With DC Comic's making an effort to publish more comedic titles, it wasn't a surprise to grant a goofy comic book to the lesser-known Batman character, Bat-Mite. Does this six issue miniseries hold up well or does this imp not have the chops? Let's find out on today's "Current Issues".
Writer: Dan Jurgens
Artist: Corin Howell
Colorist: Mike Atyeh
The character of Bat-Mite was originally created by Bob Kane, Bill Finger and Sheldon Moldoff in "Detective Comics #267" in 1959. After the creation of Superman's villain Mr. Mxyzptlk, Batman's real-life parents Kane and Finger decided to create a similar character for Batman. Seeing as how it was during the time when comic books had to be more child friendly, bringing in a cute, goofy and likable character was important to readership. While Mxyzptlk was a trickster from "The 5th Dimension", Bat-Mite was an observer of Batman in "The 5th Dimension". If you're wondering what "The 5th Dimension" is, it's basically a Looney Tunes-type of world populated by reality-controlling imps. Bat-Mite was such a big fan of Batman, he would pop into our world to either follow or challenge Batman, often being more of a nuisance than a villain. While the character's history of being an otherworldly creature would stay a factor for decades, writers couldn't necessarily make that backstory work for their more grounded, gritty, serious Batman stories, as Bat-Mite was an example of a freer time in comic stories. To remedy this, Grant Morrison established in "Batman RIP" that Bat-Mite was a hallucination Batman would see at his psychological weakest. Bat-Mite acted as Batman's moral compass and claimed "The 5th Dimension" was a plain of imagination the people of our world create, but 5th-dimensional-imps control. After the 2011 reboot of The DC Comic's Universe, Bat-Mite remained unused for about four years until DC Comics announced a Bat-Mite miniseries starring the classic 5th-dimensional-imp.
Dan Jurgens is a long-time comic book writer, with names like Superman, Green Arrow, Spider-Man, Thor and many others under his wing. That's why when Bat-Mite's solo was announced I had high hopes that a writer for otherwise A-List comics would have a chance to relax on a book that clearly held no high significance. Now, when this and other titles were announced by DC Comics as part of a 2015 launch of new comics, DC was releasing free sneak-peaks of each title setting up the story so readers could hop on. You didn't need the sneak-peak, but it benefitted the story. Bat-Mite's sneak-peak was honestly misleading for the rest of the book. For one thing, the sneak-peak portrayed Bat-Mite in the classic blue and grey costume like old school Batman, but when issue #1 of Bat-Mite came out the character was dressed in black and grey to match the current Batman's standard look. It's a very small issue, but I appreciated the attention to detail and the idea that Bat-Mite-the biggest Batman fan in existence-preferred the hero's old look. The sneak-peak set up this idea at it's ending that Bat-Mite realized Batman was perfect and he didn't need Bat-Mite's help, so Bat-Mite would travel the DC Universe "fixing" other characters so they can be cool like Batman. That idea really excited me, the prospect of an anthology story about Bat-Mite helping/harassing heroes all over and making them "better". This could have been a chance to tell some tongue-in-cheek commentary on DC's current character representations. Bat-Mite could question the issue of wearing underwear on the outside of a costume to Superman, or ask Batgirl how she fixed her broken spine, or why Harley Quinn doesn't dress in a colorful one-piece anymore. He could have tackled the issue of Flash's time travels or compared the Green Lanterns, but instead we got a linear story that sadly doesn't impress.
The actual story of this title is that Bat-Mite has been kicked out of his dimension by his superiors for some unspecified reason and sent to Earth. After a failed team-up with Batman, Bat-Mite helps Hawkman defeat a lame villain and free some hostages, two of which who welcome him to stay with them. At first the idea of Bat-Mite "fixing" Hawkman sounded cool, I half expected for Jurgens to set up a new status quo with Hawkman, but instead he just told a long-running joke and established two supporting character's we'll never meet again. One of these two character who take Bat-Mite in is working for the US government under "Director Paulson" who-real freaking subtle, by the way-wants to keep an eye on Bat-Mite. Is that story-thread resolved? No. Another thread is the character Gridlock who wants to cement "the old ways" by taking out young superheroes like Robin-who has a legitimately funny interaction with Bat-Mite-and stealing old pieces of memorabilia like a hidden pilot for Star Trek. Other heroes who appear include Booster Gold and The Inferior Five. For what it's worth, the characters Bat-Mite teams up with in four of this six part series are good choices for this type of book. Oh, and that plot about Gridlock? Unresolved. Bat-Mite's quest to "fix" DC's heroes? Stops after eight characters. Instead of any of those threads being resolved, issue six ends with Bat-Mite being summoned back to "The 5th Dimension" by his superiors-who turn out to be the 5th Dimension's Justice League of Supermite, Wonder Womite and Aquamite (who looks like 90's Aquaman for some reason)-and being accepted back onto the team to fight a creature called "Canceltron" or something.
I shouldn't of expected three story points to wrap up in a miniseries about Bat-Mite "fixing" characters, but the prospect of leaving the reader curious and interested in new characters only to rush an ending is just stupid. I wasn't keen on Bat-Mite having two human buddy's or living in an apartment or fighting a lame never-to-be-seen-again villain. I don't know if Dan was promised another issue or something but just leaving things like Director Paulson and "The Canceltron" untouched seems like such a waste. It makes me think Dan was writing a longer story and realized shortly after it was only a miniseries, so he wrote a quick ending. The book wasn't badly written, it was as funny as I expected, sometimes even more when Bat-Mite quoted Adam West's Batman or made some political joke, but honestly the book would have been better if it kept to one concept instead of trying to be too many things. If you want to tell a story about The 5th Dimensional Justice League, go ahead. But you can't shuffle in governmental sabotage or retro villains too. Some appearances by DC characters feel more forced then they would if this book told separate stories of Bat-Mite consulting these characters. The art by Corin Howell is cartoon-like and silly and that's a major plus, but again it would have been better if Bat-Mite dressed in brighter colors instead of a dull black.
Overall, Bat-Mite is a miniseries with a lot of heart and gags, but it tries too hard to be many things instead of being what it obviously should have been. I'm not being all "if it were my book" about it either, any DC fan would LOVE a book where a cartoon version of the Batman fanbase ripped on The New 52's versions of characters. Honestly, Bat-Mite's occasional appearances in the "Batman: The Brave and The Bold" television series was a much more entertaining look at the character. I recommend this book if you want a quick and funny read, but don't expect it to be anything more than a joke.
Thanks for reading.
Oddly, Bizarro is a better miniseries.
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