Batman and Robin #13 – Review

By: Grant Morrison (writer), Frazer Irving (artist), Janelle Siegel (assistant editor), Mike Marts (editor)

The Story: Batman and Robin Must Die, Part I: Morrison serves us up a split narrative: today, when Batman and Robin are prisoners of Thomas Wayne, and three days earlier, when everything started to go down the toilet.

What’s Good: Oh my frakkin’ god! The art is amazing! Irving’s pencils, inks and colors leap out of the page, grab you and yank you into the story. Irving’s art hadn’t impressed me in the Return of Bruce Wayne. Maybe it was hard to tell what his style was doing in the late 17th century. Here in modern Gotham, doing the Joker and Thomas Wayne and Dick and Commissioner Gordon, not to mention Gotham itself, Irving’s skill and talent just blew me away. In my opinion, Irving was made to draw Batman and Robin, moreso even that Quitely, and I know how much that says. If you doubt me, check out the Joker, in any panel of this book. Irving’s style has a European flavor and the subtlety of his expressions is brilliant. Check out the six expressions on display on page two. Not a one is alike; he is capable of expressing a range of emotions. His shadowing is weird and compelling, while his scenes of surreal debauchery and the Joker’s insane faux-sycophanty were lurid and haunting.