Batman (2016-) #109

Batman (2016) (Single Issues)

by James Tynion IV, Jorge Jiménez (Cover Art), Tomeu Morey (Cover Art)

Main Story: Mayor Nakano green-lights the Magistrate pilot program for Gotham City as Batman goes toe-to-toe with the augmented and bloodthirsty Peacekeeper-01! It’s a brutal battle for the ages, but what secrets does Harley Quinn hold about the man beneath the armor, Sean Mahoney? And how does this all play in to the Scarecrow’s hands?!
Backup: Ghost-Maker is fighting through incredible odds to reach the nefarious Madame Midas...but will his next opponent-BRAINSTORM-be impossible to overcome?!

Genres: Comics, Batman, Dc Comics, Comic Book

38 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 1, 2021

About the author

Prior to his first professional work, Tynion was a student of Scott Snyder's at Sarah Lawrence College. A few years later, he worked as for Vertigo as Fables editor Shelly Bond's intern. In late 2011, with DC deciding to give Batman (written by Snyder) a back up feature, Tynion was brought in by request of Snyder to script the back ups he had plotted. Tynion would later do the same with the Batman Annual #1, which was also co-plotted by Snyder. Beginning in September 2012, with DC's 0 issue month for the New 52, Tynion will be writing Talon, with art by Guillem March. In early 2013 it was announced that he'd take over writing duties for Red Hood and the Outlaws in April.

Tynion is also currently one of the writers in a rotating team in the weekly Batman Eternal series.

Reviews

[Bookishrealm · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I keep being intrigued by this story because it’s slowly showing us the buildup to what the magistrate looked like in Future State. It’s like seeing the end of a movie first and then getting to see how we got to that ending. I won’t say that a lot happens necessarily in this issue but I’m really feeling the character dynamic/development. Harley Quinn makes an interesting experience. I feel like she was a tad bit over sexualized but I want to know what is going happen with her hunt regarding Poison Ivy. I’m not caught up with my Harley Quinn issues so I’m curious to see what may or may not happen with that. I don’t really care about the Ghostmaker back up story. That story doesn’t really seem to serve any purpose but I did like the appearance of Ghostmaker in the main story and the challenging conversation he has with Harley. He makes some really interested points and he admires Harley in the same way that I do. Overall, a solid issue. Looking forward to the next one.

[Brian Garthoff · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoying everything going on right now, but I still don’t care about Ghost Maker whatsoever. I think I’d rather have Oracle or Molly or literally anyone as the backup story.

[Gordon · Rating 1 out of 5]

Main story: 1⭐
Backup: 0⭐

[Ashton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scarecrow?! Ghost-maker?! Harley?! Poison Ivy mention?! Oracle?! Batman drawn the best way ive ever seen?! Phenomenal art?! 10/10 I've been genuinely hooked on all these.

[Etienne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Better than the last few issues, but no much to it. Still to much Harley and Ghost-Maker for my taste and the general storyline is evolving very slowly, way too slowly...

[Samhain · Rating 1 out of 5]

I... I know I said I wasn't going to comment anymore, but this has to be a parody, right? There's no way anyone on Stephanie Meyer's level of characterization talent could ever be made into the lead writer of Batman... right? "Batman has a dinosaur so I had to have one", "No one knows who I truly am", and the constant "i'm A PsYCHOpaTh" from someone who's just on the world's longest jealousy tantrum ever have to be a mockery, there's no way this dude is older than 12 and still writing like this.

[Shawn Ingle · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars. Rating is for Batman story only. The secondary Ghost-Maker story continues to be nothing more than a distraction and isn't worth getting into.

Love the art. Enjoy the writing. Great character development despite the large cast. I even appreciate Ghost-Maker in this one. I think it's probably his best written stuff so far. I'm eager to get into the Ivy/Harley storyline.

[alia · Rating 3 out of 5]

| "She needs you, Harley."

3.5 stars. Some semblance of an actual plot. The most interesting issue so far and it's because it's carried by Harley, Gardener, Ivy (mentioned) & Oracle. Ghostmaker continues to be annoying.

[spencer · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars for the Batman story only. I actually really liked this issue. The Harley/Ghost-makes interaction has been the only time thus far that I’ve had even a passing interest in GM as a character during the actual Batman storyline. He worked surprisingly well with Harley and she continues to be so great. Let’s stop teasing Ivy though and just bring her in already! I can appreciate that she actually gets a panel that shows her this time around, but I’m anxiously waiting for Harley to actually go and get her instead of the contact teasing. I assume it’ll be happening in the pre-Fear State stuff and then more in that actual event. I’m sensing big things for Harley and Ivy as it’s finally time for them to get their due together. The other plot-line was fine with Batman, Simon Saint and Peacekeeper. I get DC feels the need to push the Peacekeepers with The Suicide Squad and the Peacekeeper show, but they seem to just randomly show up anywhere and everywhere at this point. It was fine for this issue honestly but I’m hoping it’ll be wrapped up after the next issue. Jorge Jimenez’s art continues to be amazing too.

The Ghost-Maker backup continues to be nothing of interest and the one in this issue might be the most pointless, boring one yet. It reads like a simple explanation dump and I don’t care about any of the characters introduced in this back-up, with Ghost-Maker being included in that sentiment. There are other characters that I’d much rather have as a back-up story like Miracle Molly, one of the other members of the Unsanity Collective or even the Gardener. The GM one isn’t working and they need to stop trying to make it work.

[Annemarie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Why am I still reading this? because I was bored.
Why is Ghost-maker such a boring character? His one-sided rivalry with Batman (and his need to copy everything he does, but bigger and better) feels so incredibly childish. Naming him a psychopath feels like a gimmick to make him "interesting and quirky", instead of giving him an actual personality. Him calling everyone else a psychopath doesn't help much either.
The story is rather bland. Not much happens, and there's just so much exposition (which is a talent in itself as this is a comic, so you'd expect to see things but no, we're just told things mostly.)
The art is... different. Batgirl looks so much older than I'm used to, while none of the other characters seem aged up, so that's kinda weird to me. I like Gardener and Harley's interaction, and I'm kinda excited for Ivy to appear, though it feels like another random plotline thrown in there to make things "complicated and well thought-out". Just throwing things together to give "twists and turns" isn't how you write a good story.
The Ghost maker backup is like the character itself, bland and pointless. It's really, really bad. Nothing happens. (Hey, didn't I just say that about the actual issue as well?) ANd there's so much exposition... How entertaining. Sigh. It just doesn't work.

[scribble · Rating 4 out of 5]

“A Scarecrow attack that doesn’t need a single drop of fear toxin.” Listen I know it might be too on the nose given today’s context but... I really like it. I’m really into where this is going, and what’ll happen with Harley and what she’ll do about Ivy and whether she’ll work with Ghost-Maker (if she does, please let her drive the “Ghost-racer” lol).

Gardener looks stunning in her torero-esque outfit (kudos to Jiménez). The character design is amazing.
It’s also nice to see how they’re tying things together with the Peacekeepers in FS.

[Garth · Rating 3 out of 5]

2024 - Year of The Bat (366 Days of Batman)

Day 246: And yet another new character. At least she gets a name after making an appearance a couple of issues back. I’ll give Gardener a chance, though. Slowly progressing Saint and his initiative. Does Tynion wrap this up before his run ends? I think he has eight issues left.

[Katie]

I picked this up because of the Pride variant cover and I’m happy to say that the story intrigued me, definitely want to see what happens next- especially for Harley and Ivy

Also very intrigued by the Gardener

[Devin Wilson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awesome Harley Quinn scene and decent (if plainly derivative of Robocop) Batman stuff proper.

As much as I liked Ghost-Maker in his scene with Harley, I'm not even reading the backup. Just totally lost interest last issue.

[Kastie Pavlik · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this was Batman 109 but it's still the Ghost Maker Exposition. This is boring. We already know what happened with the magistrate.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Cowardly Lot part 4

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

🚨 GHOSTMAKER IS BISEXUAL 🚨

[Steven Shinder · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ghostmaker showing Harley his cave was a fun scene. The Spinosaurus was a nice touch.

[Daniel Clausen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another solid issue!

[Benja Calderon · Rating 4 out of 5]

con el dato que le entrego Miracle Molly, Batman decide ir tras quien parece ser el secuaz en este juagada del Espantapajaro: Simon Saint, el recien llegado empresario tan preocupado por la seguridad de Gotham City
Mientras Ghostmaker cuida a/de Harley, nos enteramos que Poison Ivy no está completamente desaparecida, obligando a Harley a decidir que hacer de su futuro

Por otro lado, seguimos la aventura de Ghostmaker en la isla de la Madame Midas y conocemos la historia de otro de los mercenarios que lo estan esperando