Batman and Robin #21 – Review

By: Peter J. Tomasi (writer), Patrick Gleason (artist), Mick Gray (inks)

The Story: the Tree of Blood, Part 2 of 3: Batman and Robin leap to the rescue of the latest angel suicides only to be confronted by the White Knight, who, appropriate to Gotham City, is crazier that the last villain. Things go downhill for our heroes from there.

What’s Good: The White Knight is an interesting addition to Dick Grayson’s rogues gallery. He’s not your normal psycho skulking in the shadows; he seems to be following a logic that makes sense to him (I tend to look at most of Gotham’s other villains (except for R’as al-Ghul) as unstable and unpredictable). He wouldn’t be much good in a dark alley anyway. The first battle with the White Knight is interesting and I like how it gets shut down (although I have more to say on that below). On the writing, I also liked the small in-jokes and nods to Aparo (a classic Bat-artist) and Siglain (a Bat-editor). Artwise, I loved the burst water main that nearly drowned our heroes, and the Tree of Blood and its decorations were beautiful haunting.