Welcome to the fourth edition of Team Venom’s Greatest Graphic Novel Guide. For today’s spotlight I’m going to be talking about DC Comics’ Batman: Hush.

Published: 2002-2003 by DC Comics

Original Format: Batman #608-618

Writer: Jeph Loeb
Artist: Jim Lee

Overview: Batman has always been viewed as the character with the greatest villains in comics, so when a new villain was being introduced a cross a 12 issue story arc, fans didn’t know how to take it. Fortunately Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee crafted an absolute masterpiece.

The story starts off strong and sees Batman enduring several encounters from some of his greatest villains from the get go with an overlining theme of some form of conspiracy behind his encounters.

Featuring battles with Scarecrow, Killer Croc, Joker and more, Hush feels like a love-letter to all things Batman. We get to see every member of the Bat-Family in action (at that point it consisted of Nightwing, Robin, Oracle and Huntress) as well as a huge development in the relationship between Batman and Catwoman and a full-blown brawl between Batman an Superman.

Influence In Other Media: Not much, sadly. Despite being one of the greatest Batman stories ever told there’s been no adaptation in any form as of yet. The titular character, Hush, has appeared briefly during all three Arkham videogames (the first being an obscure Easter egg, the second and third as part of side quests)

Our Verdict:

Rory Bailey “Since 1993, the main way of following US comics in the UK was via the collectors edition issues from Panini publishing. For over a decade it was only Marvel that got this treatment until we finally got a Batman collectors edition back in 2005 – titled Batman: Legends. This started with the Hush storyline and resulted in me getting into Batman comics in a big way (at the time I’d just picked up Batman titles here or there but nothing regular). This story focused on everything I love about Batman – namely the supporting cast and villains! This is an easy 10/10 from me on this one.”