For the animated film, go here.
- Alternative Character Interpretation: Batman's line from his fight with Superman about what gives him an advantage:If Clark wanted to, he could use his superspeed and squish me into the cement. But I know how he thinks. Even more than the Kryptonite, he's got one big weakness. Deep down, Clark's essentially a good person...and deep down, I'm not.
- Ass Pull: The plot is able to happen because Riddler, dying of cancer, breaks into and uses one of the Lazarus Pits, and the pain and insanity that resulted let him piece together Batman's secret identity, which he uses in conjunction with Tommy to produce the Hush plot. The foreshadowing to this twist is extremely subtle, and the foreshadowing to the backstory is nonexistent.
- Awesome Art: Which led to Jim Lee getting a Career Resurrection and eventually becoming one of DC's co-publishers.
- Broken Base: Hush stands out as being seen as either one of Batman's best 2000s stories, or one of his worst. Its strong points and weak points are more or less the same; it operates less as a cohesive mystery story and more as a character piece and a vehicle for references to and recreations of other Batman stories backed by Lee's artwork. This results in it being viewed as an exciting Gateway Series that rewards longterm familiarity by fans and a derivative and shallow Random Events Plot by critics. Similarly, its exploration of Batman's relationships with his supporting cast and the deep bench of his Rogues Gallery are either interesting, readable, and show a deep understanding of the characters, or, again, little more than a highlight reel of moments from other, better, Batman stories.
- Captain Obvious Reveal: Hush’s true identity, given the fairly transparent foreshadowing. Led to some backlash decrying the lack of a compelling mystery. Allegedly, though, it wasn't planned this way; Hush originally was supposed to be a resurrected Jason Todd, and Thomas Elliot a Red Herring, but executives got cold feet at the last minute and vetoed this.
- Gateway Series: As broken the base can be, there's a reason for its acclaim. With its Random Events Plot, usage of various Batman characters as well as using Catwoman as the Love Interest, and the acclaimed artwork by Jim Lee, this arc proved to be an effective way for new fans to start their interest in comics, showing off the breadth of modern Batman's world and exploring his relationships with his various friends and foes.
- One-Scene Wonder: Lex Luthor. Finds out Batman kidnapped LexCorp CEO Talia and promises vengeance... Soon. Expanded upon in Loeb's Public Enemies (2004) story arc.
- So Okay, It's Average: This sums up the consensus from the book's detractors (though it's far from universal). It's not entirely awful and it's a good book for newcomers due to its Random Events Plot, references to past stories, and the usage of Batman's supporting cast and rogues gallery. Not to mention the art by Jim Lee is gorgeous. Beyond that, however, many regard the story and mystery to be shallow, derivative, and underwhelming, especially when compared to Jeph Loeb's previous Batman comics, The Long Halloween and Batman: Dark Victory.
- Tearjerker:
- Bruce spends most of Chapter Seven in an Unstoppable Rage, beating the everloving hell out of the Joker with every intention to kill him. And while he's doing so, he flashes back to every friend and family member who has suffered at the clown's hands. When Gordon finally snaps him out of it, Batman doesn’t turn to him with frustration or anger, but is instead clearly on the verge of tears. The sheer guilt and grief Batman feels for everyone who has ever suffered at the hands of his foe has never been more heartrendingly apparent.
- At the conclusion of his battle with Clayface disguised as Jason Todd, Batman knows it's an impostor because he knows Jason knew that he loved him. Considering how fraught Bruce and Jason's relationship became after Jason did come back from the dead, it's a tragically tender moment of emotional vulnerability.
- After a series-long gradual build-up to Batman opening up to Catwoman and pursuing a more serious relationship with her, even unmasking himself as Bruce Wayne to put them on equal footing, Batman ruins everything at the last moment when Catwoman tells him to "hush" while making out, and at the end of the comic is left alone and miserable, aware that his own paranoia has just destroyed in moments what he's spent weeks trying to build up.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
- Two-Face getting a miraculously perfect facial reconstruction, allowing the Harvey Dent personality to reclaim control and derail the bad guys' whole plan is a pretty good story idea in a vacuum that makes good use of the villains' skillsets and weaknesses... but also, you know, happens completely off-page and between issues with minimal foreshadowing. There were apparently plans to use flashbacks to explore this before Infinite Crisis reshuffled the deck and saw Harvey Dent put right back where he was before this story.
- Detractors of the story generally agree that it would have made more sense for Hush to be Jason Todd, as rumor has it was the original plan. These fans sort of got their wish, though, in the Red Hood storyline, where it was revealed that Batman initially had been facing Jason Todd in the graveyard scene before Jason Todd was replaced by Clayface impersonating him partway through the fight, although this has the side effect of making the story's supporters decry the change as even more nonsensical than the haters claimed the old scene was.
- WTH, Costuming Department?: Let's just say Huntress' newly belly-windowed outfit raised eyebrows among more than a few fans, especially after it was marketed towards.
