Comic Reviews by Walt

The Return of Scarface! Part Three: The Gig Heat!

Writer: Alan Grant
Artist: Norm Breyfogle
Colorist: Adrienne Roy
Letterer: Todd Klein
Assoc. Editor: Kelley Puckett
Editor: Dennis O’Neil
Cover Price: $1.00
Cover Date: April 1992

In this day and age (February 2024), comic covers are virtually meaningless. People even seem to collect "virgin variants" that don’t even carry the TITLE, or cardstock variants that don’t have the actual big, bombastic, noticeable logos, etc. And there are so many variants with any given issue from any given publisher that there’s no way to keep ’em all straight from one issue to another. The best one (I?) can seem to hope for is to somehow determine something is "the next issue" of a series I follow, and hope that when/if I get around to actually READING the thing that it’s worth my $5.

So let’s jump back 32-some years. Let’s look at Batman #476 (from an era when a comic might see a #1 issue in the 1940s and 50 years later still be continuing the numbering without 35 reboots, 16 universe re-shapings and umpteen mini-series any given week).

In sorting through my accumulation, this issue REALLY stuck out to me…just by the COVER. We have a view from behind as Batman actually UNMASKS in front of a stunned woman in a hospital bed–who I mistook for Barbara Gordon but is actually Vicki Vale (oops, wasn’t she blond in the ’89 Tim Burton flick?).

But there was just something to the visual that so stood out to me–I had never read this issue before–that amidst hundreds of other issues being sorted through and stuck away for filing, I HAD TO set this one aside to READ. Because of the stupid COVER IMAGE grabbing my attention, holding my attention, spurring some thoughts and wonderment, and leaving me flat-out INTERESTED in reading the issue to see how this played out, if it was exactly as the cover depicted, or something sensationalized, etc.

I had no idea from the cover that this was a Scarface/Ventriloquist issue. But apparently it’s a THIRD chapter of a story…yet the cover proclaims NOTHING of the sort. No Event banner or Event designation/trade dress. This is just "another" issue or "a next issue" that happens to continue some ongoing story. There’s not even a "recap page" or a "What Came Previously" caption to catch one up. As a reader, one is just simply thrown on into the story! Some masked gunmen burst into a hospital room, obviously intending to Do Some Harm to Ms. Vale. Batman swoops in through the window, disarms and knocks out the gunmen, then unmasks in front of the startled woman, as she realizes Bruce Wayne actually IS a hero and not some weak, bumbling fool. She proclaims her love for him after all, they kiss, and…yeahhhh, Bruce’s mind wandered while he waited in the hospital to be allowed in to see his (apparently former) flame.

Scenes shift and we check in with the Gotham City Police Commissioner, and separately a gang of goons, as some plan gets put in motion. Meanwhile, Bruce is working up the nerve to tell Vicki that he’s Batman (apparently they’d broken up and he’s interested in ‘getting her back’ and thinking Total Honesty might work). But just as he’s about to Say The Words, he sees the Bat-signal lit up over the city, and Duty calls.

Over the next few pages, we see Scarface’s plan unfurls: an apparent informant luring the police to some deal at a chemical plant between rival gangs. Batman (apparently withOUT his Batmobile) finds Sarah Essen manning the Bat-signal instead of Gordon, who has gone on ahead with police, unwilling to wait for the Batman to do their jobs for them. As the Street Demonz and the other gang start shooting, the police are at a disadvantage–especially Gordon, who has his glasses shot off, but thankfully not his head. As time goes on, it’s revealed there’s a bomb, and Scarface’s plan involves eliminating the competition and the Batman and whatever police are caught in things, leaving him to reign over crime in the city. Batman stops Essen from going into the plant after Jim, retrieving the commissioner himself…and realizes that for her love for Gordon, she could have been killed. This leads to his ultimately going back to Vicki after things are wrapped up, and NOT revealing his Big Secret…as he doesn’t want his love for her to lead to her being killed.

So this was definitely NOOOOT at all what I "expected" from the issue. The "big reveal," as I should have recalled to be typical of the time, was a cover "fake-out," where we see it happen on-page, BUT it’s "just a [day]dream sequence." Still, the cover reflected something from INSIDE the issue, which is more than I can say for most comics in 2024! Not to mention it got me to pick the issue out of hundreds to actually read; though obviously I’d already BOUGHT it some time ago for it to already be in my collection.

Visually this one has a defffffinite "early" look to me, from my earliest days being into comics. With an April cover date in 1992, I imagine this likely came out in January or February, barely off 1991, so still close enough to the ’80s to practically BE ’80s. And for me, Norm Breyfogle’s work is certainly a huge part of those early days, particularly his work on Detective Comics [including my first-ever issue in #604]. In fact, this is the same writer/art/colorist/inker team AS that issue of Detective!

On the surface level, the story didn’t really thrill me. I’m not exactly a fan of Scarface/Ventriloquist, nor am I overly familiar with the Bruce/Vicki thing except knowing it had existed enough to at least be incorporated into the ’89 film. It’s also strange to–after what seems like most of the past 20 years–have so much "Bruce" WITH the "Batman." So I’m not thrilled with the story, but I definitely appreciate seeing Bruce here…as human, as someone that CAN get nervous, as someone that IS fallible, etc. It’s a deeper portrayal than I feel I’ve seen in a long time, and reminds me how much I enjoyed Batman stuff as a kid and how little I enjoy it now.

I knew I remembered Grant/Breyfogle working together, and Grant prior to Shadow of the Bat, though I’m most recently familiar with Grant FROM Shadow of the Bat, reading Cataclysm along with the NML Podcast my friend Chris is doing. That’s also where I’m most recently familiar with Scarface and Ventriloquist…especially their inability to say "B"-words, or I might’ve been more put-off by the use of "G" for "B". The Gig Heat being the BIG Heat for this issue.

Due to reading this issue, my most recent comic shop visit included noticing that part 1 was in the previous issue, and I was shocked at a $10-$15 price on the thing! I would by NO MEANS consider this issue to be "worth" anything like that, and was able to enjoy this enough for what it is withOUT spending double-digit dollars on the thing…and it does not have enough for me to suggest or recommend anyone ELSE pay double-digit dollars. Assuming I have the previous couple chapters in my possession already, I might dig ’em out to read…but otherwise I’m gonna chalk this up to a reasonable one-shot-read.

Filed under: 2024 Non-Review Posts, 2024 Posts, 2024 Reviews | Tagged: 1990s, Adrienne Roy, Alan Grant, Batman, Comic Reviews, comics, DC, DC Comics, Dennis O'Neil, Kelley Puckett, Norm Breyfogle, Scarface, The '90s Revisited, The Return of Scarface, Todd Klein, Ventriloquist, Vicki Vale |