Batman #688 – Review

By Judd Winick (Writer), Mark Bagley (Pencils), Rob Hunter (Inks)

The Story: The days of the new Batman continue. After rightfully assuming the mantle of the Bat, Dick Grayson continues to cement himself as the new Dark Knight; leaving crime scenes clean for the GCPD, winning the press over, mentoring Damian…  Meanwhile, two of Gotham’s biggest criminals– the Penguin and Two-Face, continue to make the necessary moves to further their hold on the city while keeping Batman in check.

What’s Good: The haunting opening pages provide a scene that promises us a crazy story. Batman gets beaten to a pulp, while the unrevealed villain lectures him and reminds him that the Dark Knight is dead. By the third page, we see Grayson defeated at home, before the mantle.

What’s Not So Good: The first chapter to the Long Shadows arc is not off to a good start, simply because the characters and the moments don’t seem to be interesting or unique. In this book, we see repeat scenes of a lame version of a neurotic Dick Grayson (just like in the last issue of Batman and Robin), a nostalgic Gordon, whose rambling lines invoke no sentiment, and bad guys that aren’t in the book long enough. It is becoming unfortunate that this title doesn’t offer you the kind of entertainment and quality character work found in Batman and Robin or Detective Comics.

In addition, although Mark Bagley’s art works well in the action scenes (especially in aerial attacks), he fails to capture everything human about the characters. Everyone seems young– with smooth skin, big innocent-looking eyes…, and each scene seems static and absent of emotion or tension. I’m going to be trying really hard not to look forward to the end of his four-issue stint.

Conclusion: Batman #688 doesn’t really contain anything important. But since we’re only one issue in for a new arc, I suppose Winick and Bagley’s run is still somewhat worth sticking around for another issue. It’s just too bad that this main Bat book doesn’t have fans wishing for the next chapter to come out already.

Grade: C

-Raymond Hilario