Some thoughts about Batman #118

Batman will have to stop murderers who are really close to him now.

Bruce has been focusing too much on Gotham City lately that he forgot about some of his old allies around the world and sadly, they're apparently involved a crime that he will now have to investigate.

We know why we are all here. This marks a new beginning from Batman after the disaster that was James Tynion IV's run... after the disaster that was Tom King's run. Yeah, the Batman books haven't been at their best for a while and a change was needed. Fortunately, rising DC writer Joshua Williamson is willing to change a bit about that.

The first thing that you will notice is that Williamson throws away a lot of Tynion's toys to open with his own story (although I would have been fine if he simply ignored them because they completely blow). This allows for a greater focus on how Williamson sees Batman, particularly early on since Williamson's Batman way to deal with crime is much different from how Tynion's Batman does, there's actually more emphasis on common criminals and cases which is a breath of fresh air after how supervillain-ridden the last run was. In fact, I think Williamson kinda makes fun of that when he presents a scene in which Batman has to face a bunch of criminal dressed as his classic rogues gallery.

The writer doesn't waste time on a single topic though since we finally see the return of Batman Inc. and of course it had to be that because if we know something about Williamson is that he loves to bring back classic continuity. This comes back with a twist though, one that is pretty interesting, involves a new supervillain (in yet another surprising way) and even an old enemy that we don't see interacting with Bruce that much (again, another breath of fresh air). Is everything pretty promising so far.

There are also a few character bits like how Batman recognizes criminals just because of their movement or how he barely has any friends left after all the mess that has happened in his life and around the DCU. Is solid stuff.

Jorge Molina and Mikel Janin share the pencils and their work is pretty consistent over the course of the read, a very prominent dark tone appropriately flows around the story.

Intriguing beginning. Hope things get even better from here.