Batman: Justice Buster Vol. 3

Since Volume 2 of this series ended with Batman facing off against his rogue AI-controlled battlesuit (named the Justice Buster) you’d be forgiven for thinking that we’d be kicking things off here with a no-holds-barred showdown.

Not so. Instead Batman just wakes up after being knocked out with some sleeping gas to find that the Justice Buster has disappeared (which is kind of remarkable, even the police admit, given how large a unit it is). And that’s it for the Justice Buster in this volume! It isn’t mentioned again in the rest of the book, and indeed I think it’s only seen later brooding over the city on a couple of pages that are just filler.

So instead of that, what do we get? More on the unlikely partnership between Batman and Joker (who is Jason Todd, and a good guy, in this Batman universe). More on Dick Grayson and his relationship with Joe Chill, or Uncle Sam, or whoever this guy is. It seems he’s been hypnotizing young Dick and been orchestrating scenes of violence around Gotham while wearing a bucket on his head.

Interesting stuff, with a dark “death in the family” ending that still leaves a lot of loose ends. I’m still impressed with this series as it goes places I haven’t been expecting and these swerves are usually pretty interesting. So on we go!

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