Comics / Comic Reviews / DC Comics

Absolute Batman: Hush

By Leroy Douresseaux
October 2, 2005 - 18:00

It’s a pity Jim Lee couldn’t draw a Batman comic under the direction of good comic book writer who actually delivered a great Batman story. Batman: Hush was mediocre, but reads quite well, like a cheap serial, in a collected form. However, the story is not the reason to get ABSOLUTE BATMAN: HUSH.

The treat here is seeing Jim Lee’s artwork in a large format (8” x 12”), especially the better pages (some of the art came across in it’s original smaller, comic book publishing as cold and machine-like), but Lee’s art would look even better as an Absolute edition had it been originally drawn to fit in this format, which it wasn’t. Lee’s detailed art, worried over with cross-hatching and squiggly lines, looks better reduced to the size of a standard comic book (6” x 10”). This kind of layout works better for classic Sunday comic strips originally drawn for tabloid format (Prince Valiant, Little Nemo in Slumberland, Tarzan, etc.).

Fans of the original Hush run should like the series commentary in the back section of the book, but the best “back of the book” section is the Jim Lee sketchbook. At 30 pages in length, it’s like a Christmas present from Jim Lee. B

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12