DC Comics Review: Batman and Robin #4
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics,
Rating: *** 1/2
A little bit of a letdown with this issue relative to the three previous ones, but it was still very good. I think the letdown for me came more with the artwork by Philip Tan. The previous issues with artist Frank Quitely were very good because he tells a good story visually with his artwork. Tan’s, however, doesn’t do much for me in the issue. Some parts of the story are too dark and I didn’t enjoy the panel-to-panel storytelling. Quitely’s artwork gave me a grand epic feeling. Tan’s work seems cramped and jumbled. However, the story of this opening arc is still very good.
We open with a villain by the name of Lightning Bug collecting some money from a club owner. Just as he’s about to pop this guy, the Batmobile swoops in and hovers right behind him. Lightning Bug makes a break for it and crashes through an apartment window. He makes his way out of the apartment into the hallway and meets up with who he thinks is Batman and Robin, but is instead the Red Hood and his new partner Scarlett. The Red Hood has decided to go a different route to fight crime and instead of handing this guy over to the police, the Red Hood cuts his throat and kills him. “Let the punishment fit the crime” is his new slogan for punishing criminals.
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DC Comics Review: Batman and Robin #3
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics,
Rating: *** 1/2*
Grant Morrison continues his run on Batman and Robin with issue three of the Circus of Strange storyline. In our last issue, Damian had quit being Robin and went off alone to stop the Circus of Strange. His arrogance resulted only in him getting captured by the Circus’ leader, a man by the name of Pyg.
When DC Comics decided to go in this direction of having a new Batman and Robin with Dick Grayson as Batman and Damian Wayne as Robin, they wanted to have a role reversal. Batman was always the dark character and Robin the lighter character. With Dick and Damian as the Dynamic Duo, the roles are reversed: Dick is the “light” and Damian is the “dark”. I was interested in seeing if they could make this a success, but my feeling was that if Dick’s Batman is portrayed as this happy go lucky crime fighter, the image of Batman would not work and readers would reject the idea of Dick as Batman and demand the return of Bruce Wayne to the role.
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DC Comics Review: Red Robin #3
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics,
Rating: **
This issue of Red Robin is pretty weak. The only reason I didn’t give this issue a lower grade is because I like the overall plot of the story of Tim Wayne searching for Bruce Wayne. I’ve also read a hell of a lot worse over the years in my comic book reading. As we know from the previous issues, Ra’s al Ghul is the only other person who believes Tim that Bruce Wayne is really alive. At the end of the last issue, Tim agrees to join up with Ra’s in his search.
Tim’s investigation takes him to a museum in Berlin. While he’s there, Tim discovers something we don’t see, but his reaction causes him to say, “Oh my God it’s true.” I don’t think that he’s found the information he needs to prove Bruce is alive, but I’m curious as to what it is he found. At the museum, he runs into the Wild Huntsman, a character I never heard of before. Tim has his back to the wall with the Huntsman, when Ra’s al Ghul’s League of Assassins arrive to back him up.
The story has some flashbacks as we see Wonder Girl meeting up with Tim at a cemetery. She tells him that she’s here to give him some comfort when he tells her he knows Bruce is alive. She doesn’t believe him, and he leaves. She then contacts Dick and tells him that Tim needs help.
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DC Comics Review: Blackest Night: Batman #1
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics,
Rating: ***
The Blackest Night storyline continues in this separate three issue mini-series entitled Blackest Night: Batman. This series will focus on the Black Lanterns going after the deceased relatives a various Bat-family members. As I mentioned in my review for Blackest Night #2 , this first issue also focuses on Boston Brand - Deadman and his physical body being resurrected into a Black Lantern. Writer Peter Tomasi does a good job here, but I have to give him some negative points on this one because of the way he writes the character of Damian Wayne - Robin. If you’ve been reading Grant Morrison’s Batman and Robin, Morrison portrays Damian as a major jerk. Judd Winick follows Morrison’s lead, but has toned it down a bit over in his stories in Batman, but the jerk personality of Damian is thrown completely out the window here in Tomasi’s version of the character. There’s no arrogance; no snide comments about Dick not being the real Batman, nothing. Instead we get a character who if you picked up this issue without knowing what has happened over the past few months, you would think that this new Robin is more along the lines of Tim Drake.
With that being said, the story is still very good in my opinion. It opens up with Batman (Dick Grayson) and Robin at the graves of Bruce Wayne and his parents, Thomas and Martha. As we all know, Black Hand went to Bruce’s grave and took his skull for some unknown reason. The caskets of Thomas and Martha have also been dug up, but their remains have not been resurrected into Black Lanterns. In this scene, Tomasi’s makes his first mistake of writing Damian out of character as Damian shows genuine feeling of sadness as he sees the bodies of his grandparents. He’s so distraught that he can’t bear to pick up their bodies as Dick decides to remove them from their graves to a safer location. The Damian that we see in Batman and Robin probably wouldn’t care much for the bodies of people he didn’t know - even if they are related to him. He’d probably say something like let’s toss ‘em back in the hole and let’s go.
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DC Comics Review: Red Robin #2
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics,
Rating: ***
Another descent issue of Red Robin by writer Chris Yost. I’m not blown away here, but I am enjoying this new journey that Tim Wayne is on right now. Tim is alone. He feels betrayed by Dick Grayson his “older brother” so to speak and the bastard son of the Batman family Damian has taken over his job as Robin. As mentioned in the previous issue, Tim Wayne believes that his mentor and adopted father Bruce Wayne the original Batman is still alive and well and Tim has gone out into the world to search for clues as to his whereabouts.
He’s currently in Paris and finds himself fighting a group of assassins. The assassins turn to be working for one of Batman’s deadliest enemies: Ra’s al Ghul. Ra’s has an offer for Tim. He agrees with and he also believes that Bruce Wayne is really alive and wants to help him. How does Ra’s know Bruce is alive? We don’t know. Why does Ra’s want to help Tim? We don’t know this one either, but I’m assuming Ra’s wants his revenge on Bruce and what better way to do it than use his son to get to him.
I’ve mentioned this before and I said that Tim seems to becoming more dark like his father Bruce. When he’s fighting Ra’s’ assassins, he’s thinking about how he needs to work on his voice in the same way Bruce put on his “Batman” voice when he was fighting. He’s also pushing people away in the same Bruce has done so in the past. He deletes the messages of friends who are trying to contact him and he turns his back on Stephanie - the Spoiler who comes looking for him in this issue.
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DC Comics Review: Batman and Robin #2
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics,
Rating: ****
Wow. I just can’t believe how much I’m enjoying Batman and Robin. I know I’ve said this in my review for issue one, but after reading Batman: RIP and Final Crisis, I thought there is no way I would enjoy anything from Grant Morrison from here on out. Batman and Robin #2 is a big home run for DC Comics. I don’t know what it is, but Grant is just rocking and rolling right now.
In the last issue we saw the Circus of Strange hit Gotham City with their own weird secret agenda and here in this issue the new Batman and Robin face off against them in Gotham Police Headquarters. The new dynamic duo also come face to face with Commissioner Gordon and he notices that this is not the old Batman and Robin that he’s known over the past few years. He gives them a pass, but I’m not sure if he’s going to do that again as Damian takes things a little too far.
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DC Comics Review: Batman #687
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics,
Rating: *** 1/2*
When DC announced the new direction they would be going with in the Batman books, I wasn’t happy. With this new direction would come a new monthly book called “Batman and Robin” which would be written by Grant Morrison. I wasn’t happy. Then came the news that Judd Winick would take over the “Batman” monthly title. Still not happy. I thought to myself, that I probably may end up not reading any of the Batman books that DC would be publishing for the foreseeable future or until Bruce Wayne returned as Batman. Well, if you read my review from last week, you know I was very surprised and absolutely enjoyed “Batman and Robin”. So what about Judd’s first issue of “Batman,” well, DC is two-for-two in my book as I absolutely loved this week’s issue of “Batman”.
The story is an epilogue to “Batman: Battle for the Cowl” and it shows some of the events that lead up to where Grant Morrison’s story begins in “Batman and Robin”. The issue shows various moments where members of the Batman family and the super hero community deal with the news of Bruce’s death. Some very moving scenes were done here, particularly the one in the cave with Alfred. I’m not a huge fan of Ed Benes’s art work, but he does a good job here with some moving visual images that set the tone of everyone’s feelings concerning Bruce.
As I said, there are some powerful moments in this book as we see Dick Grayson breakdown and cry over the death of Bruce Wayne, but the most moving scene come from Alfred. Superman and Wonder Woman return Bruce’s cape and cowl to give to Dick and Tim in the Batcave. As they discuss Bruce’s death, Alfred enters the cave with some refreshments for everyone. Superman asks him if he’s alright and Alfred’s response is, “Am I all right? No, sir. I am not. My son has just died.” I’m not sure if this sentiment was ever expressed by Alfred in any other comic, but for Alfred to say that about Bruce was dead on. Thank you, Mr. Winick. Bruce Wayne was orphaned, but he gained a father in Alfred from a very early age and Alfred has watched his “son” grow up to be a great man. I was happy to see that moment expressed here.
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DC Comics Review: Batman and Robin #1
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics,
Rating: *** 1/2*
The new era of the Batman begins today in Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely “Batman and Robin”. As any reader of Comix 411 knows, I have not been kind to Mr Morrison and his work on the “Batman” title and the miniseries “Final Crisis” over the past year. Where many readers and other comic book reviewers have given him praise, I have been one of the few who have disliked the stories that Mr Morrison has laid out before us. I made a promise to myself that if I didn’t like the first issue of “Batman and Robin,” I would drop it immediately and not even give it a second chance. Maybe it’s because I wasn’t expecting to like it, but for whatever the reason, I will be collecting this title because this first issue was great!
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I really liked the story that Grant Morrison has set up here. It’s different. It’s certainly not the Batman we have known over the years and not simply because of the new people in the roles of Batman and Robin. The one negative thing about this book is Mr Quitely artwork. I’m not a huge fan of Frank Quitely. Although there are certain times that I’ve seen him draw some cool images, overall his work on a full 22 page comic usually leaves me wanting a much more traditional artist’s interpretation of comic characters - someone like Andy Kubert. I know Mr. Quitely will not be penciling every issue of “Batman and Robin” because he’s slow and can’t keep up the monthly pace of a comic book so I hope DC will give Andy a shot to fill in. I do like the splash page where Mr Quitley has the new Batman and Robin jumping out of the flying Batmobile. Yup, the new Batman and Robin have a flying Batmobile. There’s that and more.
Lets begin….
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DC Comics Review: Batman: Battle for the Cowl #3
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics,
Rating: ***
The conclusion to “Batman: Battle for the Cowl” is here. I enjoyed the two previous issues of “Battle for the Cowl” immensely, but for some reason this issue left me wanting more. I’m not sure what else I wanted or expected from this issue, but the issue was a bit of let down. This is of course the storyline which names the new man to take over the role of Batman. For months now we have all assumed that the man who takes over is Dick Grayson aka Nightwing the first Robin and that the new Robin will be Damian Wayne Bruce Wayne’s illegitimate son. At the end of the issue, everything seems to be revealed as far as who’s the new dynamic duo. Who are they and what did we see in this issue? Lets find out!
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DC Comics Review: Batman: Battle for the Cowl #2
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics,
Rating: *** 1/2*
This was another great issue of the “Battle for the Cowl” (BFTC) mini-series. As readers know, Tony Daniel provides the artwork as well as the story for this mini-series and he continues to do a great job. The story so far has not only lived up to the hype, but in my opinion it has surpassed what I thought we’d get here. As I mentioned in my previous blog about the first issue, I thought giving Daniel the task of writing this story was going to be a mistake. Most of the time big events tend to let me down, and I really get excited when they don’t let me down.
This series is a must read for Batman fans. Although Bruce Wayne does not appear in this story, he is here spirit. The foundation of what Bruce believed in and what he stood for is the center of the story. Who will continue his mission?
The story hasn’t had any real surprises so far. Its been pretty straight forward in the direction it’s heading with Nightwing becoming Batman and Damian becoming Robin. It’s almost too much like getting hit over the head and saying that this is exactly what will happen. However, you never know, there could be a turn coming and maybe Tim Drake becomes Batman. Who knows.
The story picks up where we left off in the last issue with the gun totting Batman aka Jason Todd, attacking Nightwing and Damian.
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