A Batman Of Even Fewer Words In Batman #13 This Wednesday (Spoilers)

Posted in: Batman, Comics, DC Comics | Tagged: Batman #13, jorge jimenez, matt fraction, Matteo Scalera

A Batman Of Even Fewer Words In Batman #13 This Wednesday (Spoilers)

A Batman Of Even Fewer Words In Batman #13 by Matt Fraction and Matteo Scalera out this Wednesday (Spoilers)

Article Summary

• Batman #13 leans into near-silence, with Matt Fraction and Matteo Scalera delivering a tense, visually driven chapter.
• Poison Ivy’s prehistoric plants transform Gotham’s atmosphere, leaving citizens and allies struggling to speak.
• Batman faces Vandal Savage’s police force and the TUCO militia as Bad Seeds pushes Gotham deeper into crisis.
• Fraction builds on his minimalist comics style in Batman #13, stripping dialogue back to let action tell the story.

There is a small history of silent Batman comics. Such as Detective Comics #1100, with a lead story by Tom Taylor and Mikel Janin, in which Batman and Ace the Bat-Hound help a deaf boy find his lost dog from 2025. Batman #67 by Tom King, Lee Weeks and Jorge Fornes from 2019. Batman #18 by Peter J. Tomasi and Patrick Gleason from 2009. Or Batman #434 by John Byrne and Jim Aparo from 1989. Batman #13 by Matt Fraction and Matteo Scalera isn’t that. But it is something like that. Fraction of course also wrote the silent Hawkeye issue with David Aja… so he has form.

You also might not have noticed this from the preview of Batman #13 by Matt Fraction and Jorge Jimenez, released last week by DC Comics, and kicking off the entry into the Bad Seeds event, but Batman is going to be a man of few words. As is everyone else. Especially as the comic begins with a lot of talking. But as the new atmosphere being created by Poison Ivy’s prehistoric plants terraforming Gotham kicks in, everyone is at a loss for words. Although not straight away, as Batman rescues one poor soul from death by silence.

The police under the control of Police Commissioner Vandal Savage, of course, all with a warrant for Batman’s arrest. And dealing with a considerable amount of paperwork, Hot Fuzz-style…

And so begins Batman’s taciturn approach… with two words. And even less from the TUCO private military squad that Savage hired directly.

Talking to GateCrashers a little while ago,Matt Fraction said, “When I get stuff back from Jorge [Jimenez], I try to get rid of as many words as possible per page. I want this to be a visual experience. I remember spending hours as a kid poring over comics pages that I loved and just losing myself in the details of the worlds. Jorge has that kind of calibre and that quality of craft that’s possible. So, I just want to get the hell out of his way and let him be amazing…. I wanted to get rid of the first-person narration in part because I didn’t want to cover space with words, but also because I like it when I don’t know what Batman’s thinking and I have to learn through his actions.” Well, in Batman #13, Matt Fraction is going a little further with Matteo Scalera, as is Bleeding Cool, going beyond the preview…

More and more and more of this… but only on Wednesday. Oh and some more from Matteo with Batman and Big Boy…

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• BATMAN #13
  (W) Matt Fraction (A/CA) Matteo Scalera

  VANDAL SAVAGE PUTS IVY IN THE CROSSHAIRS! Somewhere in the headquarters of the Gotham City Police Department, Vandal Savage hides a chemical weapon designed to kill Poison Ivy…but if Ivy dies, there will be no ending the bad night of Bad Seeds, for Gotham City or anywhere else. No power. No comms. A heavily-armed private militia tasked with bringing him down on orders of the worst person in Gotham. All holed up together within an impenetrable fortress. This sounds like a job for Batman. Eisner winner Matt Fraction and superstar artist Matteo Scalera deliver a crucial chapter of the Batman: Bad Seeds event! $4.99 9/2/2026

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