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In I Am Batman #0, a Suicide Squad survivor is looking to partner up with The Next Batman in a way neither one of them expected.
The following article contains spoilers for I Am Batman #0, on sale now from DC Comics.
Katana’s history has long been intertwined with Batman and the Fox family, so it makes perfect sense that she would train Batman’s successor, Jace Fox. But after having trained him for years, she still thinks he has a lot to learn and asked him to be her apprentice.
I Am Batman #0, by John Ridley, Travel Foreman, Norm Rapmund and Rex Lokus, begins with a flashback to Katana training Jace in Japan. The two clearly have a deep bond and long history together, casually bantering while fighting. Once their training ended, she admitted that he had grown a lot but still had much to learn before he was ready to be a hero and asked him to be her apprentice. Jace refused, stating that while she fights bad people, he wanted to fight a system.
In The Next Batman: Second Son #10 and #11, by Ridley, Mark Morales, Tony Akins, Ryan Benjamin, Deron Bennett and Lokus, Katana saved Jace from assassins hired by Arkadyne. Afterward, she offered him some much-needed advice about how reckless he was being in his crusade for justice. Katana said that she trained him better and ended their conversation by saying that she’s would always be around when he needed her. It’s clear that Katana has had a major impact on Jace’s life and taught him many of the skills that he relies on in his fight.
Katana, aka Tatsuo Yamashiro, made her debut in 1983’s The Brave and the Bold #200 by Mike W. Barr and Jim Aparo, inside that issue’s preview of Batman and the Outsiders #1. She was introduced as a master swordswoman whose sword Soultaker was possessed by her dead husband’s soul. In Outsiders, she tracked down Markovia’s general and killed him, accidentally implicating Batman and Black Lightning in the murder. The duo was in the country searching for Lucius Fox, who had been kidnapped by Baron Bedlam, Markovia’s leader. Afterwards, she banded together with Geo-Force and Halo to free Batman, Black Lightning, and Metamorpho from Baron Bedlam’s prison. Having recently quit the Justice League and seeing the potential of the heroes in front of him, Batman named the group of heroes the Outsiders. Since her debut, Katana has often been a member of different “teams,” including the aforementioned Outsiders, the Birds of Prey and even the Suicide Squad. Katana also appeared in David Ayer’s Suicide Squad film in 2016 and was one of the few characters to survive until the end of the film.
Katana’s and Jace’s relationship is a total inversion of her relationship with the original Batman. In the Outsiders, Batman and Katana had a teacher-student relationship. In the 2013 Beware the Batman animated series, Katana replaced Robin as Batman’s sidekick. However, in The Other History of the DC Universe #3 by Ridley, Giuseppe Camuncoli, Andrea Cucchi, Jose Villarubia, and Steve Wands, Katana admitted that she believed Batman “just wanted to maintain surveillance” on her because he felt she was untested and possibly untrustworthy. Whether or not Bruce Wayne eventually came to trust her in “Future State,” their long history makes her the perfect person to train his successor.
Jace’s path to becoming Batman has been extremely troubled, proving that Katana was right about him still having a long way to go before he’s ready to be a superhero. But even though he refused her offer to become Katana’s apprentice, she has shown that she’s willing to help him out of a jam when he needs it.
Considering that she taught him everything that he knows, Katana will in all probability have a large role to play in Jace’s future as Gotham’s new Dark Knight and his war against the Magistrate.
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