In this series we spotlight comic book stories that are likely best left forgotten. Here is an archive of past installments.

Today we look at the disappointing conclusion to the Batman mini-series, The Widening Gyre...

Kevin Smith brought Oliver Queen back from the dead in a strong run on Green Arrow that began with a ten-part story that explained how Oliver was now alive. He then finished his run with a storyline introducing a new villain, Onomatopoeia, who was clearly designed with the idea of what would a modern day take on a classic Silver Age style villain would be like, a la the Riddler or the Calendar Man. Here, this villain talks in, well, onomatopoeia, only, because it is modern times, he also is a serial killer who hunts non superpowered superheroes...







So nearly a decade later, Smith returned to DC for a Batman mini-series called Cacophony, which set Batman against Onomatopoeia, drawn by Smith's longtime friend, Walt Flanagan (with inks by the great Sandra Hope). The series is a decent enough story, although Smith couldn't get through the series without at least one crass sex joke, as the Joker thinks that Onomatopoeia expects sex for breaking Joker out of Arkham Asylum...





In any event, Batman defeats Onomatopoeia, but the villain escapes by stabbing Joker in the heart, leaving Batman to determine whether to save Joker or stop him. Batman ultimately chooses the former.

Smith and Flanagan returned for a follow-up mini-series, The Widening Gyre (with inks now by Art Thibert), which took eleven months to come out with six issues.

In the first issue, Batman is nearly killed before a mysterious new vigilante dressed as a goat rescues him at the end of the issue.

In the second issue, the goat man helps out a lot, and Batman begins to get infatuated a bit...



Later in the issue, one of Batman's greatest love interests, Silver St. Cloud, returns after her fiancee dies...





Notice the "DeeDee" nickname. It becomes a thing. The pay off is...well, it is something.

At the end of the issue, Batman is so desperate for Goat Man to show up again for a team-up that a telepathic villain uses that desire against Batman...



Batman really fell for this guy quickly.

In the next issue, after Robin rescues Batman, he asks about the DeeDee nickname...



Then they finally meet and Batman learns his name is Baphomet...



Batman and Silver continue their romance, which involves them going to an island where they have sex so loud that dolphins informed Aquaman about it. Yes, that happens. He also asks about the DeeDee nickname...



While hanging out, Baphomet takes off his mask, and the infatuated Batman is thrown by this new level of friendship...



The next issue, while Batman is away, Robin is watching the city and he thinks Baphomet is awesome, too. It's like he's Poochie the Dog. Every time Baphomet is not on the page, you feel like asking, "Hey, where's Baphomet?"



Batman then discovers Baphomet's secret identity...



This then leads us to the conclusion to this tale, which is, well, it is pretty bad...

So Batman proposes to Silver. She accepts.

She then reveals to Alfred what the nickname DeeDee means...





Yes, that IS as stupid as you think it is.

Then Batman thinks, "Wow, this is all going so well, perhaps TOO well. Maybe she is a robot!" That is not really all THAT nuts, but if you want to test that, just takes some hair from her hairbrush, right? Nope, Batman pulls alongside her car and DRAGS HER OUT OF THE CAR BY HER HAIR...



Yes, that IS as stupid as you think it is.

After she checks out, he feels bad but she's okay with him, because, you know, if you love a guy, you can fix his damage.

So Batman and Baphomet continue their epic bromance, and Smith then adds a bit to a famous scene from Batman: Year One...



Yes, that IS as stupid as you think it is.

Batman is wondering whether he should reveal his secret identity to Baphomet. He talks to him. Baphomet gets kind of dark...



But I guess Batman had already pretty much made up his mind to trust him. So he takes him to the Bat Cave and reveals his identity to him, as well as Silver St. Cloud. He then reveals he is Onomotapoeia and kills Silver. End of book...





Yes, that IS as stupid as you think it is.

So he ends the series on Silver getting her throat sliced. That's some crazy stuff, right there. Fridging her like that, well, quite disappointing. The whole thing was disappointing. The orgasm stuff, the peeing himself stuff, the trusting this guy too much stuff but none worse than that ending.

The New 52 then happened, so we never got a second volume of this series, but it's probably for the best. Better to just ignore that it happened. That said, I certainly get what Smith was aiming for. He was trying to humanize Batman through his friendship with Baphomet and his relationship with Silver. Throughout the series, he hits upon various points in Batman's career up until that point and shows the effect that they have had on Batman's psyche. I get where he was going with it, so it is not like I think most of this stuff was offensive - it just wasn't done very well. The orgasm revelation, in particular, was extremely clunky. He had been hinting to the origin of the name for a number of issues, and that payoff was poor. The fridging, though, that does cut a bit closer to the "offensive" line. I'm honestly a bit surprised that someone said, "Okay, that's an acceptable way to end your series" and I'm somewhat surprised that Smith would play that card after killing off Karen Page in Guardian Devil. It's almost like he is is mocking his own worst traits as a writer. So if anything would tip this series from "Remember to Forget" to "Things That Turned Out Bad," it would be the final page.

That's it for this installment! Feel free to send in a suggestion for a future installment to bcronin@comicbookresources.com!