Detective Comics #847

Writer: Paul Dini

Penciller: Dustin Nguyen

Inker: Fridolfs

colors: John Kalisz

Letterer: Travis Lanham

Published By: DC Comics

Hush has returned and warned the Bat that he was groing to strike at his old buddy "from a distance." So Batman's warning everyone to be on his or her guard.

Catwoman and Zatanna have a "polite" exchange about who has rights to Batman's heart, a scene that I found particularly bizarre. It detracted from the rest of the story...It was interesting it its own right, but Selina opening up to Zatanna about her feelings seemed out of place and character.

The majority of Detective Comics #847 reveals Hush's backstory. I'm not going to spill the beans. Let's just say Tommy wasn't a very stable boy in the beginning. And an encounter with a young intern psychiatrist that Batman encounters later in the ambitious doctor's later costumed criminal career.

When Hush first appeared back in Batman #609, I was really disappointed. The question of the day was, "Who is Hush?", and I felt we readers who had been trying to figure out the answer were gypped when it was some character we had never seen before. Sure, the storyline was good, but it turned out "Who was Hush?" was more rhetorical, but it generated great buzz and may have helped sales. I'm sure it did because I didn't pick up the storyline until later on in mid-arc and had to fill in what I missed with the trade. So, now that I'm off topic, let's return...so, I wasn't very pleased with Hush...

Dini takes Loeb's Hush and fleshes out his backstory for a better explanation why he has such a mad on for Bruce. Getting Thomas Elliot's first hand thoughts about his old friend helps us feel what Hush feels when he thinks on Bruce Wayne, creating a captivating character that is both appealing and repugnant.

Showing us Dini's story is Dustin Nguyen, with back-up from inker Derek Fridolfs and colorist John Kalisz. These artists impressed me in their ability to give us dark, moody panels with Hush. While we learn a little more about Hush, we still are kept in the dark to his plans and there's more to his origin hidden in the shadows of the past. In contrast, we're given some light, fun scenes and they turn on all the lights for us so that we can get a reprieve from the dark gloom and have a moment to chuckle to ourselves.

Nguyen really impressed me on his own with one of the panel transitions. On one page, a puddle of blood on the floor blends into a lake scene with a your Tommy and Bruce on a canoe.

My favorite part of this issue, though, was little more than comedy relief...that little chuckle I mentioned before. In order to warn Nightwing and Robin that Hush was up to something, he called them to help him stop a bank heist attempted by...Tweedledee and Tweedledum.

First appearing in Detective Comics #74 and created by Don Cameron, Jerry Robinson, and Bob Kane, the two, who appear to be twins, are cousins who, despite looking moronic, are actually quite clever and can pull off some tricky schemes. They don't get used much anymore and it was nice to see them back in action, albeit for laughs. They were created back in the day when Batman was silly. But plenty of the Bat's villains have been transitioned into seriousness, the Joker being the most successful. Here's my challenge...Is any comic writer able to tell a tale of a Tweed cousins' scheme where it takes more than a looming Batman to stop them?