I have not read Batman comics since Bane broke Batman's back several years ago. I just read the other day about a new comic series called Batman: Hush. SPOILER:Is this true? Is the Hush story a good read? Would I be lost if I tried to read it since I haven't read any Batman comics in several years?

There have been lots of good Batman series since then, some better than Knightfall.

All of them are available in TPB format- The Long Holloween is especially good, and No Man's Land is a pretty good series as well.

The only thing I can tell you is to go ahead and read the story. It does somewhat involve Jason Todd, but I won't ruin the surprise. It's definitely worth picking up in TPB format IMO.

The artwork alone is worth picking it up. I think you can muddle through pretty well if you're just a casual fan.

The artwork is pretty great. The story loses steam by the end and, in my opinion, fizzles out like all of Jeph Loeb's Batman stories. It has been a while since I read Hush, A Long Halloween, & Dark Victory (all written by Loeb) but I'm always bothered by the fact that the world's greatest detective never comes close to figuring out who the bad guy is in these stories.

I haven't read Hush, but for anybody that's interested, I think a sequel to Hush started last week in Gotham Knights.

I'm not really a fan of Loeb's. Matter of fact, there's been so many good writers on Batman lately that I think Loeb's definitely been the worst writer on that title in awhile. And the future is looking even better. It'll be really interesting to see what Winick and Lapham do with Batman.

I'm going to offere a different view for what it's worth, but mind you I've yet to meet a person that agrees with me.


Hush IMO was one of the worste comic book stories I've ever read. It just made absolutely no sense, & basically the only plot that I could find in the story, was the excuse Jeph Loeb came up with to get Jim Lee to draw every single Bat-character in existance. It was just issue after issue of a new character showing up for absolutely no reason. I'm also, about the only comic book fan on earth that doesn't like Jim Lee. Every page of every panel is a character posing & looking awkward. That said, people seem to have eaten Hush up, so don't go by my opinion. I do think though, if you are looking for a good Batman story, you should look elsewhere. The current story in Batman IMO is about 100 times better than Hush was.

I had bought all the Hush issues, but for some reason, I didn't feel compelled to finish it when the final issue of the arc showed up 2-3 months ago. I finally did read it off an issue on the racks this weekend, and was pretty let down by the ending.

I like Jim Lee's artwork, but got tired of how many ways he could draw Batman's boots in excruciating detail.

I enjoyed Hush; the art was definitely better than the story, though.

FWIW:

Right now the back issues of the series are really in demand and and cost good money. Like if you could find Batman 608 for 10$ you would be doing pretty good. If you do decide to read it I would suggest picking up the HC vol 1 and 2. Or you could wait a year or two when the book loses it's high appeal and the back issues drop in value.

I'm in the minority but I really like the new arc written by Brian Azzrello.

Although 'Hush' was neat from a 'fanboy' perspective (see Jim Lee draw every character in the Bat-verse in the span of twelve issues), story-wise it did kinda suck (especially towards the end and the last issue was a major letdown). I'm a fan of Loeb and Lee, so the $2.25 cover price was enough incentive for me to pick it up on a monthly basis, despite the storyline.

However, there are TONS of great Batman stories I would recommend over Hush. Here are several:

Batman: Year One
Batman: The Dark Knight Returns
Long Halloween
Dark Victory
Death in the Family

And as previously mentioned, the current arc on Batman from the 100 Bullets team is excellent.

Don't worry, you're far from the only person who feels this way about "Hush". You pretty much summed up everything I hated about it.

I just finished with this, and I too was a bit disappointed in the ending. Let me preface everything else I say with this: I've never read comics on a monthly basis, and "Hush" is just the second graphic novel I've ever read. The first was "Batman: Year One". I've seen each of the five most recent Bat-films, and I think of myself as a casual fan of those.

As for my impression of "Hush", I thought some of the artwork was great. I really liked seeing some of the artwork for the Joker (gotta get my hands on a copy of "The Killing Joke") and some of the story was interesting up to the final "chapter".

There was "almost" a dead-giveaway 3/4 of the way through with the Riddler's scene and the stolen cash, and his appearance at the end was not very surprising. To that point, though, I was entertained.

Anyone know where I could get wallpaper/jpgs of the art that was used, especially after the story was concluded with the heros/villains standing together?

If you liked this story, you should read "The Dark Knight Returns" and the Knightsaga (Knightfall, Knightquest, Knightsend) for similar but better stories. Great reads.

Another great Batman story is The Long Halloween, one of my favorites after The Dark Knight Returns and Year One.

POSSIBLE SPOILERS:


Speaking Of JT, what are they doing with him? I know he's being a pain in the ass in the NIGHTWING book right now but where is this going? Also, I haven't read HUSH or anything else with JT in it other than NIGHTWING so I gotta know...the short answer will do BTW... how he's still alive? Is it really him or some kinda typical comic book bs like a clone or some Crisis related nonsense?

I'd read a lot more of them if the library in town had them in stock. As a student, I'm to the point where I prefer to check things out from there instead of paying cash. However, the libraries suck, so that's not much of a possibility. However, I've got a request in for "The Dark Knight Returns". Can't wait to read that.

I cant quite remember how he came back, but I wish to hell they would get him out of NIGHTWING...

I wonder about that too Robo. It's like they blew their wad on the red hood story and now there isn't a point to him being back.

No, I hate Jim Lee's artwork, too.

I love all the Batman stories written by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale. Sale seems to be the perfect artist for the brooding Batman stories.

Superboy Prime punched the wall of reality and poof Todd was alive again.

Well, I started reading "Long Halloween" last night at Borders, and I wasn't as impressed with the artwork as I was with "Hush", but the story seemed to be a bit better.

As for Jason Todd in "Hush", I think what happened is that JT was actually Clayface (must be some crazy-rare character that only die-hards know about), and Batman realized it wasn't actually Jason Todd b/c Jason Todd would have called him "Bruce" instead of "Batman". If you want more backstory, just let me know. But that's the barebones of it.

Oh, ok. So is the asshat currently in NIGHTWING also Clayface?

Clayface is the absolute worst Batman villain IMO.