As Dawn of DC ends the DC All In direction begins. Of course with this new direction a Batman series would be being part of the initial roll out. That comic book came in the form of Chip Zdarsky and Jorge Jimenez’s Batman #153. Right away Zdarsky and Jimenez established the new status quo for Gotham City under the DC All In banner. This new status quo provided a fresh new foundation for not just Bruce Wayne and the Batman Family but for all of the residents of Gotham City to build on. That is immediately seen with the events that went down in Batman #153.
BRUCE WAYNE & EDWARD NYGMA BUSINESS CROSSOVER
Outside of the Batman Family and Joker the person who had gone through the most torture at Batman of Zur-En-Arrh’s hands was Edward Nygma. Back in Batman #145, Batman of Zur-En-Arrh made a public display of capturing the Riddler in front of all the media. Then with Daniel Captio, Bruce Wayne and Joker’s former teacher, help Batman of Zur-En-Arrh used Riddler to test rewiring villains minds to “cure” them in Batman #148. Based on how the Dark Prison’s story ended the Batman Family defeated Zur-En-Arrh before they could do the same to Two-Face and other villains.
The ramifications of what Zur-En-Arrh did to “cure” Edward Nygma was a major focus in Batman #153. In this issue we learned that Nygma used Zur-En-Arrh experimenting on him to force the courts to exonerate him. He would then use his new freedom to quickly create his own cryptocurrency, Questeum, and build a highly successful business named NygmaTech.
Just like Batman and Gotham City Mayor Nakano, it is tough to not see Edward Nygma turning over a new leaf being a benevolent move. True to his character we see later on in the issue that now Nygma is trying to force Bruce into a merger between Wayne Enterprises and NygmaTech. He is doing this by secretly working with Wayne Enterprise’s current CEO.
That said, it is shown that Nygma is a changed man. That change wasn’t something that suddenly turned him into a good guy, as we see with the way he operates business. What is different is that when speaking with Batman and to the press he no longer speaks in riddles. There is no sign of the Nygma morphing back into the Riddler. Instead, he spoke in a way we see the likes of Elon Musk and Satya Nadella talk. So, it does look like Zur-En-Arrh procedure did “cure” Edward Nygma to use his genius to become a ruthless businessman.
COURT OF OWLS AIM TO CONTROL GOTHAM CITY AGAIN
The Riddler isn’t the only villainous force that gets the spotlight in Batman #153. Throughout the issue we see that the Court of Owls are quite active in Gotham City. The most obvious way is with one of the Court of Owls members, Leonid, meeting Mayor Chris Nakano. While Nakano tries to act like he is not threatened by the Court of Owls it’s clear by how Leonid acts that is not the case. Leonid was not above reminding Nakano that they know everything about him, including him cheating on his wife.
Given that by the end of Batman #153 we see that someone from the shadows killed Mayor Nakano all signs point to the Court of Owls involvement. The Court of Owls controlling Gotham City’s government would be the power grab they need to reclaim their previous control. Because after Batman and Nightwing defeated them so handily in different storylines they are in need of a reboot. Replacing Nakano with one of their puppets as Mayor of Gotham City would be the power move they need.
The other big possible Court of Owls development is the introduction of Commander Star. Gotham City’s new vigilante, who quickly gained Commissioner Vandal Savage support, just happened to appear in the same issue where Wayne Enterprise’s CEO confronted Bruce about him having a brother. Given that Bruce having a brother was brought up during the Court of Owls storyline with Lincoln March being positioned as Thomas Wayne Jr. this can’t be a coincidence.
The other dead giveaway is that when we do see Batman and Commander Star standing next to each other they have the same build. Jorge Jimenez is too good of an artist to not purposely do this. Given how the Talon’s failed them the Court of Owls creating their own Captain America-esque vigilante and having Lincoln March in the role is an obvious move. With Bruce’s secret brother being brought back up everything tying together makes to much sense. So much so it does leave us wondering what the swerve in this story will be.
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