Written by: Matt Fraction
Art by: Jorge Jimenez
Colors by: Tomeu Morey
Letters by: Clayton Cowles, Jorge Jimenez
Cover art by: Jorge Jimenez, Tomeu Morey (cover A)
Cover price: $4.99
Release date: February 4, 2026
First Impressions
This issue left me disappointed, like I sat down for the next chapter of a thriller and got an intermission instead. The core idea of Bruce caught between date night fallout and a fresh citywide threat sounds strong, but the execution never cashes that check in terms of momentum or payoff. By the last page it feels less like a rising arc and more like time-killing setup that assumes your loyalty instead of earning it.
Recap
In the prior issue, Bruce Wayne took Dr. Annika Zeller to dinner in Gotham’s Little Tokyo, only for assassins to strike before they could sit down, which kicked off a reckless car chase along Yamamoto Avenue full of near crashes and close calls. Bruce used Zeller’s titanographene cube gift to break the bird woman’s sword, fought off motorcyclists, and dragged Zeller across an overpass and into the alleys of Little Tokyo as the killers kept coming. After they escaped up a fire escape, Bruce finally explained that multiple powerful parties had placed a bounty on Zeller because her identity research threatens people who rely on masks and false faces. The birdlike female assassin reappeared, only for Damian Wayne to arrive, neutralize her with rapid-onset decoherence tech, and slip by calling Bruce “Father” in front of Zeller, leaving the issue on a shock cliffhanger with no answers about who hired the killers or how the assassin ties to Zeller.
Batman #6 opens in the aftermath of that disastrous date night, with Bruce Wayne still trying to keep Annika Zeller safe while the night in Gotham keeps stretching longer than it should. As he tries to juggle his obligations as Bruce, including the fallout from the attack and the attention around Zeller’s dangerous research, trouble brews elsewhere in the city in the form of a new, large scale threat.
At a Gotham petrochemical facility, Hugo Strange’s Monster Men launch an attack, turning what should be a routine industrial backdrop into a fresh crisis point. The assault puts key infrastructure in danger and signals that Strange is escalating from weird experiments to outright terrorism aimed at Gotham’s energy and chemical lifelines.
The issue tracks Bruce as he is forced to pivot from personal chaos to full Batman mode, pulled away from the Zeller situation to answer the Monster Men emergency. The “one long night” premise becomes literal, as the script positions this as a continuous escalation from assassins on a date to giant monsters wrecking a vital facility, with Bruce scrambling to be everywhere at once.
As Batman responds to the petrochemical attack, Strange’s creatures push the facility and the city closer to disaster, framing Gotham as a powder keg where one wrong move could cause mass devastation. The conflict is presented as another beat in a night that refuses to end, but the plot stops short of resolving the assassin mystery, the Zeller bounty, or Damian’s slip, leaving those threads hanging while the Monster Men attack functions as a loud, temporary distraction rather than a meaningful turning point.
Writing
The pacing here is lopsided, with the script shifting from intimate assassin intrigue to a big Monster Men set piece without giving either thread the forward motion it deserves. Instead of building on the Damian “Father” cliffhanger, the story parks that reveal and drags the reader into a new crisis that feels like a side quest rather than the next logical step in the arc. Dialogue leans on familiar Batman beats about responsibility and citywide danger, which keeps it clear but rarely sharp, and it does not deepen Bruce, Zeller, or Strange in any measurable way. Structurally, the issue reads like connective tissue that stretches one very long night across multiple threats, yet it refuses to deliver a solid escalation or any kind of payoff, which makes the whole thing feel like narrative treading water.
Art
Jorge Jimenez’s art continues to look polished and high energy, with clear figure work and dynamic staging when the Monster Men hit the petrochemical facility. The compositions communicate scale and danger well, and the action is easy to follow panel to panel, which gives the book a professional sheen even when the script is spinning its wheels. Color and mood lean into bright, high contrast visuals that sell Gotham as a modern, neon lit pressure cooker rather than a dreary gothic maze, which fits this run’s pop sensibility but can clash with the supposed “one long night” exhaustion the script wants you to feel. Visually, this is money well spent if you buy comics for art first, but the slick presentation also makes the lack of story movement more obvious, like a high end trailer for a movie that never quite starts.
Character Development
Bruce’s core motivation remains the same, protect Gotham and the one civilian who stumbled into a war she did not ask for, but this issue does not add new layers to that drive. His conflict between personal life and mission is stated rather than explored, so you get surface level tension without fresh insight into how this “long night” is changing him. Zeller, the supposed target whose work threatens powerful people, barely gains new definition here, which weakens the emotional stakes that should connect the date night horror to the Monster Men chaos. Damian and the assassin, who ended the last issue on a big hook, are sidelined by the structural pivot, leaving their motivations and relationships static for yet another month.
Originality & Concept Execution
On paper, the premise of “one endless Gotham night where assassins, mad science, and infrastructure terror all collide” has legs, and tying Hugo Strange’s Monster Men to petrochemical attacks is a solid, grounded angle. In practice, this installment treats that hook like window dressing, using the Monster Men as a new spectacle rather than the next deliberate move in a tight, escalating conspiracy around Zeller and identity technology. The result feels familiar instead of fresh, a remix of standard Batman crisis beats that never pushes the concept into new territory. The long night branding promises a brutal, focused roller coaster, but this chapter plays more like a filler episode, original in pitch but half hearted in execution.
Positives
The strongest measurable value here sits in the visuals, where clear layouts, expressive figures, and bold color choices make the Monster Men attack readable and striking even if you are only skimming. The book also maintains a consistent tonal throughline of rising urban tension, with the petrochemical setting and talk of Gotham becoming a powder keg giving the arc a macro level sense of danger that could pay off later if the script tightens up. If you are following the run month to month, this issue does at least keep all the chess pieces on the board and confirms that Strange’s play is scaling up from shadowy experiments to headline level terrorism, which might matter when the arc finally decides to move. In that narrow sense, the comic functions as a visual status report, not exciting, but competent enough that dedicated readers will not feel completely lost next issue.
Negatives
From a value standpoint, the biggest problem is how little this chapter advances anything that made the previous issue’s cliffhanger interesting, which means your time and money buy you a lot of noise and very little progress. The pacing undercuts suspense by pivoting to the Monster Men before giving Damian, the assassin, or Zeller’s research any real traction, so the arc feels like it is stalling instead of building toward a payoff. Character work is mostly static, with Bruce repeating familiar beats and supporting players held at arm’s length, which lowers emotional engagement and makes the spectacle feel disposable. When a monthly book reads like a mandatory pit stop rather than a must read chapter, that is a clear hit against its measurable entertainment and originality value.
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 Twitter
The Scorecard
Writing Quality (Clarity & Pacing): [2/4]
Art Quality (Execution & Synergy): [3/4]
Value (Originality & Entertainment): [0/2]
Final Verdict
Batman #6 looks good and sounds important, but functions like a holding pattern in a run that keeps hinting at big ideas then refuses to actually land them. If your comic budget is tight and you are not already ride or die on this arc, this issue does not justify itself as an essential purchase, since you can likely skip it and still track the broad strokes once the story finally wakes up.
5/10
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