If you said the word’s ‘Jeph Loeb’s Hush’; you’d get a good amount of comic fans holding their ears. What was promised as an exciting, and fierce new villain for Batman ended up being a convoluted and good looking (Jim Lee pencils here) story of Hush. Sadly that villain for many many years didnt go anywhere. He tried to be all tough by beating the shit out of The Joker in a later story, but that still didnt make people like him. Now Paul Dini, the wizard Shazam of the Batman mythos took a chance at the least popular villain. The results?

A pretty damn good reboot to now a very dangerous villain. This arc had two stories going to for: One has a better origin for Thomas Elliott, and the second was Hush trying to get rid of Batman for good. I mentioned it in the discussion link in the comics section, but I’ll state it again here. This felt like a very long script for a Batman: The Animated Series episode. There is so much mystery, intrigued, and action going on it just feels like a cartoon. The story gets bogged down a bit with Hush’s origins, at first it was a little uninteresting but the last 2 issues really made Elliott look like a bastard. But the stuff with Hush, Scarecrow, Catwoman, and of course Batman was all gravy. The last part in this story, which is DC #850, was POTW for a lot of people. It was the best Batman issue of the year, and that’s say something from a guy who loved every issue of Batman RIP. If you want to see my comparisons of BTAS in this comic, that issue right there could’ve been a regular episode of the series.

I was introduced to Dustin Nguyen in this arc, even though I know he worked on Dectective earlier then this. You can see in my issue reviews for this arc, but I wasnt too keen on the guy at first. His sketchy style was a bit off putting and midway threw I was just getting sick of his style. Then with the last two issues to go, somehow it all changed and his pencils looked a lot smoother and more defined. Again the last part of this story was the key to me loving Nguyen. His backgrounds are what make him a fantastic artist. Just look at the detail in the medical machines Catwoman is tied into; those look otherworldly but realistic at the same time. Of course now I have read the previous HC with Nguyen on this comic and he has really grown on me. He is now a much better artist then I gave him credit for so many months ago.

People were against RIP and I can understand why. I will still defend the other Bat-title and Morrison threw out my entire life. But if you wanted just an action packed arc of Batman then this was a pretty damn good subsitute to Morrison. I just wish it was the other way around sometimes….*tear*