Batman and The Signal #3 Review

Writers: Scott Snyder, Tony Patrick / Artist: Cully Hamner / DC Comics And so the three-part miniseries starring the newest addition to the Bat-Fam has come to a close. Duke Thomas, aka The Signal, finally meets the man responsible for the outbreak of metahuman activity in his neighborhood and learns a little more about his origin in the process. The issue starts off in the middle of the action, with longtime Bat-Squad members Nightwing, Batgirl, Robin and Red Hood facing off against a city full of Gotham’s version of Bang Babies. It was nice to see cameos from these longtime favorites without the story shifting focus off of Duke to do it. Even Duke’s cousin Jay and his friends Riko and Izzy show up and show out. Of course Batman pulls up in his Batmobile on Vogues to beat up on rogues, but he’s still very much just a mentor in this series.

He did have an exchange with one of the metas that felt kinda off. When one of the metas jumps on his car, he calls him “son” while kicking him off. This seems harmless at first glance, because authority figures often use that term to placate young boys from doing something harmful, but the metahuman was illustrated with twists and was most likely meant to be coded as a black person. Batman is white privilege personified; his family’s wealth could have helped sustain Duke’s community a LONG time ago. He’s only just using his resources to provide housing for low-income families, and now when poop hits the fan he wants to come through and …