I Am Batman #0
- WRITER
- John Ridley
- Artist
- Travel Foreman, Norm Rapmund
- Letterer
- ALW's Dave Lanphear
- Cover Artist
- Rex Lokus, Travel Foreman
- Publisher
- DC Comics
- Price
- 4.99
- Release Date
- 2021-08-10
- Colorist
- Rex Lokus
In DC's Future State, Academy award-winning screenwriter John Ridley gave the world its first Black Batman, Timothy "Jace" Fox. Ridley with an art team of penciler Travel Foreman, inker Norm Rapmund and colorist Rex Lokus, then explored the past of Lucius Fox's estranged son in The Next Batman: Second Son -- sending him on a journey to his find his path in a Gotham City where all vigilantes are outlawed and Bruce Wayne is presumed dead. Ridley and the acclaimed creative team return with I Am Batman to finish Jace's tale as he transitions from a secret operative with a shadowy past to taking on the mantle of Batman.
I Am Batman #0 opens with a young Jace Fox training under the tutelage of Tatsu Yamashiro, aka Katana. As he ponders his future, the panel cuts to the present day where Jace is moving out of his family home. Elsewhere in the city, tensions between demonstrators and the police are high and Commissioner Renee Montoya is bearing the brunt of the heat. Hot on the heels of a case involving radicals, Jace lifts the curtain on a sinister plot to disrupt the peace of a city already on edge. Realizing the severity of the situation, Jace decides to bring in the big guns.
A while back, Ridley wrote about Superheroes of color in The Other History of the DC Universe, looking at them through the prism of reality and grounding them in DC's tumultuous timelines. I Am Batman #0 similarly introduces a Batman who is seeking redemption for his past and is driven to bring change to corrupt systems. The narrative of the issue is straightforward and feels like a contained origin story with the characters and their dynamics established early on in the book. Ridley weaves an interconnected tale of dramatic storylines that converges at the climax as the events push Jace to question his methods.
Foreman and Rapmund's clean lines place the focus on the characters without delving into any distractions. Even though the art is simplistic and devoid of detailed environments or backgrounds, the expressive and diverse facial articulations give life to the characters. Lokus does a wonderful job of using solid shades of colors to create various metropolitan locales, from green sceneries to dark alleyways. As the story picks up the pace, the action transitions to dynamic layouts with artwork that becomes more gritty and blustering in each panel.
I Am Batman #0 bridges the gap between two of Ridley's previous limited series that depicted the homecoming of Jace and his nights as a crimefighter. Ridley makes his Batman different from other iterations by giving him room to grow as a character. He transforms his self-doubt into self-determination to influence change while navigating muddy politics and a complex family dynamic. The issue introduces new characters and elements that will no doubt come into play as the series progresses. It brings a fresh new start to the Batman mythology which can be difficult for new readers to follow, but fans intrigued by Future State will dive into it.