Just recently, Josh posted an article about how we should respect the workers of the comic book industry. Even if we do not like the stuff they are currently writing or drawing; we shouldn’t be disrespectful to them. Critique their work yes, but act like a child no. Now we all know my disliking of Jeph Loeb is deep right now. But I gotta give props to him when I can, hell he made some of my favorite Batman stories. This might sound crazy for some: But I think ‘Hush’ is better then most of Loeb’s previous work on Batman. Maybe not so much of ‘Long Halloween’; but I prefer this story over ‘Dark Victory’ or ‘Haunted’.

This story introduces the infamous villain Hush to all Batman readers. He would become one of the most hated villains to ever come out, but not for the right reasons. To get the bad out of the way first, Loeb’s way of writing Hush is totally off putting. He’s too smug, and too confident for us to get into this ‘new’ villain. He’s also a bit too mysterious because Loeb wrote his identity in such a way where it’s too confusing to figure out. Obviously we know who Hush is now (thanks to the great writing of Paul Dini), but for a titled story called Hush….the guy isn’t really that great of a villain here.

As a story on a whole, I loved almost everything coming from this. Whether it’s the Batman/Catwoman dynamic in this; to possibly one of the greatest fights with Superman against Batman; this book has a lot of things for fans to love. I think Loeb has always wrote a great Batman and he also does some great side characters as well. He absolutely writes a perfect Riddler and Catwoman in this and you could definitely see more of it in his books with Tim Sale. (Find that Catwoman/Riddler trade that takes place after ‘Long Halloween’. That’s a great forgotten story.) If anything else it’s the romantic angle with Selina that keeps this story always enjoyable to read.

Then you got Jim Lee on art, and once again Jeph Loeb knows how to pick his artists. Even if it’s a bad comic he always gets someone in to make the story look good. I think this is some of Lee’s best work in anything he’s done. Character models are gorgeous, great panel layouts, fighting is free flowing in here. You also get some great inking in here with Scott Williams, basically if you see him on a Batman book you know it’ll look good.

My only other criticism of this trade on a whole is: It really shows how bad DC’s trade program is. The first hardcover volume came out in 2003; then the second hardcover volume came out in 2004. Then the two volumes got collected in two seperate paperback trades later in 2004. Then in 2005 we got the absolute edition for this. (FYI: If you want an absolute of this, get it for the art. But overall I wouldn’t spend too much money on this) NOW we’re finally getting this entire story collected in one big paperback. After initally starting in issue in the year 2002 we finally get a full paperback collection of this in 2009. Call it ‘sour grapes’ if you want, but that is just ridiculous.

I think this story gets a bit of a bad wrap because of Jeph Loeb. Around a little bit after this I believe this is where his work became a bit hard to sallow. As a whole though this is definitely worth your time to read. It’s not deep like a Morrison story, or as a reminder of ‘Batman the Animated Series’ like with Dini. This is just an action packed comic with some really great moments in it. I might not like Jeph Leob as a writer now; but I can still embrace the past.