Ricky Church reviews Batman/The Flash: The Button Deluxe Edition…
When DC rebooted their comic line last year, they left a very surprising twist at the end of DC Universe Rebirth #1 when Batman found a very familiar-looking blood-stained smily face button stuck in the wall of the Batcave. Meanwhile, Flash was given a warning by Wally West that they were being watched as someone powerful changed history and took things away from their lives. That someone, it seems, is none other than Watchmen’s Dr. Manhattan, who has come to the DC universe and messed around with things for unknown reasons.
Batman and The Flash are two of DC’s greatest detectives. The prospect of seeing this pair team up on one of the biggest mysteries they’ve faced is quite exciting and writers Tom King and Joshua Williamson take advantage of their team-up. While The Button is a little light on solving the mystery (or answering many significant questions regarding the Comedian’s button), the first half of the book has some good moments with Batman and Flash working together and going over the forensics of a crime scene. There’s still a fair bit of action though that will make fans happy, especially a fight between Batman and one of Flash’s most dangerous foes.
The real draw to The Button, however, isn’t the action or the mystery behind Rebirth, but in the emotional weight of the story. King and Williamson pack in a ton of emotion into this with the inclusion of a couple fan-favourite characters we haven’t seen in a long time. The meeting between Batman and the Flashpoint Batman, a world where Bruce was shot and Thomas Wayne became Batman, is the emotional highpoint of the book. King writes that chapter and takes full advantage of the father and son reunion, packing their brief scene with plenty of meaning and raising questions about what Batman will do going forward.
The art alternates between Jason Fabok and Howard Porter in the varying chapters, with Fabok illustrating the Batman title and Porter The Flash. Both artists have a different style, with Fabok’s art looking a little more ‘real’ and Porter’s more traditionally comic-booky. Both still do well conveying the action and emotion as well as the story. Fabok’s use of Watchmen‘s nine-panel grid style in the first chapter is well done, as is his depiction of Batman vs Reverse Flash, but again his highpoint is Flashpoint Batman. Just as King conveys the emotion through his dialogue, Fabok nails the emotion on the character’s faces, showing the pain and anguish of both Waynes during this scene.
Porter, meanwhile, shows Flash’s speed very well and includes a lot of detail in a cool spread of the crime scene throughout the Batcave and later the Justice League’s Watchtower. His rendition of Reverse Flash is fairly intimidating too; his every smirk shows just how cruel and creepy the villain can be, but his rendition of The Button‘s surprise character is one of the best parts of the book. Porter also plays around the Watchmen‘s format towards the conclusion, making a nice bookend for the story.
The colours in the book are also nice. Brad Anderson captures the moody atmosphere of both version of the Batcave while Hi-Fi is much more vibrant and colourful. Seeing all the varying styles may be distracting to some reading the book in one sitting, but overall they capture the feel of the individual titles and the heroes they focus on.
While Batman/The Flash: The Button may not satisfy much in the way of answers, it at least sets up a lot of intrigue for the upcoming Doomsday Clock and provides a lot of emotion for Batman and The Flash. Utilizing the world of Flashpoint paid off as the meeting between Batmen is the book’s best part and the writing from King and Williamson combined with Fabok and Porter give Batman and Flash fans an enjoyable and meaningful team-up.
Rating: 8/10
Ricky Church
