DC Comics Review: Batman and Robin #6
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics
Rating: ****
Another amazing issue that will have everyone’s jaw drop by the time people reach the end. Sometimes the conclusion to a comic book story does not live up to the way it started - that is not the case here. Grant Morrison hits a big home run with the conclusion to his Red Hood story arc. The only drawback for me once again is Philip Tan’s artwork. Some of the artwork in the panels seemed rushed and murky, but Morrison saves the day for me with this amazing story. I read the preview that was released and I couldn’t wait to read this issue. After reading this issue, I’m now salivating for more.
Eduardo Flamingo proves to be a very dangerous character. When we last left off in the story, Flamingo had taken a shot at the Red Hood. The shot doesn’t kill him, which causes Flamingo to try harder to finish the job by shooting the side of Jason’s face off. He also tries to pull the mask off of Scarlet’s face (if you’ve been reading the title you know her face is attached to the mask).
Batman and Robin escape from the trap that the Red Hood put them in and they try to assist Hood and Scarlet in taking down Flamingo. Morrison writes a great line for Robin when they confront Flamingo, “I was expecting scary, not gay.” Very funny. The character appears to die at the hands of the Red Hood, but this is the comic book world, and we know that he probably isn’t dead.
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DC Comics Review: Blackest Night: Batman #3
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics
Rating: *** 1/2*
The Blackest Night: Batman mini-series ends here and it’s very good. The dead have been rising thoughout the DC Universe and in this series we saw the parents of Dick Grayson and Tim Drake rise to face off against their sons. In our last issue we saw Batman, Robin, Red Robin, and Deadman rescue Jim and Barbabra Gordon from the threat of the Black Lanterns at Gotham Central. The Black Lantern Graysons and Drakes strike and we begin our story with that showdown.
Batman and Red Robin decide to face off against their parents themselves and tell Robin to get the Gordons to safety. Robin begrudgingly agrees and it is here that writer Peter Tomasi finally writes the character of Damian Wayne more along the lines of the way he’s supposed to be portrayed. Deadman decides the boys need more help and heads off to recruit Jason Blood aka Etrigan. Blood is unwilling to assist, but Deadman jumps into his body and possess him in order to bring out the demon Etrigan.
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DC Comics Review: Batman #691
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics
Rating: *** 1/2*
A great issue by Judd Winick to close out his run on Batman. One of the problems I had with Judd’s first run on Batman was the inconsistency. He would write a very good issue of Batman and then a very bad one. In this short run, he started off with a great issue; followed by some mediocre ones and then this great issue.
We pick up where we left off with Dick Grayson as Batman returning to the Batcave after the alarms went off. He finds out that the intruder is none other than Two-Face himself and he’s now at his mercy. Two-Face has pumped Batman with some drugs and he’s hallucinating. He sees Two-Face in some weird Batman-like costume, but it turns out to be all in his head.
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DC Comics Review: Batman and Robin #5
Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics
Rating: *** 1/2*
Another great issue in Grant Morrison’s run on Batman and Robin. The issue picks up right where we left off in the previous issue with Red Hood and Scarlet confronting the new Batman and Robin. Some very cool dialogue between the current Robin Damian Wayne and the second one The Red Hood Jason Todd. It’s funny. Even though I’m on the side of Batman and what he stands for, the Red Hood makes a good point when he says that after killing all of these criminals, they will think twice before setting foot in Gotham.
Damian is being his normal arrogant self here, and decides to try and take Jason out, but Jason proceeds to catch him and ram his face into the ground. Batman not being too happy about that, returns the favor. Scarlet grabs Damian in retaliation and holds him at knife point. Batman backs off of the Red Hood and allows them to escape as they need to turn the Penguin over to police.
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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.
Click to continue reading DC Comics Review: Batman and Robin #2
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