Written by: Matt Fraction
Art by: Jorge Jimenez
Colors by: Tomeu Morey
Letters by: Clayton Cowles, Jorge Jimenez
Cover art by: Jorge Jimenez (cover A)
Cover price: $4.99
Release date: January 7, 2025
First Impressions
The opening pages juggle Bruce Wayne's awkward attempt at romance with Dr. Zeller while assassins close in, which sounds entertaining on paper but lands with all the grace of a stumbling drunk at a charity gala. The comedic timing between Zeller's single-minded focus on a gift and Bruce's obvious panic creates genuine laughs, but these laughs evaporate the moment you realize the issue spent seventeen pages on a prologue with zero payoff. The juxtaposition of "is this a date?" repeated ad nauseam while sword-wielders pursue them should build tension; instead, it feels like padding waiting for the actual story to begin.
Recap
The previous issue opened with news broadcasts detailing overnight violence across Gotham, establishing the Minotaur as a criminal mastermind who has organized all of Gotham's gangs into the Torus. Bruce Wayne awkwardly asked Dr. Zeller on a date, and Batman tracked down Anarky (Lonnie), who revealed the new criminal structure and his terror of this new power. The issue culminated with the Minotaur hosting the seven leaders of his criminal empire at Old Wayne Manor, holding their family members hostage while boasting about creating a resilient criminal empire that will eventually control every revenue stream in the world.
Plot Analysis
Bruce Wayne takes Dr. Annika Zeller to dinner at a restaurant in Little Tokyo, but before they can even sit down, assassins arrive to kill her. Bruce evades them in a deliberately reckless driving sequence across Yamamoto Avenue, where he barely avoids crashing multiple times while Zeller questions why this is happening. The action concludes with Bruce pulling her off the overpass as mysterious figures on motorcycles and a woman made of birds close in on their position. Bruce fights the woman and motorcyclists in a brief skirmish, using a titanographene cube from Zeller's gift as a weapon that shatters her sword. Bruce defeats her and the date-not-date couple flees into Gotham City's version of Little Tokyo.
After escaping up a building fire escape ladder, Bruce explains to Zeller that multiple parties have placed a bounty on her because her work on identity transformation threatens violent and powerful people. The mysterious female assassin appears again. Suddenly, Damian Wayne appears as someone who studied assassins during his time with the League of Assassins, before he uses rapid-onset decoherence technology to neutralize the assassin, sending her fleeing, and reveals a shocking piece of dialogue: "Father?" This cliffhanger revelation ends the issue without explanation, leaving readers hanging on the mystery of this assassin's identity and relationship to Dr. Zeller.
Writing
Matt Fraction's pacing here is deceptive. The issue moves fast in terms of scene-to-scene transitions, but that velocity masks the fact that almost nothing of substance happens. The opening date conversation repeats the same "is this a date" joke five times before the actual threat appears, which is less witty banter and more evidence that Fraction didn't trust his own comedic timing. Once the action starts, the dialogue becomes functional at best. Bruce's promise to "get you out of this" and his battle-quips ("I know what I'm doing") convey competence but add zero characterization beyond the obvious. The structural problem is fundamental: this issue occupies the exact middle of what appears to be a larger arc about the Minotaur, yet it abandons that mystery entirely to focus on a random assassination attempt. Nothing in this issue moves the larger plot forward. The cliffhanger about "Father" suggests future revelation, but treating a mystery as a mystery requires establishing who the person is first. Right now, the mysterious female assassin is visually distinct but narratively blank.
Art
Jorge Jiménez continues delivering exceptional technical work that makes this comic readable despite its thin plot. His action sequences are clear and dynamic, particularly the overpass chase where the spatial relationships between the car, motorcycle, and buildings remain comprehensible even as chaos unfolds. His use of speed lines and motion blur conveys velocity without becoming incomprehensible. Tomeu Morey's color work shifts appropriately between the warm interior lighting of the restaurant, the cool blues and greens of the nighttime city streets, and the intense reds and oranges during combat. The female assassin's design is visually striking, composed of bird-like features and flowing forms that distinguish her from standard henchmen. However, the art's success also highlights the script's limitations because Jiménez makes seventeen pages of essentially one action sequence and one emotional beat (the cliffhanger) feel watchable, when the sequence itself could have been told in eight pages with room for actual plot advancement. The synergy between art and story is one-directional here; Jiménez carries the weight while Fraction's script contributes almost nothing to the visual storytelling.
Character Development
Bruce Wayne's nervous energy during the date scene is charming but superficial. He clearly cares about Zeller's safety, but the issue never explores why beyond her work being theoretically threatened by powerful people. Their dialogue reveals nothing new about either character. Zeller's fixation on retrieving her gift despite being hunted by assassins is played as quirky rather than establishing any actual personality or motivation. Bruce is largely reactive this issue, learning information the reader already heard, and then fighting people he immediately defeats. This undermines his detective credentials further than issue four did. The mysterious female assassin is entirely new, with no established history or motivation. Damian's single line of dialogue about studying "the Ōjō" during his time with the League of Assassins means nothing because readers have no idea who the assassin is or why anyone should care. The "Father" reveal depends entirely on readers already being invested in a potential relationship between Bruce and Dr. Zeller, which requires the comic to have earned that investment first. It hasn't.
Originality & Concept Execution
The entire issue is a setup for a mystery nobody asked for. A new assassin character appears with no introduction, fights Bruce, and hints at a relationship that the comic never contextualizes. This approach to world-building asks readers to retroactively care about a character based on a single question. The actual premise of the issue (protecting Dr. Zeller from assassination while on a date) is not original; it's a classic fish-out-of-water action trope applied to superheroes. The execution fails because nothing about the assassination feels connected to anything established in previous issues. The Minotaur controls Gotham's organized crime, but apparently also has independent assassins with bird powers and League of Assassins training? The comic never explains how these two threats connect or why they would both target Zeller on the same night. Without that connection, the issue feels like a random encounter rather than the continuation of a larger narrative.
Positives
The artwork remains the issue's greatest strength, with Jorge Jiménez delivering some of his most inventive compositions during the overpass chase sequence, where the shifting perspectives and dynamic angles keep the action visually engaging even as the plot stalls. Tomeu Morey's color work sells the mood effectively, using darkness and selective highlighting to focus attention where Jiménez directs it. The comedic interplay between Bruce and Zeller during the opening restaurant scene works as a standalone joke, with the repetition of "is this a date" landing genuinely funny until the seventh or eighth repetition, when it becomes clear Fraction is padding for time. The design of the female assassin is visually distinctive and memorable, standing out from standard comic book henchmen. The fact that an issue with almost no plot still remains readable speaks to the quality of the visual storytelling carrying the entire weight.
Negatives
This issue is structurally a filler episode disguised as a regular installment. It advances the actual plot (the Torus, the Minotaur, the larger mystery) not one inch. The opening date scene occupies seventeen pages primarily because Fraction wanted to milk the comedy of Bruce denying the obvious, which means nearly half the issue is spent on setup that goes nowhere. The assassination attempt itself has no connection to anything established in previous issues; readers never discover who hired these assassins or why they want Zeller dead beyond a vague mention of her work threatening powerful people. Batman/Bruce is almost incidental to his own story and mainly serving to provide exposition. The cliffhanger (Damian saying "Father" out loud) is a shock reveal with no foundation because the comic never establishes why Dr. Zeller is so important to Bruce, why readers should care, or how she connects to either the Torus plot or Batman's rogues gallery. Using a mystery-element as a cliffhanger requires readers to be invested in solving that mystery first. This comic doesn't earn that investment. For an issue sitting in the middle of an apparent larger arc, consuming nineteen pages on a self-contained action beat with zero plot advancement is a significant misallocation of real estate on a limited monthly budget.
About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.
Follow @ComicalOpinions on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TwitterThe Scorecard
Writing Quality (Clarity & Pacing): [2/4]
Art Quality (Execution & Synergy): [3.5/4]
Value (Originality & Entertainment): [0.5/2]
Final Verdict
Batman #5 is a pretty comic with nothing to say. The art carries nearly the entire load while the script coasts on repetitive date jokes and a cliffhanger that demands investment nobody has earned yet. This issue proves that even exceptional artwork can't salvage a story with no forward momentum, no connection to its larger narrative context, and no payoff beyond a question mark.
6/10
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