutionalist racist as anywhere in America, even when they are not controlled by Vandal Savage. And now he is smashing up the Bat Signal.

Batman #8 may give us a villain with a point, but those around him should be able to counter all those points. A split narrative and a chance to breathe, as Fraction promises, suggests a comic with nuance, context, and maybe an addendum to the New History Of The DC Universe, and a chance for Batman to sit down. Which might be handy as after this issue, he probably won't have much time to sit down, as the Minotaur threat, teased by The Joker, is coming soon too…. as the comic barrels down the road to issue 15 towards the end of the year… and right through Bad Seeds. That Bat signal isn't looking any better…

And the threat to it all could be a young black kid with a mobile phone, and the reporter trying to find a way to do what's right, without sacrificing this person who may hold the biggest power of them all to make a change. Even more than Vandal's millennia of power, experience and knowledge, Poison Ivy's strangehold on the roots of power, Batman's family of vigilantism and a Green Lantern ring. Revolution is just a TikTok away… and yes, to some degree, we have been here before. But maybe not quite like this…

• BATMAN #8
  (W) Matt Fraction (A) Ryan Sook (CA) Jorge Jimenez
  ONE NIGHT. THREE STORIES. WITH GUEST ARTIST RYAN SOOK. A hero. A villain. A reporter. Three old men, on one night in Gotham, each have encounters that will reverberate across their city forever. Series writer Matt Fraction is joined by sensational guest artist Ryan Sook for an unforgettable new chapter of the Caped Crusader's ongoing story. $4.99 3/9/2026

• BATMAN #9
  (W) MATT FRACTION
  (A) RYAN SOOK
  Cover (A) JORGE JIMENEZ
  Variant covers by DUSTIN NGUYEN, JORGE MOLINA, and RYAN SOOK
  AAPI Heritage Month variant cover by JOHN GIANG
  DC x Sonic variant cover by MIRKA ANDOLFO
  Foil variant cover by JORGE JIMENEZ
  1:25 variant cover by DAVID AJA
  $4.99 US | 40 pages | Variant $5.99 US (card stock) | Variant $7.99 US (foil)
  On Sale: 5/6/26
  After making a sinister deal with Mayor Isley, Commissioner Vandal Savage initiates "Operation Peregrine," sending his brutal TUCO squads across Gotham City on a singular mission: Bring in the Batman! Batman and his team must destroy and abandon their hideouts, safeguard their data, and escape the long arm of the law… but not everyone will make it safely through the night!

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