Smith's horror films certainly leave us as speechless as Silent Bob. Kevin Smith's Batman: The Widening Gyre (2010) makes the interesting retroactive addition that Batman suffered a 'bladder spasm' during a climactic moment. Now he is a serial killer who mutilates his victims, sewing them into a walrus suit made of their own flesh (complete with tusks carved from their own leg bones). 2014's Tusk depicts a former sailor who was saved from his shipwreck by a walrus, but after being stranded for too long, he was forced to consume the beast who had become his friend. Smith's horror pieces have only gotten weirder. As if the ritual murders and bone-chilling religious fanaticism weren't enough, the original ending called for the coming of the Rapture and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. But the able invocation of almost everything that’s cool about Batman in The Widening Gyre sure inspires optimism.His first film in the horror genre, Red State was a stomach-turning (so continue reading with caution) political horror thriller in which conservative religious zealots capture, torture, and kill or attempt to kill individuals they perceive as sinful, including a gay man as well as three teenage boys who one member of the congregation lured with the promise of group sex.

It’s far too early to call a shot and predict that The Widening Gyre will be a seminal Batman tale that can stand alongside the likes of Dark Knight Returns or Year One. This best practice is only mentioned because Smith’s use of the ultra-powerful hellspawn is deft, frightening, and effective. Mostly normal-yet-demented people in clown makeup murdering the masses via poison gas? Yeah. Four-color superheroics don’t fit the mood, modus operandi, or mission.

But there’s a reason that you don’t typically see Batman fight the likes of Reverse Flash, Sinestro, and Bizarro in a solo book. When he’s in a team-up title, sure, great stories are told. And then comes in Etrigan, the Demon, the classic DC Comics character created by Jack Kirby.īatman solo stories are typically best when they stick to the street-level/Batman-as-urban-myth paradigm.

A Poison Ivy characterized so wonderfully insane, and lushly drawn to match, that you can almost smell her blooming. We have the Batboat, for crying out loud. We have a story littered with cameos from Batman’s classic rogues gallery. In the first issue, Smith deftly uses an astounding number of the tools in Batman’s storytelling “utility belt.” We have a priceless flashback with Robin (money shot: Boy Wonder taunts Nazi bad guy while wearing a yarmulke, Torah scroll in hand). Smith and Flanagan have reunited for Batman: The Widening Gyre, a six-issue limited series that just kicked off. We’ve seen his well-received takes on Daredevil and Green Arrow and the somewhat mixed reactions to the recently collected Batman: Cacophony, with Walter Flanagan on the art chores. Kevin Smith (yes, that Kevin Smith) is at it again, writing comic books.

Kevin smith batman widening gyre