Batman (1940) #501 Comic Book Review

Batman #501 is a classic Batman story that you might find in a comic from the '70s, except it stars Jean Paul Valley as Batman and his relationship with Commissioner Gordon is much more tense than it was back then. Following his defeat of Bane in Batman #500, the new Batman is looking for a new challenge and decides to take on Gotham City's crime families. But they've banded together and hired an assassin to take out Batman instead. You know, the standard mob stuff you'd see in movies in the '40s.

I think it would've been a lot cooler if the crime families/crime bosses were ones we were familiar with. Like the Falcones, or Rupert Thorne or someone like that. Instead we just got generic bosses that don't do anything in terms of realizing that Batman has changed since Bane nearly killed him back in Batman #497. Which is one of the things that I enjoy about the Jean Paul Valley era of Batman comics. The big villains like the Joker and Catwoman realizing that this isn't the same Batman they're used to facing. That's not something you get with the small time crooks or the new supervillains like the Trigger Twins or the Tally Man.

I love the scene between Batman and Gordon. This is where Gordon slowly begins to realize that this isn't the Batman he's worked alongside of for several years. Though he isn't sure whether it's not the same man in general, not knowing Batman's secret identity, or if he is the same man, but changed after his encounters with Bane. The reason I love this scene is because Gordon, the only person to know Batman really well without knowing his secret identity, tells Batman that he knows how to make a tight case against the criminals he takes down and that he also knows how to blow a case when there's not enough evidence for the cops to take the bad guys in. Which has no effect on the new Batman, because, well as he admits in narration, he hates detective work, which has always been at the core of how Batman operates. Which Gordon knows very well and one of the reasons he trusts Batman so much.

The assassin the crime bosses hire is super generic. His design makes him look like a generic robot from a comic published by Image Comics in the '90s or by Marvel Comics in the same decade. Even the new Batman's Batsuit is more inspired by Spawn and Deadpool than any other character being published in 1993. I think DC was trying to make a point with their killing off of Superman, their replacing Bruce Wayne with Jean-Paul Valley as Batman, and their leading Hal Jordan into madness, that there's a reason that the traditional superheroes like Batman, Superman and Green Lantern are still around and that not everybody likes the '90s "superheroes" that were appearing in books published by Image and Marvel at the time. Oddly enough that case is still being made today. Not just in the comics, but in the movies and on TV too.

The artwork in this issue is pretty good. Mike Manley is the artist on this book and I like his work. I think the first time I ever saw his work was when I got Batman #506 back in 1994. I'll be talking about that issue in the near future.

Final Thoughts and Rating: Overall Batman #501 is a pretty good issue for it's time. The artwork is great. However the generic bad guys and Jean-Paul Valley himself aren't the greatest characters, and I found myself comparing Jean-Paul's Batman to Bruce Wayne's the entire time I was reading this issue. As I do any time I read an issue from the Knightquest: The Crusade era of Batman comics. Oh and it's also part 1 of a two part story that continues in Batman #502. I'm going to give this issue a 7/10.