Batman: Reptilian
Outside of the Punisher, seeing Garth Ennis write a major superhero doesn’t inspire much confidence these days. Most of that is down to his status as writer and co-creator of “The Boys” which made his contempt for the genre and most of its characters explicit as well as the fact that he effectively graduated from doing regular work for Marvel and DC when that series was picked up by Dynamite over a decade back. So when I heard that he was teaming with artist Liam Sharp for a new “Batman” miniseries, I wasn’t expecting much. Which turned out to be the right kind of expectations to have for “Reptilian” unless you were hoping to see the Caped Crusader act like a complete and total dick.
Some context first: Sharp mentions something interesting in the brief dedication he offers to the late Steve Dillon before the story. This would be the fact that Dillon was originally supposed to be the artist of “Reptilian.” According to an article from Comic Book Resources, Ennis started writing the script for Dillon back in 2016 hoping to provide the artist with a solid comeback following a long period of illness. Unfortunately Dillon passed away in October 2016 and the project was shelved. It wasn’t until years later that Sharp was offered the chance to illustrate it himself.
It’s fascinating to think about what this series would have looked like with Dillon as the artist as his style is light years away from Sharp’s. The former’s work has been defined by his simple and straightforward linework that emphasizes clarity of storytelling and emotion, while also proving to be really great at conveying action too. The latter’s, however, has more recently been defined as painted chaos in his work on the second season of “The Green Lantern” where he illustrates some mindbending concepts in impressive ways that only register as such if you’re willing to put in the work to seeing what he’s drawn.
That’s the approach Sharp has taken with “Reptilian” and while parts of it work well, others come off as frankly incomprehensible. The opening showdown between Batman and a wife-beating boxer is one of the better-rendered sequences in the story and the bits where small-time criminal Konstantin is being hectored into working for the title character have a darkly comic charm to them.
Then you get to bits such as Batman’s first encounter with Killer Croc and you’re left wondering what the hell is going on. It’s a good thing the Dark Knight feels compelled to talk about what he’s seeing or else I’d have no idea what it is. In fact, a lot of the stuff involving the monster at the center of this story is hard to parse down to the very look of the thing. It comes off like a mass of eyes, teeth, and claws that I suppose works well enough for a story about something that’s menacing Batman’s rogues gallery, but has no resonance beyond that.
The threat this thing presents to the villains of Gotham is the main thrust of the story. Things kick off in earnest when Batman intercepts a 911 call reporting that the Mad Hatter and Scarecrow have been mutilated by an unknown assailant. It’s soon found out that the Riddler and Penguin received similar treatment. What these villains had in common was that they were at a gathering of Gotham’s villains as they were trying to figure out what to do about Batman. Now that it looks like someone is out to get them all, it’s up to the Dark Knight to find out who.
If you’re guessing that Killer Croc has something to do with all this, given the title of the story, you’d be right. The thing is that his involvement in the story is both gross and weird without being particularly interesting. Ennis also tossess off some theories about the character’s origin that tie into a real-life military incident, though one guesses that was more for the writer’s amusement than the reader’s. This is a Black Label miniseries after all and its connection to the current continuity of the DC Universe is meant to be negligible as a result.
Which is probably for the best given the characterization of Batman here. This has been the subject of some controversy online as the Dark Knight is portrayed in a very callous and unsympathetic way here. As if he was a bully, in fact. Given Ennis’ contempt for superheroes in general, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that he’s leaned into the interpretation of Batman as a billionaire who beats up on the mentally ill here. Were I a betting man, I’d say that doing so is how he kept himself amused enough to stay awake while writing this.
That being said, I can’t say I was as put off by the writer’s characterization of Batman here as others were. Enough has been done over the years to establish that the character isn’t a thug with money and that he’s the closest thing we have to a morally upstanding billionaire (feel free to draw your own conclusions from the fact that he’s also a fictional character). Still, this is a character who clearly enjoys instilling fear in others, regardless of what they’ve done, and his portrayal here feels like that aspect taken to its logical extreme. You can see it in his constant terrorization of Konstantin, and utter lack of sympathy for what happens to Killer Croc and the rest of his rogues gallery. It’s not always entertaining, but I will admit to feeling that his trolling of Joker in the middle of the story is the high point of this whole thing.
It’s a take on the character I can see the appeal in, for a one-off project like this. Unfortunately it’s not supported by a particularly interesting story or wholly enticing art. “Batman: Reptilian” is ultimately one more example why it pays to be wary when you see Ennis’ name attached to a story involving a major superhero who isn’t the Punisher. The initial aim of this project may have been to remind audiences of how great an artist Steve Dillon was, but with his passing it’s clear that this story should have been laid to rest with him.