You know, I have to agree, at least to a certain extent, with Sean Collins' review of the Batman story arc called (for reasons which remain something of a mystery to me) simply "Hush." I'd have to say that I probably wouldn't use quite the same language as Collins, but like him (and many other readers, I believe), I was very disappointed in the end result.

Unlike Collins, I started reading the series with relatively high expectations. I'd read both of Jeph Loeb's prior Batman incarnations, both Dark Victory and The Long Halloween, as well as his Superman for All Seasons and liked his sparse writing style and crisp, uncluttered dialogue. I also quite liked Jim Lee's hyper-realistic artwork from his days at Wildstorm. As a result, I throughly enjoyed what I saw in the first several issues of this story arc. In fact, I actually felt it was among the best things going in superhero comics.

Then came the dreaded "middle" stretch, which was itself followed by an ending that - to be charitable - made really no sense at all. This is how Collins sums up the early part of the story arc:

"Hush" concerned Batman's attempts to determine the identity of a mysterious new foe, the mastermind behind a serious of surprisingly sophisticated attacks by the vigilante's rogues gallery. In the first few issues, Batman balanced this detective work with the pressing need to become reacquainted with a childhood friend who apparently played such an important role in young Batman's life that decade upon decade of Batman writers felt unequal to the task of portraying this relationship, because "Hush" marked this character's first appearance.

Well, I actually loved the early going. Batman rescuing a kid from Killer Croc, every step of his rescue plan obviously orchestrated to a second, worked for me. So did the whole Catwoman steals the money, takes it to Poison Ivy routine. And I really enjoyed the whole Batman goes to Metropolis sequence, including the Batman/Superman fight and Batman's willingness to put an "innocent" in the line of fire to pull Supes out of his Ivy-induced zombie state.

As for the Tommy Elliot character - well, yes, I did have to scratch my head at first and wonder, "Where did this guy come from?" I mean, Bruce Wayne's childhood has been mined pretty extensively, I'd have said it would have been rather difficult to find a new vein of material. That said, I was willing to accept Tommy as initially written (i.e., a old friend Bruce had largely forgotten) but I think that the ultimate resolution of the story reflects exactly what I meant: there wasn't a viable vein of valuable material around for "Tommy Elliot" to really pan out.