Batman and Robin #34 – Review

By: Peter J. Tomasi (story), Patrick Gleason (pencils), Mick Gray (inks), John Kalisz (colors)

The Story: Another heartwarming Bat-family reunion.

The Review: The Super-family may have the reputation for being the brighter, friendlier gang of heroes, but it’s the Bat-family that’s gotten tighter over time. Part of that is the changes from the relaunch; the Supers are no longer on intimate terms while the Bats have preserved all their past history with each other. But I think the difference also comes from the fact that the Supers have less need of each other by virtue of their powers; to keep Gotham running, the Bats must rely on their collective strength.

So things haven’t been quite right since Death of the Family drove a wedge between Bruce and the others, one that he exacerbated in post-death of Damian grief. The reconciliation between him, Babs, Jason, and Tim—the three he hurt the most during that period—thus comes right on time, premised on an excellent promise on Bruce’s part: complete and utter truthfulness.

Batman and Robin #33 – Review

By: Peter J. Tomasi (story), Patrick Gleason (pencils), Mick Gray (inks), John Kalisz (colors)

The Story: Friends don’t let friends fight evil gods alone.

The Review: I’m not a hardcore Bat-fan, but I can definitely see his massive appeal.* Despite his mortal frame, the man goes toe-to-toe alongside and against some of the most powerful forces in the universe and doesn’t even bat an eye—yes, pun intended. That kind of courage, guts, pluck, whatever you’d like to call it, always puts him on the verge of open conflict with somebody bigger than him, and it really doesn’t get bigger than the Justice League and Apokolips.

Bruce going rogue with the League goes about as well as you’d expect. He may be Batman, but getting past all his teammates by himself is beyond even him, as it should be. You couldn’t retain much respect for them otherwise. It’s also important that Bruce isn’t entirely in the right here. Vic and Arthur point out the folly of making an incursion into Apokolips and tackling something they’re not ready for, and they’re correct. The League may be party-poopers in this scenario, but they’re rightfully so.

Batman and Robin #32 – Review

By: Peter J. Tomasi (story), Patrick Gleason (pencils), Mick Gray (inks), John Kalisz (colors)

The Story: This is one father-grandfather battle that won’t get settled at family court.

The Review: Speaking of characters who’ve been around so long that you’ve taken their rep for granted, doesn’t it strike you as odd that Ra’s Al Ghul is considered one of Batman’s mortal enemies—heck, one of the most formidable villains of the DCU—and yet when was the last time we saw him actually do anything threatening himself? As head of the League of Assassins, he has a right to delegate the dirty work, of course, but that does nothing for his own street cred.

If nothing else, this issue allows Ra’s to unleash his skill against Bruce, and the resulting match is quite impressive. The only downside is, for all its intensity, it feels all too brief. We’re talking about a showdown between Batman and an immortal assassin, with years of hatred and the biggest possible stake—Bruce’s son, Ra’s’ grandson—spurring them on. This should be a battle for the ages, and what we get falls sadly short.

Batman and Robin #31 – Review

By: Peter J. Tomasi (story), Doug Mahnke (art), Christian Alamy & Keith Champagne (inks), John Kalisz (colors)

The Story: To prevent the undead, Batman must rely on the undead.

The Review: Frankenstein’s recent popularity gives me a lot of hope for the state of comics. That such an unconventional character can be featured in two ongoing series (one being a weekly series) and guest-star alongside the Dark Knight Himself is evidence that superhero comics haven’t become completely formulaic and bland. Given that he is rather unusual, however, what accounts for his appeal?

Much of it has to do with Grant Morrison’s original conception of the undead warrior, of course, along with Jeff Lemire’s fierce, no-nonsense characterization in Frankenstein, Agent of S.H.A.D.E., which most other writers have picked up on since. Between his zealous pursuit of justice and his tendency towards melancholy reflection, Frank just doesn’t sound like anyone else in the DCU. It’s when both aspects of his personality come together that he delivers his choicest lines: “I came back here looking for solitude to renew my…fortitude for the forever war ahead of me.”

C2E2 Report: DC Comics – Batman

Saturday was a big day for this year’s C2E2, with a lot of DC and Marvel’s biggest panels taking place. Besides entry in the morning, the longest line I saw all weekend was for this panel. Hundreds of fans filed through the doors of the convention’s largest panel space, and with good reason.

As things got started, John Cunningham, DC’s Marketing VP, introduced us to our panelists: James Tynion IV, former writer of Red Hood and the Outlaws and Talon and an architect of Batman: Eternal; Scott Snyder, writer for Batman, lead writer for Batman: Eternal, and all-around Batman superfan; Jason Fabok and Dustin Nguyen, the two artists for Batman: Eternal; Patrick Gleason and Peter Tomasi, the artist and writer, respectively, on Batman and _____; and Jim Chadwick, an editor with DC’s digital division who works on Batman ‘66, among others.

Cunningham started by reminding us that this year is the 75^th anniversary of Batman and promised a slew of celebration, most clearly embodied in a “Batman Day” sometime this July. He also mentioned the two animated shorts commissioned for the anniversary and, as a thank you, revealed that we’d be screening them before the panel began.

Unfortunately there was some technical trouble, kicking off a friendly rivalry between Cunningham and the people running the projector.

Unable to resolve the problem immediately, we turned to the comics.

The first book mentioned was Grayson, which received a warm reception, but just as quickly as it was brought up, Cunningham informed us that he couldn’t talk about it yet. Instead Scott Snyder took the opportunity to enlist the audience in a campaign to make sure that DC used the slogan that he and the other writers had come to love, “You think you know Nightwing, but you don’t know Dick.” It seemed to take off with the fans. DC had actually published the line in the Grayson #1 solicit a few days earlier, but after this panel I’m sure they were pleased that they went ahead with it.

Next on the docket was Batman and Scott Snyder’s “Zero Year” storyline, which has just entered its final phase, “Savage City”. Snyder, ever eager to share with the fans had thrown in a couple of extra slides into the presentation as a thank you. “You guys are our bosses,” he said, quoting a sentiment that drives he and Greg Capullo’s work on the title.

Batman and Robin #30 – Review

By: Peter J. Tomasi (story), Patrick Gleason (art), Mick Gray (inks), John Kalisz (colors)

The Story: It’s Ra’s al Ghul’s first time on Paradise Island, and he’s not about to waste it on tourist traps.

The Review: On the whole, Tomasi has done a good job making sure this team-up thing hasn’t been just a promotional gimmick. The first arc gave each member of the Bat-family a different role in talking Bruce down from his crazed grief, and the second arc was basically a Two-Face storyline that had little to do with teaming Bruce up with anybody. With this third arc now looking to Bruce’s Justice League buddies for partners, Tomasi veers dangerously close to using them as pure eye candy.

That’s the way Aquaman sort of turned out last issue since Tomasi didn’t really allow the two to interact or connect in any special way, and Wonder Woman doesn’t fare much better. She happens to be a little more present in this issue than Aquaman was, maybe, but she’s no less simply a muscle-woman for Bruce, her role limited to handling the physical threats beyond his mortal frame. I know I joked about the two of them reviving their pre-relaunch romance, but at the very least, I hoped for a deeper connection than a three-panel sunrise chat about pretty much nothing.

Batman and Robin #29 – Review

By: Peter J. Tomasi (story), Patrick Gleason (pencils), Mick Gray, Mark Irwin, Norm Rapmund (inks), John Kalisz (colors)

The Story: Contrary to appearances, Batman and Aquaman are not here for whale-watching.

The Review: It must be rather comforting to come from a family in the resurrection business. I don’t know if that’s exactly where all the Al Ghul’s get their death-defying steeliness, but I imagine it helps them get through the day, knowing if they happened to perish by assassin’s blade or errant bomb that they have some extra insurance on the side. Anyway, the point is we should all have expected Damian to come back even before he died.

Despite that, it’s not certain that’s where Bruce’s current search for his son’s body will end up. Although it seems natural for this series to eventually restore Robin to its title at some point, this Batman and… tactic has gone on far longer than you thought. Tomasi doesn’t seem in any hurry to bring back the Boy Wunderkind anytime soon, even though this issue puts Damian back squarely in Bruce’s focus, after the thrilling distraction of Two-Face’s rampage.

Batman and Robin #28 – Review

By: Peter J. Tomasi (story), Patrick Gleason (pencils), Mick Gray (inks), John Kalisz (colors)

The Story: Two-Face discovers, to his horror, that a coin has more than two sides.

The Review: In the spirit of the recent Olympics, I’ll describe Tomasi’s biggest obstacle to comic book greatness as a frequent failure to stick the landing.  A character-focused writer at heart, Tomasi can usually manage to start somewhere interesting and deliver a tight, even gripping narrative along the way.  But once you reach the conclusion, you sense he might have gotten caught up in the storytelling without thinking of what he wanted to get out of it.

In that regard, this arc is a typical sample of the Tomasi problem.  While the creation of Erin and her history with Bruce and Harvey has deepened the Batman and Two-Face mythos, it doesn’t appear she has any other use than that.  Her importance is thus primarily rooted in the past.  In the present, she served her purpose by drawing Harvey out, but with that done, Tomasi’s at a loss of what to do with her.  Nothing reveals that more than when he has Batman literally eject Erin from the story within the issue’s first few pages.  Despite her defiant commitment to villainy later on, it’s quite apparent that her future use will be limited.

Batman and Robin Annual #2 – Review

By: Peter J. Tomasi (story), Doug Mahnke (art), Pat Gleason (pencils), Christian Alamy, Keith Champagne, Tom Nguyen, Mark Irwin, Mick Gray (inks), Tony Aviña (colors)

The Story: If you think your dad is bad, try being grounded by Batman.

The Review: Of all the puzzling aspects of the new DCU, the one that’s probably hardest to deal with is the pick-and-choose quality of continuity.  While most series opted to start from scratch, a few franchises went for a mixed approach of wiping away certain parts of their continuity, reimagining others, and keeping certain parts in place.  For old and new readers alike, this can be a confusing web to trace.  This has been the state of Batman for several years.

Scott Snyder has been laboring through Zero Year to resolve this problem, but there are still things that escape Zero Year’s scope, not the least of which is the history of Batman’s various Robins.  The DC reboot sponsored Damian Wayne as its current Robin, yet also maintained Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, and Tim Drake as previous Boy Wonders without troubling to explain how they all fit into Batman’s five-year tenure or, for that matter, what each of them brought to the table as Robins.

Batman and Robin #27 – Review

By: Peter J. Tomasi (story), Patrick Gleason (pencils), Mick Gray (inks), John Kalisz (colors)

The Story: Harvey goes full circle from P.D., to D.A., to D.O.A.

The Review: While it’s easy enough to mark the point where Harvey Dent’s life diverged from Gotham’s golden boy to one of its most terrifying threats, it’s a little harder to piece together why he flew between extremes so quickly.  It’s a bit too simplistic to believe that a scarring, no matter how seriously traumatic, can turn someone homicidal.  Surely the seeds of madness need to have been sown earlier than that.

Past issues on this arc have suggested precisely that, with Erin making repeated accusations of Harvey’s two-faced nature even before she literalized that figure of speech.  This issue initially seems to continue that trend, showing Harvey’s beginnings as a public defender, freeing criminals on technical errors in police procedure, as well as his role as the McKillens’ family lawyer.  It’s also hard not to view his switchover to D.A. cynically, especially as it’s prompted by financial and political backing from a younger Bruce and other men of influence.

Batman and Robin #26 – Review

By: Peter J. Tomasi (story), Patrick Gleason (pencils), Mick Gray & Keith Champage (inks), John Kalisz (colors)

The Story: There were never such devoted sisters—in prison.

The Review: One of the storylines that really left an impression on me when I was just getting into comics was Mark Waid’s Divided We Fall arc on JLA.  It was the first time I saw the superhero genre as capable of real psychological explorations from characters who seemed to be little more than their costumes.  How hauntingly fitting, then, that splitting Bruce Wayne from Batman left the hero faceless and mute beneath the mask.

Waid was obviously trying to make the statement that Bruce, the man himself and not just his skills and abilities, was an essential part to Batman.  This was harder to believe in earlier days, when Bruce used his plainclothes identity solely as a daytime placeholder until his nightly activities.  Tomasi has reversed this trend, making Bruce Wayne the true center of this series, and Batman the tool—a highly effective one, mind—he uses to accomplish his goals.

Batman and Two-Face #25 – Review

By: Peter J. Tomasi (story), Patrick Gleason (pencils), Mick Gray (inks), John Kalisz (colors)

The Story: If you’re planning a prison break, there’s no better helper than Batman.

The Review: It always strikes me as odd how superhero writers, especially DC’s superhero writers, tend to portray the civilian lives of their protagonists as incidental to their vigilante activities, the obligatory coffee breaks in a work day of fighting crime.  I understand, of course, that it’s the costumed stuff people buy in for, but there’s no reason why our heroes’ personal lives can’t be an equally intriguing part of their stories.

With perhaps the exception of Scott Snyder, no other writer than Tomasi has gone through so much effort to make Bruce Wayne as much a part of a Bat-title as his alter-ego.  In this arc, Batman takes an even further backseat in the story as Bruce steps up as an intermediary player in the ongoing conflict between Erin McKillen and Harvey Dent.  Even with the mask on, the lines between Bruce and Batman is more blurred than it’s ever been, given his personal investment in Erin and Harvey’s lives, both in and out of costume.

Batman and Robin #24 – Review

By: Peter J. Tomasi (story), Patrick Gleason (pencils), Mick Gray & Mark Irwin (inks), John Kalisz (colors)

The Story: You haven’t really lived until you bear the grudges of Batman, Gordon, and Two-Face.

The Review: As Villains Month has reminded us, the Arkham set of Batman’s rogues has become the most important and infamous of Gotham’s villains.  In context of Gotham’s fictional history, however, these psychos are a relatively new breed of criminals, particularly for the DCU as it stands now.  We tend to forget that before the rise of these deranged antagonists, there was already an entire underworld of the morally repugnant infecting the city.

Occasionally, a Batman writer will remind us that in between the flashes of chaos brought by Batman’s rogues, Gotham suffers from a pervasive, seemingly non-eradicable network of felons.  Usually, they appear only as generic thugs, gangs, or mobs—filler opponents for Batman to kill time as he waits for the next strike from Joker, Riddler, Penguin, Freeze, Ivy, etc.  Except for the Penguin, no one else from Gotham’s more mundane criminal element has even come close to being taken as seriously as any one of the Arkhamites.  Tomasi seeks to change that.

My NYCC Experience Pt. 3

After a full day of panels I returned to whence I began, Empire Stage, for another big one, this time presented by the distinguished competition.

Gone were the charming advertisements – apparently someone thought better of them – and now we simply waited, glancing occasionally to the silent screen which informed us that we were sitting in DC Comics – Batman.

John Cunningham, a DC marketing VP, took the podium and introduced us to our guests. At the far left of the table was the beloved creative team behind DC’s relaunched Batman, Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo. Beside them was James Tynion IV, who writes Talon and Red Hood and the Outlaws. Next came Marc Andreyko, the controversially incoming writer on Batwoman. Beyond him was Kyle Higgins, who writes Nightwing, and Ann Nocenti, who pens Selina Kyle’s adventures in Catwoman. On the far end were John Layman, the surprisingly mild-mannered-looking man behind the current run of Detective Comics, and Peter Tomasi, writer for Batman and Robin.

As in nearly all things DC, this was largely Snyder’s show. Cunningham gave Snyder every opportunity to discuss last week’s Batman #24 (review here), but Snyder, in classic form, really just wanted to talk about how honored he was.

Snyder opened with a heartfelt thank you to the fans for not only letting him tell his stories, but supporting him in doing so. He waged charming, unassuming war on the notion that he did not respect the power and responsibility given to him in writing Batman’s origin story. Snyder called “Zero Year” his favorite story ever and seemingly could not help but show off some of the tricks that he brought to the table. Though he’s never been shy about it and his writing reeks of love for the character, Snyder put his status as a massive Batman fan on full display for this panel.

Batman and Robin #23.3: Ra’s al Ghul and the League of Assassins – Review

By: James Tynion IV (writer), Jeremy Haun (artist), John Rausch (colorist)

The Story: The Secret Society invites Ra’s al Ghul to join them, but will the Great One accept?

The Review:  Have I mentioned how much I’ve missed Ra’s al Ghul lately? I have? On this very blog? I don’t care; I’ve missed Ra’s al Ghul. I don’t know if I can think of another Batman villain who’s risen to such prominence, but if not, it isn’t without reason.

Many of the villains showcased in this month’s issues have faltered in my opinion, the chosen stories unable to stand without heroes. Well see here folks, the Demon’s Head leans on no man, not even the Batman.

Perhaps it’s that Ra’s already has a secret society, perhaps it’s fact that Ra’s existed long before the Dark Knight Detective and will likely go on living long after he is gone, but whatever it is, Ra’s has what it takes to stand on his own.

Batman and Robin #23.2: Court of Owls – Review

By: James Tynion IV (story), Jorge Lucas (art), Dave McCaig (colors)

The Story: It’s an owl-eat-owl world out there.

The Review: I once read or heard somewhere that the producer of Everybody Loves Raymond made a comment about the way networks always seemed to glom onto successful shows, spawning lookalikes, clones, and me-too’s that never have the same spark as the originals.  “They think they’re establishing a new formula for TV success,” he remarked.  I think something of that same thinking goes on with comic book publishers as well.

You don’t need to look at the countless Bat-, Super-, X-, Avengers titles to see what I’m talking about.  Just think about a single concept like the Court of Owls—a great idea, but in my view, a one-story idea.  Scott Snyder came up with the Court for a rather specific sort of plot, yet it ended up spreading across the entire Bat-family of titles, spun off into an ongoing series, and even now continues to be stretched well beyond its original purpose.  Bottom line: it’s gotten old.

Batman and Robin #23.1: Two-Face – Review

By: Peter J. Tomasi (story), Guillem March (art), Tomev Morey (colors)

The Story: Heads, he flips the coin.  Tails, he doesn’t.  Wait…

The Review: It’s a common premise that all of Batman’s villains to some degree represent an aspect of the Dark Knight himself.  While this argument is harder to make for some rogues than others (Orca, anyone?), it’s easiest to see Batman’s reflection in Two-Face, who clearly mirrors Batman’s duality, a man who aspires to heroism even as he’s prone to darkness.  Two-Face offers the most credible portrait of what Batman can become if he ever crosses that line.

The reverse is true as well, particularly for Two-Face.  His disfigured alter-ego may have his sadistic crazy-pants pulled up tight, but even at his worst moments, Harvey Dent retains some of that tragic nobility which also characterizes his greatest foe.  Tomasi doesn’t explore this part of the villain as much as you expect—which is surprising, given how character-oriented a writer he usually is—but in the brief vignettes of Harvey’s past we see him as he once was: a force of good so powerful that he almost had “Gotham looking like Metropolis.”

Batman and Nightwing #23 – Review

By: Peter J. Tomasi (story), Patrick Gleason (pencils), Mick Gray & Mark Irwin (inks), John Kalisz (colors)

The Story: A Robin by any other name would still kick as much butt.

The Review: As this very series has shown us, there have been many Robins over the years, and each one—with perhaps the exception of Jason Todd—has his own set of believers.  While Damian Wayne has taken center focus in the DCU as of late, many readers still consider the true Robin to be the first.  It’s true that Damian is, in both biology and personality, Bruce’s son, but the eldest son always has a special place in a father’s heart—even if he’s an adopted one.

But there are other reasons why Dick is the most appropriate person to finally break Bruce out of his funk.  He’s always been the most well-adjusted member of the Bat-family, somehow maintaining his easygoing playfulness despite the work he’s chosen for himself.  That go-with-the-flow attitude has worked out very well for him, especially when it comes to dealing with Bruce’s craziness.  Instead of stopping Bruce’s relentless attempts to simulate a scenario where he saves Damian’s life, Dick cheerfully joins in: “This a two player?”

Batman and Robin #22 – Review

By: Peter J. Tomasi (story), Patrick Gleason (pencils), Mick Gray (inks), John Kalisz (colors)

The Story: Batman’s kryptonite?  Strong, smart women with a sharp wit.

The Review: I have a friend I carpool with up to Los Angeles every day and often, as we trudge along in the early morning traffic, he’ll see me writing one of these reviews and, out of what I assume to be sheer politeness, ask what it’s about.  When the question came to this one, I immediately said, “The character work.”  Hardly anyone else handles these superhero characters as deftly and with as much credibility as Tomasi does, often to the detriment of the actual plot.

Now, there are other great character writers in the superhero genre, but while they often find character by working from the outside-in, rendering agile dialogue which gives an outline to a personality, Tomasi works in the opposite direction.  He seems to grasp the entire being of a character as a whole, and draw out their personality from that understanding.  As a result, his characters seem completely natural and true to themselves even when doing the unexpected.

Batman and Robin #21 – Review

By: Peter J. Tomasi (story), Cliff Richards (pencils), Mark Irwin & Marlo Alquiza (inks), John Kalisz (colors)

The Story: Batgirl deals with daddy issues and father figure issues.

The Review: Of all the Bat-family team-ups, I was most looking forward to when Batgirl got her turn by the Dark Knight’s side.  From the start, she operated separately from Batman, following a different agenda and using different resources.  Unlike the Robins, she was never his ward nor did she need him as a father figure, having an outstanding one of her own to look up to.  She thus exists as part of his extended family, in many respects even more an outsider than Jason Todd.

Even so, she is inextricably attached to him by their shared brand, even if hers has been blacked out for a while.  To date, though, few people have properly explored the exact nature of the bond she and Batman share.  I had high hopes for Tomasi’s crack at the relationship, considering his special gift for getting inside characters and dragging out the humanity laying within these superheroes.  Sadly, even Tomasi doesn’t seem to grasp the importance the pair of vigilantes have to each other.

Batman and Robin #20 – Review

By: Peter J. Tomasi (story), Patrick Gleason & Cliff Richards (pencils), Mick Gray & Mark Irwin (inks), John Kalisz (colors)

The Story: You can’t expect the prodigal son to come back if you don’t show you care, Batman.

The Review: While some people hated Damian when he first appeared simply because the idea of Batman having a surprise-child out of wedlock sort of cheapens the character, I was concerned about the implications for his adoptive family.  It’s how I imagine adopted kids feel when they discover the parents who took them in are about to have a natural child of their own.  There’s that fear of being overshadowed, marginalized, set aside, a trade of a knock-off for the real thing.

Unfortunately, that’s exactly what’s been going on here.  Batman’s refusal to accept the finality of Damian’s death not only damages him, but it threatens the last remaining ties he has with the family he has left.  Last issue, we saw Tim Drake, still reeling from the revelations of Death of the Family, nonetheless come back to prevent his mentor-father from doing something he’ll regret.  For his pains, he gets cold-shouldered, straining their relationship even further.

Batman and Robin #19 – Review

By: Peter J. Tomasi (story), Patrick Gleason (pencils), Mick Gray (inks), John Kalisz (colors)

The Story: He’s not alive!  He’s not alive!!!

The Review: Just as my generation saw Wally West as the Flash and Kyle Rayner as Green Lantern, the Robin that I knew best was Tim Drake.  I became familiar with him on Young Justice, got to know him better on Geoff Johns’ Teen Titans, and really got attached to his life and character on Red Robin.  Though I’m fond of both Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne, Tim is really the first person that comes to mind when I think of Robin.

I always found his sudden marginalization once Damian entered the scene a bit unfair (which probably contributed to my initial dislike of Bruce’s son), and though he retains importance as the current leader of the Titans, he really feels like an outsider in the Wayne family these days.  I had looked forward to seeing him featured with Batman again (albeit for just one issue), but I was to be disappointed; here he appears briefly, toward the end of the issue, nevertheless doing enough in that short time to incur Batman’s wrath on top of his resentment and coldness.

Batman and Robin #18 – Review

By: Peter J. Tomasi (story), Patrick Gleason (pencils), Mick Gray (inks), John Kalisz (colors)

The Story: When someone loses a person they care about, sometimes it’s best to say nothing.

The Review: For a writing-centric reviewer like myself, it can get a little nerve-wracking to cover an issue with no words at all.  But in comics, just because there’s no word balloons or captions scattered across the page doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of writing going on.  In fact, when you have a storytelling medium that can support nothing but visuals, it captures reality better than written fiction in some ways.  In real life, sometimes there are no words.

Of course, you expect the impact of Damian’s death to hit hardest here, where he is literally part of the title’s genetic makeup.  Losing him means losing one half of what actually makes Batman and Robin.  The title should feel empty and abandoned without him, and by removing every scrap of text from the issue, Tomasi creates that feeling with incredible effectiveness.  As you wander with Bruce through the pages, you’re both alert for any sign of life, but there is none.

Batman and Robin #17 – Review

By: Peter J. Tomasi (story), Patrick Gleason (pencils), Mick Gray (inks), John Kalisz (colors)

The Story: Now these are what you can accurately call stress dreams.

The Review: Crossover events are like bad houseguests.*  They often saunter in, uninvited, and suddenly you find yourself having to accommodate their own agenda.  They almost never stay long enough to do any lasting work of their own.  And just as unexpectedly and with just as little fanfare, they’ll whisk off, leaving you to spend some time trying to recover from their temporary stay.  And this is why you should only tolerate such things rarely and only with good reason.

As good a job as Tomasi did with Joker during his Death of the Family contribution, I think we can safely say that it was a mostly disconnected interruption to the series as a whole, given that it left us with a cliffhanger last month that resolved itself in an entirely different title (see Batman #17).  I guess like any good host, all we can really do is sigh wearily, clean up a little, and try to go back to life as usual.  Perhaps that’s why Tomasi delivers an interlude issue post-crossover rather than swing right into a new arc.

Batman and Robin Annual #1 – Review

By: Peter J. Tomasi (story), Ardian Syaf (pencils), Vicente Cifuentes (inks), John Kalisz (colors)

The Story: When the old man’s out of town, it’s time to pull on his costume and hit the streets.

The Review: There has been a lot of different characterizations of Bruce Wayne over the years—and I’m not talking about his uber-threatening persona in the Batman, which remains mainly the same no matter who writes him, except maybe in degrees of violence.  I’m talking about the man beneath the cowl, whom some writers see as the real mask and others see as an important but secondary component to the Dark Knight.

In all those years, different writers have had different ideas about Bruce as a person, specifically his range of emotions.  There are a few who think that Bruce and Batman are essentially the same and when he’s not going through the playboy act, he should be just as coldhearted, judgmental, and suspicious.  Nowadays, I think writers are starting to get that at least this younger, post-relaunch Bruce has more room for humanity.  Because we’re still figuring out the ropes of this new continuity, it’s hard to tell where the limits of Bruce’s bright side are.