Batman #51 Review

Writer: Tom King / Artist: Lee Weeks / DC Comics One issue after the biggest moment in this run of Batman, Bruce Wayne is doing his best to keep a strong appearance after being left alone on a damp roof by the woman he planned to marry. It’s completely expected that Bruce would spend his time afterward mining his way through a deeper-than-normal depression, but the way that Tom King comes up with in issue #51 of Batman is downright cruel. And genius. In issue #51, Bruce Wayne ends up being called in for jury duty. While the odds would usually favor him to end up on a quick trial, or not having to serve at all, the past has taught us his life is never that simple. No. In fact, Bruce is sitting in on the trial where Mr. Freeze has been charged with multiple murders after all of the evidence was gathered by a damaged, twisted Batman who chose to take out his feelings of despair on him.

The most genius, and again, cruel, part of this is that Bruce Wayne is being forced to sit in a room and have people question his actions and motives as Batman right in front of him. In a way, he’s also on trial. Only no one else in the room knows it. Meanwhile, since Bruce can’t leave his hotel room at all, he can’t fulfill his duties as Batman. So who else steps up other than Dick Grayson. This arc is called “Cold Days,” which suggests we’ll be following this Mr. Freeze trial for a while. (Which means we should get Dick Grayson as Batman for a while too!) As one of my personal favorite Batman v…