Batman #701 – Review

By: Grant Morrison (writer), Tony Daniel (artist), Ian Hannin (colors)

The Story: R.I.P. The Missing Chapter, Part One: Bruce Wayne survives a helicopter crash. On shore, he waits for Hurt to emerge from the depths of the river, but Hurt doesn’t. When Bruce later checks out the helicopter wreckage in the Bat-sub, he finds it empty. Hurt is gone. So where does this leave Bruce?

What’s Good and What’s Not So Good: I’ve never seen Daniel draw Bruce Wayne in costume. It is very different from Dick Grayson under the cowl. Bruce’s stance is more imposing, more ominous, and dark. This is a good thing, but I also found his physique overdone, sometimes grossly so. Bruce walking into Wayne manor is a figure that in no way could be mistaken for Dick Grayson, or anyone else who hasn’t juiced up on steroids all his life. This is a bad thing. Bruce’s facial structure was also craggier and more hawk-like, which is probably a lot closer to the art style of the early 1940s and Kane’s original conception of Batman. This is good. However, the same effect taken head-on (not in profile or on an angle) was done with Superman’s face, which made him look a bit ridiculous. So, on draftsmanship, I think Daniel has the required skill, but it seemed like his discipline slipped once in a while, taking him from effective exaggeration in some panels, into disproportion and ugliness in others. On a side note, Hannin rocked the colors and Daniel did pick effective and dynamic camera angles, within relatively traditional layouts.