Batman: Hush Is An Overhyped Story

Great art can not save bad writing.

This week the cast was announced for the next film in the DC animated universe: Batman: Hush. I have to admit, the cast is pretty incredible and the DC animation team has done a great job adapting some stories. But Batman: Hush, as a comic book, is just an overhyped and overrated mess.

Before you start to jump down my throat, ask yourself if you actually read it? Not just look at the awesome Jim Lee artwork, but read it. I bet you haven’t. You have fooled yourself into believing it’s a good story because of Lee’s art. I assure it’s not a good story.

The story is actually a mess and the payoff at the end is a total let down. The story started in Batman #608 (2003) and lasted 12 issues. It was written by Jeph Loeb who’s previous Batman stories like The Long Halloween and Dark Victory are still some of the best Batman stories out there. Which leaves us to question, what the heck happened on Hush?

I don’t have an answer for that. Hush, it seems to be, Loeb’s excuse to stick as many of the Batman mythos he can in one story. Batman, Joker, Riddler, Catwoman, Robin, Alfred, Nightwing, hell even Superman. But this just didn’t work.

The story revolved something along the lines….does it really matter? Let me bottom line it for you. The main villain Hush was a childhood friend of Bruce Wayne’s and wanted revenge on Bruce/Batman. Hush sabotaged his parents’ vehicle in order to gain their inheritance. Bruce’s father, a doctor, saved Hush’s mother after a car crash. Because his mother didn’t die when Hush couldn’t get his full inheritance until he was an adult. So he sets up this big way to screw with Batman. Seriously? What kind of nonsense is that? Mind you it’s not the worst or weird origin for a villain, but it just seems so weak. We also learn that the Riddler learned that Bruce Wayne is Batman, but even with this powerful knowledge, all we see the Riddler do is rob an armored car.

There are so many plotholes in this story you could drive a semi through?

So you might ask yourself if it’s really that bad why is it popular? Again Jim Lee’s art. This isn’t an uncommon practice. I’ve seriously lost track of the number of times a bad story was considered good because it has “pretty pictures”.  This is such a common practice with comics. 

 Up until then, Lee was busy running the day to day of his own comic company Wildstorm, which was bought by DC Comics in 1998. Lee was mainly doing covers and other images for both Wildstorm and DC. Hush was one of Jim Lee’s first regular series over at DC Comics, and so it was this huge deal.

But honestly, you can’t blame Jim Lee for this. Hell, you can’t even blame Jeph Loeb for Hush. So who is to blame? You the readers are! Yes, you! Your inability to look past really crappy writing and just look at pretty pictures is why Batman: Hush is popular. This is the behavior that needs to stop. There’s nothing wrong with appreciating the art of story, but don’t pretend the story is good when it really isn’t.