DC Comics reviews 2/14/23 – Icon vs. Hardware #1, Batman Incorporated #5

I Am Batman #18

It wasn’t shocking that I Am Batman didn’t make it to the two-year mark. John Ridley wrote a character who didn’t seem to like anyone, low-key hated his family and loathed any and all comparisons to the hero whose identity he decided to adopt.

Moving Jace Fox and his family out of Gotham helped to a degree, but Ridley never cracked the code of making a hero whose exploits readers would care about.

This final issue illustrated the book’s problems that Ridley continually failed to address. Jace and his sister Tam were kidnapped by a gang lord, who kidnapped Jace’s birth mother. This out of nowhere reveal just further served to drive a wedge between Jace and the Fox family. Ridley would explain in a write up for DC Power that he made Jace’ heritage both Black and Asian because his son complained there were no heroes that looked like him. That knee jerk response just made Jace look worse as a character. Do readers care about a hero who’s constantly judging and dismissing his own family?

Ridley also threw in the I Am Batman version of The Question despite Renee Montoya recently showing up in the book. Jace’s Batman had one credible arch-rival villain while it felt like his parents were Jace’s biggest enemies. But it’s hard to get excited about a guy dressed like Batman just fighting random street goons.

On the plus side the artwork, from Christian Duce and Eduardo Pansica & Julio Ferreira, looked great. This collaboration works well together and given DC’s knack for doubling up artists on a title, this should be a team that gets a crack at another title.

I Am Batman seemed like a title that immediately faced an uphill battle and Ridley could never come up with a reason to get fans to buy into this latest pretender to the cowl. Maybe DC can bring back Jace’s far more interesting brother and revisit the Batwing series?

Rating: 5 out of 10