Published Apr 2004 by DC
WRITTEN BY A.J. LIEBERMAN
ART BY AL BARRIONUEVO AND FRANCIS PORTELA
COVER BY LEE BERMEJO
Full color, 40 Pages

An all-new creative team sets off a new direction in this 50th issue extravaganza guest- starring 2003's hottest Batman villain: Hush! He terrorized Batman and his compatriots for months before disappearing without a trace. Now, Hush resurfaces, prepared to put his next plan for revenge on Batman into motion. But who is Hush, and what is the real nature of his relationship with the Riddler?

Featured Characters:
Batman
Oracle (voice only)
Hush
The Riddler
Joker

The Riddler crashes backwards through the glass dome roof of a reception hall during a society party. He lands on a table, his limbs at odd angles. What looks like a billowing cloak appears above.

One week previous: An injured man cuts down a tree near a wooden hut in a swamp. He has nowhere else to go, and he is dead, for now. He is forming a plan to kill his nemesis.

Bruce Wayne is at a party, and Oracle is giving him dating advice via earpiece. Bruce is distracted by the appearance of the dead Vesper Fairchild. Bruce changes to Batman and follows her car until she falls out and a truck nearly hits her. He rescues her, only to realize she isn't Vesper. He leaves, and "Vesper" phones to ask for money for playing the part.

Elsewhere: Three men in a boat are crossing a swamp and discussing how they'd like to die. They see a light on in an abandoned hut. Investigating, they find diagrams and photos for a raid of some sort. The resident arrives and kills all three men.

Two days later: Something has broken down in the hospital, but the repairman has left an extra behind.

In the prison: The Riddler gets a visitor who has been paid by someone to tell him that he has three days to live. The next day, a bus with new prisoners arrives. On the side is a warning that Riddler only has two days left. He asks around, to get a message to the Joker that he has something the Joker wants: a name. A guard offers to smuggle the message out for five grand.

The Joker is looking through an album of photos of Jeannie. One of his thugs announces the arrival of the Riddler's messenger. The messenger asks for his payment. The Joker doesn't pay him until he's read the letter. The Riddler asks for a transfer out of Blackgate prison.

Elsewhere: Fire tears through the hut on the swamp. Inside, three bodies burn.

This is the first issue to not feature a Batman: Black and White back-up, which was the distinguishing feature of this series when it launched.

The Batman Director Matt Reeves Is Interested in the Villain Hush March 5, 2022

Warning: this story contains spoilers for The Batman. Shhh: Matt Reeves has named the villain Hush as a rogue he may unwrap in the budding Batverse. In The Batman, the Dark Knight (Robert Pattinson) encounters Catwoman (Zoe Kravitz), Penguin (Colin Farrell), and the Riddler (Paul Dano) during an investigation into the underworld of Gotham City. The film ends with Riddler jailed in Arkham with an Unseen Arkham Prisoner (Barry Keoghan) revealed to be the Joker, but Reeves says the scene is not an Easter egg setting up The Batman 2. Answering fan questions for Twitter Movies, Reeves picked Hush when asked to reveal the DC comic book characters he wants to bring into the world of The Batman:

"There are so many [characters]. I think Hush is a really interesting one to do. I'll choose Hush," Reeves said. "That doesn't mean that the next one will be Hush. I just want to say, there are so many. And what we would do next, what we're going to do next if we have that opportunity, it's still in the planning stages and I have a lot of ideas. So please don't latch onto this and say, 'Hey, they're doing the Hush movie!'"

Reeves references Hush with an Easter egg hiding in one of the Riddler's puzzles targeting Bruce and the Wayne family secrets.

In the comic books, Hush is a bandaged bad guy who plots with Riddler to unravel Batman's life. The Batman: HUSH storyline reveals the mystery villain's identity as skilled surgeon Dr. Tommy Elliot, a childhood friend of Bruce Wayne with a supervillain vendetta. In some stories, the Batman-obsessed Hush plots to steal Bruce's identity — and his face.

"That's a character that I love, that I would love to see done, and maybe we'll get the opportunity to do it," Reeves said. "But there are many, there are many [characters]."

Reeves is building out his Batverse with two announced spinoffs on HBO Max and has confirmed talks of a film sequel with Warner Bros. After the Riddler, Pattinson has expressed interest in the shadowy Court of Owls, and Reeves has said he's up to the challenge of "grounding" more fantastical villains like Mr. Freeze.

"I really believe in what we've done and I'd be excited to tell more stories... We are already telling other stories in the streaming space, we're doing stuff on HBO Max, we're doing a Penguin show with Colin, which is gonna be super cool," Reeves recently told The Independent. "And we're working on some other stuff, too, but we have started talking about another movie."

Starring Robert Pattinson, Zoe Kravitz, Paul Dano, Jeffrey Wright, John Turturro, Andy Serkis, and Colin Farrell, The Batman is now playing exclusively in theaters.

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