Batman and Robin #6 – Review

by Grant Morrison (writer), Philip Tan (pencils), Jonathan Glapion (inker), Alex Sinclair (colorist)

The Story: Revenge of the Red Hood, Part III: Batman and Robin have more to worry about than just getting out of the clutches of the Red Hood. Dick Grayson is fighting a bigger battle for the soul of Gotham. The Red Hood is offering Gotham eye-for-an-eye justice, and they’re reaching for it. The new Batman has got to show Gotham, the Red Hood, and his own sidekick, that violence begets greater violence. The problem is that the Red Hood’s solutions have already brought the psycho killer Flamingo into Gotham. And Batman and Robin are still captives…

What’s Good: Grant Morrison has set up a basic moral struggle and he’s leading the reader along. In issue #4, Morrison had me with Gotham, wondering why they couldn’t just grind the bad guys into the ground. In issue #5, I started to have my doubts because of what Dick said would happen. Now, in issue #6, Morrison has shown me that Dick was right. None of this was simplistic or over the top. He did this by pitting two powerful figures (Batman and Red Robin) with a powerful goal that we could completely understand and letting them sort it out. None of this detracts from the action, which is seat-of-your-pants and revolves around Flamingo, the whirlwind sown by the Red Hood.

What’s Not So Good: I think Tan is a great draftsman, does fine layouts to show the action and paired with Glapion on inks, brings gritty darkness to Gotham. My problem with the art is that sometimes his camera lens is just a bit too close to the action for us to understand what’s going on. A good example is page 3, panels 2 and 3. He may be going for a claustrophobic, moody effect, but the two rules of comic storytelling are: (1) communicate clearly, (2) then entertain. Tan’s images are entertaining, but there are occasions when the reader has to struggle to keep up, because of the close camera shot style. Not much pulling back would be needed to make the art pretty flawless.

Conclusion: If you’ve been following the Weekly Top Picks, you’ve probably heard some of the other editors calling Batman and Robin the Batman book. They’re right. Morrison and Tan and crew are building up a new Batman, grounded in the old mythos, but charging into a new one, with a new set of villains and surprises. If you haven’t been following Batman and Robin yet, do yourself a favor and hop on with the next issue as Morrison starts a new arc.

Grade: A-

-DS Arsenault