Batman: H2SH

Batman Hush Saga

by Jeph Loeb, Jim Lee (Penciler), Scott Williams (Inker)

Two legendary creators, one incredible story! Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee return to the Batman saga that changed the Dark Knight forever with the sequel to the original Hush, H2SH!

A mysterious villain from Batman’s past has returned, leaving the Dark Knight’s world upended. Now he must use ever resource and every tool in his belt to save both his city and himself. From the legendary creators Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee, the sequel to the original Hush saga has finally arrived, heralding a new age for Gotham and everyone who lives there.

Collects Batman #158-163

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Batman, Dc Comics, Graphic Novels Comics

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2026

About the author

Joseph "Jeph" Loeb III is an Emmy and WGA nominated American film and television writer, producer and award-winning comic book writer. Loeb was a Co-Executive Producer on the NBC hit show Heroes, and formerly a producer/writer on the TV series Smallville and Lost.

A four-time Eisner Award winner and five-time Wizard Fan Awards winner (see below), Loeb's comic book career includes work on many major characters, including Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, Hulk, Captain America, Cable, Iron Man, Daredevil, Supergirl, the Avengers, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, much of which he has produced in collaboration with artist Tim Sale, who provides the comic art seen on Heroes.

Reviews

[Belfry · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't care that this isn't done, I'm rating it now. This deserves zero stars, maybe half a star for the art, but even that feels half-assed. You do not write Batman shooting a gun. You especially do not writing Batman shooting a gun at his son's head. You do not have Damian breaking Alfred's murderer out of prison for a team-up. The writing is terrible. Every single person in this story is out of character. Nothing makes sense. This feels like a story that's 20 years too late and even 20 years ago this would have sucked. I have not felt this insulted by a comic in a long time. One of the supposed three editors this book has should have read this script and immediately tossed it in the trash where it belongs. Garbage ideas, garbage execution, somebody needed to tell Jeph Loeb "no."

11/14 edit: Nygma time?? Are you FUCKING kidding me?!

[Molly™☺ · Rating 1 out of 5]

Do you enjoy the Batfamily? Do you enjoy when characters feel like the ones you’ve spent hundreds of issues following? Do you like your stories to be coherent and interesting? If you answered yes to any of the above, do NOT read this. Somehow, someway, Loeb has managed to make every single character feel like a complete and utter fraud. None of their actions feel remotely akin to how these people should be interacting (both with each other and the situations), and worst of all is Bruce shooting Jason in the head with a gun. Who thought that would go down well? The Batfamily spend the entire volume divided over Bruce’s decision to save a clown, whilst Bruce himself teams up with his rogues gallery instead to try and take down Hush. It’s an absolute, nonsensical disaster that only serves to frustrate and annoy rather than entertain. Loeb and Lee may have a lot of credit in the bank, but sometimes, people should be told ‘no’ when they pitch something.

[William Bainbridge · Rating 4.25 out of 5]

The sequel to the original comic hush comes at a time when the batman comic world has become somewhat...dry. Its predecessor is a staple in the bats comic legacy and in my mind one of his 'mount rushmore stories' so to say. They played a big part in defining who the man behind the mask was as we saw bruce pitted against an old childhood friend, Tommy Elliot.
Listen, hush 2 was never going to be better than hush, not just because the follow up is never better than the original, but because the follow up comes at a time when the batman comic ecosystem has become drastically over loaded. The market is more competitive now, each character has been used once more than perhaps they should have, sometimes you might even let out a sigh when the joker pops up on the page. So no, it is not better than hush, but it is a well justified sequel that feels meaningful as opposed to a quick cash grab years later.
The character of hush still feels enigmatic because he has been in many ways 'protected', he hasn't suffered from the same fatigue as almost the entirety of batmans rogue gallery has and therefore i still felt genuine excitement at getting to see him again. A rare feeling for me with reading these days. He is a great character, but the protection of his villainy makes him almost excellent, if not brilliant.
I didn’t mind the use of joker here (for the 400th time) in fact, I must say i quite enjoyed it. It really felt like quite a unique use of the character, not one that i haven't already seen a few times to be honest, but one that is still rare to see, and therefore refreshing. Also his dialogue of 'well, well, well. Look who fell in the well." Was rather splendid in my mind.
The story was good. The start was great, the middle was great, the end was...poor. It wasn't awful, but it was pretty bad. It's a shame to say, but that's just how it is.
The art was good, nothing spectacular but consistent, hushs design was really cool.
The use of a wide array of batmans family and rogue gallery didnt feel forced but crucial to the story, which was again refreshing.
A good sequel that flirted with greatness but fell a little closer to the bottom of 4 stars.

[Thaddeus Tuffentsamer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great start to the next Hush story.

Batman is trailing leads in Gotham, to discover an old nemesis is up to new games.

Strong start to the next installment.

[Flynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poop from a butt

[Ivaelo Slavov · Rating 2 out of 5]

Batman Hush е една от най-добрите истории за Батман (по мое мнение). Съответно подходих с големи очаквания към тази втора част. Джим Лий собственоръчно изрисува втората звездичка. Относно самата история - объркана, нелогична и доста претупана.

[Ross · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just slap an Elseworlds logo on it and help us all explain away this crap...
It has NO place in continuity. Doubt it even has an ok tie to the original Hush story.

EVERYBODY in this book is written against character. Batman and guns? Riddler and his exo crime fighting gear? Damian teaming up with Alfred's killer, Bane?

Voices are wrong. Dialogue is iffy. Leaves you rereading huge chunks to try and make sense of it.

Art is stellar...
Release of the issues is stagnant... (happens when you have DC's chief do the pencils)
There's more?! Good luck with that.

[Димитър Цолов · Rating 3 out of 5]

Това издание е любопитно с два факта: родната премиера се случи едновременно с тази по целия свят, съобразена с Международния Batman Day (19.09), а корицата, дело на Иван Домузчиев, е ексклузивна за българското издание. Историята, с всички препратки към минали събития (които, разбира се, си направих труда да проуча) не успя да ме спечели, но във Вселената на Готъм летвата отдавна е вдигната много, много високо. По отношение на арта нямам забележки – класен.

[Julia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitiv noch geiler als Teil 1. Jetzt Check ich erst, wie krass die den Plot im Film einfach verkürzt und vor allem geändert haben. Ziemlich unnötig, weil der Plot im Comic viel besser war und der große reveal von Hush war krasser. Jason pookie ich liebe jede cameo von ihm, auch wenn es hier nur Clayface war und er Jason hat aussehen lassen wie 30. Ich mochte die Hush Comics sehr, weil einfach fast jeder Batman villain aufgetreten ist und das voll funny war, die alle mal so direkt hintereinander zu sehen.

[Arbus · Rating 1.5 out of 5]

Hush 2 to jest kara dla tych wszystkich hejterów jedynki

[Mike Jozic · Rating 1 out of 5]

For real, one of the stupidest comics produced by a major publisher in recent memory. Considering the talent and resources involved with this project, they should have been able to (at the very least) lazily stumble through a sequel story and put out something that, sure, was marginal but at least not aggressively dumb. Clearly, Jeph Loeb must have considered this and said, "Wanna bet?" and Jim Lee, not to be outdone, said, "Hold my beer."

And the Continued in H2SH2 bit at the end was utterly comical. Gesundheit, gentlemen.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having read each issue separately and after the countless delays for some issues, I had very mixed feelings about this sequel to Batman: Hush.
But…after reading Chapters 1-6 all in one go for the first time, I can say that while it isn’t nearly as good as the first Hush story, I did enjoy this First Part of H2SH.
The artwork by Jim Lee is really what merits 4 stars for me with this book, but the actual story itself is more a 2.5 or 3 star rating.
I did like the range of characters and the initial concept of Batman feeling forced to save Joker’s life, but then the rest of the story seemed kind of desperate to clutch at anything of excitement, regardless of whether or not the story was taking an interesting turn.
The first 2-3 issues are quite strong, but then it gets a little weaker towards the end.
I’m not that excited now for the Second Part of H2SH, and I am not sure whether I will buy the issues separately again (as I did for Issues 1-6) but I will of course read Volume 2 eventually either way.

[Will Cooper · Rating 1 out of 5]

When I first started the book and Batman has to save Joker, I groaned. I personally hate the idea that Joker has to stay alive. But when Jason broke in and threatened Batman and even shot at him, I had to go find out if this was a current story or set near Jason's first return before he became the Bat-family. Nope. It's now. Then Damian breaks Bane out of jail. Naw. Batgirl and Nightwing fight against Batman. What? No character in this makes sense. It's about the same quality of All-Star Batman.

[Tristan Bishop · Rating 1 out of 5]

I never was a fan of the original Hush storyline but after 20+ years HOW did anyone approve this. The mystery is incredibly boring and for this plot to work they have to ignore decades of character development of the batfamily members. The mystery is incredibly weak, there really is no progression made in this book. Sure, this only PART ONE of this new Hush story. Why anyone would be excited for the rest is beyond me.

[Keegan Schueler · Rating 2 out of 5]

Man so split on this book but I’m definitely giving it more benefit than others. The art is good but the story just makes it so difficult to love what they were trying to do. Batman acts out of character, the rogues gallery just does whatever they feel like, and the Bat Family just acts dumb. I am excited to see where part two takes this but this is just a disaster with good looking art.

[ekin · Rating 1 out of 5]

ABSOLUTELY HORRID. it's like dc writers try to think of a batman character to completely fuck up and the dart always lands on jason todd. what even happened in this like it was literally so painfully dull and was missing a PLOT

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

We'll see if Loeb and Lee can pull this out with the rest of it. There's so much out of character here. Batman uses a gun, not only uses it but shoots Jason in the head with it. The whole Riddler's new stupid look. This is just dumb. So far it just seems to be a series of shocking moments and nothing of a story.

[Axon Figure · Rating 2 out of 5]

La decepción del año.

[Cyril]

this was very meh and a disappointment overall, can't see how part 2 will fix it
2.75 stars

[Michael Potts · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great art but really not actually finished

[sim · Rating 1 out of 5]

so bad

[Bivi Zyggy]

Inminente decepción...?

[Kurt Lorenz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I strongly disliked the way they wrote almost every character in this book. The rest of DC All-In is fun, this is a dark mess.

[Brendan Pelto · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not really sure what happened, it was almost all nonsense.