Jeph Loeb has been on something of a nostalgia tour at DC Comics, namely by revisiting his older popular works with sequels. This has been the case with his iconic story, Batman: The Long Halloween, and more recently, Batman: Hush. Loeb’s newest one-shot with artist Jim Cheung, Batman/Wonder Woman: Truth #1, continues that trend with a new story that builds on the aftermath of the original Hush.
One positive about Batman/Wonder Woman: Truth is that by having it take place immediately after Hush, it eliminates the problem with characterization that so many readers experienced with Batman: Hush 2, the latter of which is ambiguously set in the DCU present. This also helps preserve the tone of that particular era, which is also augmented by Cheung’s art and Jay David Ramos’ colors.
Cheung perfectly channels “Jim Lee energy” on every panel by drawing super detailed characters and backgrounds whilst not neglecting his own style. He also thrives at depicting fluid motion when drawing action scenes. Similarly, Ramos uses dark, cool colors to recapture the neo-noir tone of the original Hush. Ramos also uses warm colors on Wonder Woman to capture her warmth as a heroine who believes in love. This works as an excellent contrast to Batman’s dark color palette, which captures his bleak view of humanity and cynical view of romantic relationships.
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Though this story does take place in the main DC continuity, it is important to note that it’s not exactly following the post-Crisis canon due to the numerous revisions DC underwent starting with 2016’s Rebirth initiative. As such, Wonder Woman is presented with her Rebirth costume instead of her more iconic costume from the post-Crisis era. Likewise, Catwoman and Harley Quinn are presented in their costumes from the 2000s, but their characterizations aren’t reflective of their developments from this era. The decade of confusing retcons proves to be a major weak point of this one-shot since they draw out Loeb’s flaws as a writer.
Whilst Loeb is known for dissecting the psychology of male characters in writing, he struggles to do this with female characters. In this one-shot, Loeb demonstrates that he has a basic understanding of Wonder Woman, Catwoman and Harley Quinn, but struggles to translate their core concepts into thoughtful characterization. For instance, Loeb shows in writing that he understands Wonder Woman is supposed to be a champion of love and empathy, but doesn’t know how to present her as a hero who promotes that without writing her as lacking social skills. Wonder Woman should be presented as having more emotional intelligence than that, especially when working with someone she knows struggles with relationships like Batman does.
Likewise, Wonder Woman would never naively put her own lasso of truth on public display, as she knows it can very easily fall into the wrong hands. When dealing with a problem, Wonder Woman (when written well) is also far more skilled at diplomatic solutions than Batman is and is a far better communicator to avoid escalating a dangerous situation. Unfortunately, these traits are not consistently present in the execution. Much of Wonder Woman’s characterization throughout this story is driven less by how she would realistically react to her lasso being stolen (or Batman’s relationship issues) and more informed by what is needed for the story. Regrettably, Catwoman and Harley Quinn don’t fair any better.
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In Catwoman’s case, Loeb understands that Selina Kyle is a morally gray character who is a highly skilled thief, but writes her as a cliché version of herself that borders on self-parody. None of her nuance from Ed Brubaker’s and Darwyn Cooke’s Catwoman run (which was published around the same time as Hush) is present here, which makes her feel terribly regressed. This stands out even more with Selina obsessing over Batman breaking up with her in Hush, which makes her read as petty. This is a far cry from the Catwoman who was building a new life and support system for herself in Gotham’s East End, alongside Holly Robinson and Slam Bradley. When it came to Selina’s frustration over her relationship with Bruce, Brubaker handled this with more depth.
In the case of Harley, Loeb doubles down on these same problems to the point where she also doesn’t read like the character who was published in the Harley Quinn series from the 2000s by Karl Kesel and Terry Dodson. Case in point: Harley had already moved on from “Mistah J” by this point in her timeline and was already living in Metropolis with Poison Ivy. Given that Harley herself was in a new place in her life, there’s no reason why she would still be obsessing over Joker’s feelings for her to prompt her to steal Wonder Woman’s lasso. At least not beyond Loeb wanting to include her in the one-shot to add some humor to the story.
When it comes to Batman, Loeb is consistent with how he was depicted in the 2000s, which works to cement this story as taking place after Hush. Beyond that, however, the writing for Batman is not much of a strength either. But instead of characterization being the weak point, Loeb instead struggles to establish a clear motivation for Batman in this story. For instance, why did he need to trick Wonder Woman into putting her lasso of truth in a glass case just to have Catwoman steal it to “test” the Wayne Foundation’s security system? Why did he even ask Catwoman to test it when he had just broken up with her? More importantly, why did Catwoman agree to do this despite being hurt by the breakup? So much of what Batman does from start to finish is pretty nonsensical, which is (ironically) acknowledged in the text.
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Whilst it can be argued Batman was simply “not in his right mind” after the events of Hush, it still doesn’t do much to explain why he would ask Catwoman to “test” his own security system as a way of getting over her. It also doesn’t explain why he needed to involve Wonder Woman in this scheme. Is he trying to prove to himself that he made the right choice to break things off with her because she’s incapable of change? Is that why he needs to expose Selina to the lasso of truth? Despite Batman and Catwoman’s romance being the focal point of the story, there’s still not enough context to go on. Selina also appears to be unaffected by touching the lasso, even though the lasso is known to still work with clothes on.
Related to Batman lacking a clear motivation in this story is Loeb struggling to figure out what he wants to say about Bruce Wayne as a character. Much of this one-shot focuses on Batman’s trust issues and his wanting to close off his heart to Catwoman, but it also ends with Wonder Woman concluding that Batman feels unworthy of receiving love. But why does she reach this conclusion? Is it because Bruce can’t move on from the trauma of losing his parents, and this makes him emotionally unavailable to Catwoman? Is it because he feels like a broken human being who will only hurt everyone who gets close to him? Is it because he fears loving Catwoman will make him vulnerable to being hurt again and doesn’t want to relive that experience?
Whilst it could very well be all of the above, Loeb doesn’t devote any page space to meaningfully exploring that in order to make Wonder Woman’s conclusion about Bruce feel earned. At the same time, even if he had, he would not be saying anything new about Bruce that hasn’t been said and regurgitated in every Batman story that’s been told prior to Hush and in the decades since.
All in all, Batman/Wonder Woman: Truth is a story best enjoyed for the stunning artwork by Jim Cheung and Jay David Ramos’ colors. But as a story, it can probably be enjoyed as a standalone adventure if you ignore the larger DC continuity. Aside from the fact the main DC canon is now a Frankenstein monster of a universe after a decade of confusing revisions, Loeb doesn’t really write to his strengths here. Aside from writing women not being a strength for Loeb, he also struggles to establish a clear motivation for Batman and doesn’t build towards a new message to make this a standout piece.
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