Batman, Volume 6: Graveyard Shift (Review)

Batman, Volume 6: Graveyard Shift

I suppose it was inevitable. After five truly stunning volumes that have reinvented the Batman mythos in unprecedented ways, there was sure to be one volume to come along that's just mediocre. This isn't a criticism directed toward writer Scott Snyder. The truth is that Batman, Volume 6: Graveyard Shift suffers from being a collection of short stories told by a variety of writers displaced from the larger story Snyder has been telling in his Batman epic. None of the stories are really given the appropriate amount of space to evolve into truly gripping narratives, though most of them are perfectly serviceable standalone tales that make for quick reads.

The first story in the collection, "Bright New Yesterday," is penned by Snyder with art by the usual crew of Capullo, Glapion, and Plascencia. Jumping back to a point in time before he'd become Batman, the story details one of Bruce Wayne's earliest encounters with the Red Hood Gang. The events play more like deleted scenes cut from the Zero Year storyline covered in Snyder's previous two volumes. The next story, "Tomorrow," by James Tynion IV, covers the whereabouts of the members of the Bat Family (Tim Drake, Jason Todd, Dick Grayson, Barbara Gordon) the night the famous Bat signal was first activated.

"Resolve" is penned by both Snyder and Tynion IV, and is easily the most effective story of the bunch. Bruce is pushed to his breaking point in dealing with the death of his son, Damian, which occurred in a separate Batman title and not by Snyder's pen. Split into two chapters with Snyder and Tynion IV halving it up, the story is given enough room to breathe and invest you emotionally as you watch Bruce cope with his pain by turning all that hurt into rage and fury. The shame of it is that no story dealing with Bruce's grief over his son could ever hope to top the textless masterpiece that is issue 18 of the separate Batman and Robin title by Peter J. Tomasi and Patrick Gleason.

Next up is "Nowhere Man," another Snyder and Capullo short story. This one's a compelling mystery that sees the return of classic Batman villain Clayface. There's a touching moment at story's end which sees Bruce and Alfred mourn Damian together, but it's short-lived. The following story, "Ghost Lights," by Tynion IV sees Alex Maleev take over art duties, which is fine because he consistently knocks it out of the park. This one's a detective story by way of the old occult detective stories that frequented the pulp magazines. The strange primary plot marries with a secondary story that sees Clark Kent visit Bruce in the wake of Damian's death. Bruce doesn't want to talk about it, of course, but Clark deals with his friend both thoughtfully and in a way of understanding. I really hate that the more compelling story was knocked down to secondary plot status. I would much rather have had Bruce's grief and his friendship with Superman front and center here.

"Ages" is a longer story written by Marguerite Bennett that sees Batman testing security in the latest wing of the infamous Arkham Asylum. Bennett introduces a seriously compelling character in the Anchoress, Arkham's oldest living inmate with the fascinating ability to pass through matter using quantum tunneling. She's a character straight out of gothic horror. As a young woman, she was fascinated with quantum mechanics and the human body, which she studied against her parents' wishes. After a lab accident claimed the lives of her parents, she checked herself into Arkham, racked with guilt. Interestingly, she calls herself the Anchoress after the religious Anchorites of early Christianity, who were known to withdraw from secular society to live a life of seclusion. She's an entirely unexpected and truly frightening character.

Following "Ages" is easily my favorite story of the volume: "The Meek." Written by Gerry Duggan with astounding art by Mateo Scalera, this one's a straightforward mystery that pits Batman in a cat-and-mouse game with a gruesome serial killer. This time, the killer isn't a super villain, he's just a regular guy who has ceased to believe humans are deserving of dignity, and kills because...well, just because. The story makes a profound statement regarding the worth of a human being, the importance of human dignity, and offers a stern warning against dehumanization. To a degree, these are the kinds of straightforward stories that I wish Batman writers would tell more often. At his core, Batman is a detective. And though he captures the villain, there's no punch he can throw that will hit hard enough to resurrect the dead. Justice is done, but the echoes of evil still linger heavy on the page. The final image revealing all of the killer's nameless victims is absolutely haunting, bordering on disturbing—as it should be.

The final story, "Gotham Eternal," is meant to tease a separate Batman title that Scott Snyder worked on during the New 52 era. I didn't fully understand what was happening, which I think is the point, as it's just meant to preview the storyline of Batman Eternal. Beyond raising some interesting questions about a few characters, I didn't find the story to be all that compelling, probably because the one that preceded it was still lingering in my mind.

Overall, Graveyard Shift is a collection of hit-or-miss short stories that deal primarily with Bruce's grief over Damian. The unfortunate reality is that Peter Tomasi penned the ultimate take on this particular narrative, and that story isn't included in this volume. Interestingly, writers Bennett and Duggan pen the best stories of the volume ("Ages" and "The Meek"), and I'm glad the volume chose to showcase these talents. I would love to see further stories deal with the tragic Anchoress character, and the pairing of Duggan with artist Scalera is a revelation of dark sublimity.