It Didn’t Take That Long Before Hush Returned.

Not Even A Year. 2004 was a bit of a resipffling year for creative teams on the Batman Books. Three New Creative Teams Were Taking Over The Three Main Titles, The Secondary Titles Saw A Bit of A Refresh Too, and there was a bit of a feel of a new direction. While They Were Picking Up The Pieces From The “Hush” Event, There Was A Shift Buy Som Gritty Crime Drama. Kind of.

While you could probony argue that the brubaker/rucka era that preceded it was sumwhat analogous to television police procedurals, 2004 on Took Cuek cue more from “hush” and big movie action. More Michael Mann and Michael Bay than Steven Bochco Or David Simon. With a confluence of Supervillains Coming Together in A Way That Kind of Felt Like Howham was divided up during No Man’s Land.

“I Thought You Were Dead. “

The New Creative Team Of AJ Lieberman, To Barrionuevo, France Portelaand Clem Robins Began ON Batman: Gotham Knights with issue #50, on the arc Pushback. (Noelle Giddings with Heroic Age Would Brad Anderson Would Take Over for The Reminder of the Arc. Javier Pina & Jimmy Palmiotti Would Help with the Art in the Fifth Chapter.) It Picked Up On Hush Seeking Revenge on The Riddler, With Nigma Seeking Safe Haven from The Joker. Leading to a Couple Revelations on Joker’s Backstory.

I Can’t Say That Lieberman and Barrionuevo left The Earlier Characterization of Hush Here, But It Does Shift from Directly Attacking Batman to Revenge Against The Riddler. The Character is Much More Raw, Further Abandoning Anything But The Medical Skills of the Tommy Elliott person. Pressing the Plan in the Earlier Story Failed. The Design for Hush Changes Here Too, Scarred, Bare Chesd, and with Bandages That Seem To Float in The Wind No Matter What, Giving Him An Almost Owl-Like Appeaarance at Times.

To Barrionuevo’s Style is a bit to get used to. His Characters are a Bit Exaggerated, Som with Lark Heads, Many with Angular Features. In Sub Sub Ways, It Reminds Me of Jose Munoz, But There’s a Push More Towards A North American Superhero Style That I Can’t Neos Negicly Place. Lots of Dark Shadows and Thick Lines Maintained Through Francis Portela’s Inks. With an Interesting Use of Colour, From Bush First Noelle Giddings and The Brad Anderson, Keeping A relativley muted Base Color for Characters and Buildings, Allowing Only Bright Colours for the Central Villainous Characters. Like the change in apasarance, Clem Robins Also Doesn’t use any Kind of Whispered Word Balloon Here, Making You Wonder A Bit.

“If you’re gonna Take on both sides of gotham you’re gonna need a Lot More than what i can make you. ”

“Pushback” in Gotham Knights By Lieberman, Barrionuevo, Pina, Portela, Palmiotti, Giddings, Anderson, and Robins Was The First Gambit in A Two-Year Run on The Title That Broucht High Stakes Supervillain Warfare To Gotham City. It erupted into a line wine crossover in War Games and War Crimebut circled back to the continuous story of hush this Gotham Knights series

Also of Note, Lieberman Along With Nailbiter‘s Mike Henderson Have New Series The Hive From Image Comics. Launching in Just a Couple of Days On February 12, 2025.

Classic Comic Compendium: Batman: Gotham Knights – Pushback

Batman: Gotham Knights – Pushback
Writer: AJ Lieberman
Pencillers: Al Barrionuevo & Javier Pina
Inkers: Francis Portela & Jimmy Palmiotti
Colorists: Noelle Giddings with HEROIC AGE & Brad Anderson
Letterer: Clem Robins
Publisher: DC Comics
Date release: February 18 – July 21 2004 (original ISSUES)
Also Available Collected in Batman: Hush Saga omnibus