If you were to ask comic readers what Big Two character had the most consistent or strongest publication history, you’d be hard-pressed to find an answer beyond Daredevil, especially Daredevil after Frank Miller’s revitalization of the character. Between Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev in the early 2000s, Mark Waid and Chris Samnee in the early 2010s, and Chip Zdarsky and Marco Checchetto’s current run, most people would only be able to point to a handful of stories that didn’t meet the high bar of quality they’ve come to expect from the character.
Charles Soule’s run has a bit of a weird reputation in the midst of this, though. It followed the beloved and subversive Mark Waid run, taking every significant change from that run and undoing it. No longer was Matt in San Francisco, he was back in Hell’s Kitchen. His delightful love interest Kirsten was nowhere to be seen. His secret identity was back to being a secret. It would be hard for anyone who enjoyed Waid’s run to not balk at this abrupt change, especially because the story refused to explain how it happened for a year. But with the omnibus coming out
as a whole?
was a good book focused on establishing the status quo of Gotham, and showing what kind of Batman Jace was. But Ridley didn’t make us care much about him. What Future State: The Next Batman was missing was character work on Jace himself.
comes in. The book focuses on Jace Fox and the rest of the Fox family as they figure out their place in a post-Joker War city. Bruce Wayne is no longer the wealthiest man in Gotham, as the Fox family has gained all his assets. Now Gotham’s first family, the Foxes have to contend with their new status in the city. While fleshing out the Fox family and focusing on their dynamics, the story finds a lot of interesting conflict.