Batman (2016-2026) #163

Batman (2016) (Single Issues)

by Jeph Loeb, Jim Lee (Artist)

Batman H2SH, last part.

Genres: Comics

Kindle Edition

Published May 27, 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

[Jadyn❀ · Rating 2 out of 5]

*1.5* It’s probably a blessing in disguise how delayed this arc got because it makes it easier to forget than memorably bad. Because make no mistake, if not for how drawn-out it’s become, it would be memorably bad. It’s just so hard to look past how extremely out-of-place all of this is. It doesn’t convincingly tack onto the previous Batman arc before it, and it doesn’t do anything to transition ANY of its characters into what was supposed to follow for all of them (which we are now… 9 months into??). Plus, nobody needs me to point out how regressed the whole cast of characters are characterized here. Basically everyone’s behaviors are incomprehensible in this book. All of this serves to make the arc feel time-displaced, like an elseworlds story. It’s unfortunate how many stories in the new All In era will have to be displaced once again for the second part, which will undoubtedly have all of the same issues. I’m not looking forward to it. In the meantime, I’ll be carrying on like this never happened, because it basically makes no difference.

The only thing I really liked about it is angry Barbara Gordon. For that you can have half a star.

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

End of Part One of H2SH, and really not worth the wait at all. The only real credit I can give this one is the art by Jim Lee. But in terms of this story…. It’s quite a mess and a disappointment, especially in comparison to the original Hush.
Once I get the HC for Volume 1, I think I will just wait for Volume 2 rather than buy the issues separately like I did with the first 6 issues of H2SH.
Not sure what’s gonna happen with Volume 2 (if they even ever finish it). Might take years and years…

[Thaddeus Tuffentsamer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Seriously? It took DC a YEAR to put out a 6 issue series, and you end it with…to be continued?

Worse than this, I opted for the 11x17 sized foil covers for $20.00 each, so I’ve got $120.00 invested in these comics and the story didn’t even CONCLUDE !

I’m so NOT in for HUSH 3.

[Cybernex007 · Rating 1 out of 5]

1 star and that’s what you are picture getting for the art, because if you treat this like a picture book and randomly skip between pages instead of following in order to form a story then you may actually have a good time. What even was that? I’m confounded. Most of the time while reading this I was just sighing, and then I get to the end and I see the tease for H2SH part 2 where they square H2SH my spirits are immediately lifted as that is objectively hilarious. It’s like a torture session where they tell a knock knock joke afterwards. If jump into this story and purposely overlook any of the poor setup leading up this moment and just take everything at face value…you will still have a bad time. All of these just characters regressed to what? It’s none of the personalities or stories these characters have built over the years matter in the slightest. Here we are in a hole in the ground with batman and most of his rogues as they decide that the enemy of their enemy (being hush) is now their friend…so they might as well team up with batman because for some reason reason his own family is against him and now Batman’s just cool with it. Batman even goes as far as distracting the bat family by leaving clayface disguised as him to fight them…SIGH. Of course nightwing saw through that, but it’s not like it matters because we don’t see the bat family for the rest of the issue anyway.

Instead we jump over to see the villains face hush, silence, and red hood…a character who has been regressed back to this point so that batman can try and have a moment to convince him he doesn’t need to be the bad guy and he knows he can do good…”oh I love this” says the person who has never read a Jason Todd comic. Like what are we genuinely talking about here, for the love of god at this point just turn Bruce into the batman who hushes and reveal that all all of this has been some twisted game on the fans to reveal the new dark multiverse world where there is a batman who turns into hush because of bad writing or something. The villains aren’t even used well and there only reason for teaming up with batman is because Hush broke promises or something. Bane doesn’t use a sliver of the strategic mastermind he is supposed to be and goes down immediately to silence and his super power voice, same with all the other villains who have the subway brought down on them.

So now we just have batman versus these three, and suddenly he has a realization…chess was never Hush’s game and so that must mean he’s overplayed his hand and probably his budget on that syringe gun, lol, and he must not be doing this by himself. Suddenly a train comes barreling through as Jason decides to shoot at it instead of jumping out of the way for some reason…solely to give Bruce a moment to save him for once or something because he couldn’t save him in death in the family which was…checks watch…nearly 40 years ago. WE HAVE BEEN PAST THIS. Then hush takes on Bruce with a choke hold…which seems like something he should break out of way quicker but he gives Hush the moment to reveal that all of this has been to bring Bruce down to make him feel like Tommy has all this time…alone. BWAHAHA, that’s such a dumb reason. Dude get a hobby, acting like silence and that one other random goon introduced earlier aren’t your friends. But then big reveal, another train shows up right as Hush stabs batman in the chest! Other than that being another thing where I’m wondering why batman didn’t dodge it, hush also strangely mentions he carved out catwoman’s heart…did I miss something? Was that from the truth between hush and h2sh comic I haven’t read yet or was that in the first hush storyline? Because there is no chance hush had the time to cut out Catwoman’s heart after she left the bat family AND scurry down here to post up and wait for batman to arrive.

But then the big reveal which was teased with the train, as TALIA steps out…oh yeah…she was in the first issue wasn’t she? SIGH, another character to be regressed. She calls Hush a fool, maybe she was cahoots with him to play a practical joke on batman or something, idk. But she decides to shoot Hush in the head, which freaks silence and Jason out as they both use their weapons against her only for Ubu to also step out of the train to slice Silence’s throat Tao they can escape. All the while Jason is yelling like a tormented child and shooting at them for “taking everything away from him.” I don’t even know what he is talking about right now. But it’s at this point I’m hoping this even more this is going to be revealed as an elseworlds story as Talia takes Batman to a Lazarus pit and just chucks him in, even as Ubu tries to warn her away from it as it would be against her father’s and everyone else’s wishes. I have to admit, batman rising from the pit has some cool art when you don’t take the rest of the context into play…but it’s also been done before. But of course now that batman has been in the pit, he has even more of a reason to act out of character as he ends the issue just smacking lips with Talia. I fail to grasp the point of any of this.

[Lizzy DeMarco · Rating 1 out of 5]

We wait almost a year for what... a betrayal of everything that makes Batman Batman... hook him up with his rapist?!? Are you kidding me?????
This whole plot line was weak....that last page? Made me sick to my stomach it was so bad.
Don't even care about what happens next at this point.

[Daniel Clausen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finally, Jim Lee is back drawing Batman!

[alejandro galvez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like a movie.

So good. I love it. Its like watching a good movie. Well worth the wait. Bring on more! So good.

[Xaanua · Rating 3 out of 5]

Batman 163: No me termina de gustar Hush 2. todo muy dramático, oscuro. Aunque me gustó ver a la Batfamilia apoyando a Bruce, no me gustaron los diálogos. se siente todo forzado y demasiado drama