Manga Review: Batman: Justice Buster Vol. 1

Manga Review: Batman: Justice Buster Vol. 1 by Eiichi Shimizu & Tomohiro Shimoguchi

It’s been about three years since Bruce Wayne began his career as Batman, the mysterious masked vigilante operating in Gotham City. His war on crime has borne some fruit; the old, normal gangs have largely broken up as their members go to jail or flee the city. But other, more colorful villains like the Penguin and Firefly have rushed in to take their places. In response to these exotic threats, Batman has been developing an artificial intelligence assistant named ROBIN.

Not all the bugs have been worked out yet. Batman’s grappling line device abruptly fails to work at a critical moment because ROBIN has decided the risk of him falling for several extra seconds is less than the risk of setting off an explosive in the area the line would be attached to. Still, things did work out, and Batman’s confident he can teach ROBIN to be his faithful “sidekick.”

Better a machine than the Joker, Gotham’s other vigilante. Despite his clownish mask, the Joker has a more lethal approach than Batman, preferring to kill his criminal targets. He’s amenable to becoming partners, or so he says, even tempering his murderous ways when Batman’s present, but the Dark Knight is not interested in that kind of team-up.

Nor is he interested when the Superman of Metropolis conveys an offer to join the Justice League. Since “the root of justice is violence” Batman doesn’t see how a group of people so powerful will not turn into a threat.

But things are escalating, and there’s a new shadowy threat in Gotham, manipulating the other villains to some unknown purpose. Batman may yet have to accept help not entirely on his own terms….

The manga takes an alternate Earth approach to the Batman mythos, especially in its version of Joker, who more closely resembles the behavior and personality of the Jason Todd version of Red Hood. ROBIN being an A.I. instead of a kid sidekick is also novel.

Alfred and Commissioner Gordon are pretty on-model though.

There’s a couple of subplots that will probably tie in to the main story. An as-yet unnamed private eye is looking into the cold case of Dr. and Mrs. Wayne’s murder all those years ago. Since he works for the Ace Detective Agency, and has some odd mannerisms, it seems likely that he’s also the Joker. Also, there’s an orphan boy named Danny who’s hiding a secret or two of his own, and Danny’s Uncle Sam comes off as rather sinister due to off-hand comments and habit of not saying where he’s been.

The inking is rather blocky, and the feel is reminiscent of the Nolan movies.

This volume is all set-up and raising of questions, so it’s a little hard to tell where the story’s going. There’s a title drop on the last page, and “Justice Buster” may not be what you expected it to mean.

There’s enough intriguing stuff here to make me interested in the next volume, but I don’t know if it will stick the landing.