Written by: Peter J. Tomasi
Art by: Patrick Gleason
Publisher: DC
Batman & Robin, it’s been a while but Robin is finally restored to the title of this book. Though there have been a number of excellent stories from this series since Damian’s death, there is still something great and exciting about seeing the words Batman & Robin again.
After the impressive Robin Rises one-shot last week we pick up where we left off in a showdown between the Justice League and Batman. And first off this is what stumped me about the book, because for literally the majority of the issue it was Batman vs. JL, so there is in fact no need to even have put Robin on the title, it could have continued the tradition of the series over the past few issues and been called Batman & Justice League.
Despite the name of the book though, it made sense the Justice League being so prominent in this issue and I really think Tomasi did a great job at handling these characters. It would be great to see Tomasi on a team book based on how he took these characters and gave each and every one of them something to do or they played a part somehow. There really was some excellent emotional character moments that we don’t get to see much but it reminds us of how well Tomasi did this type of stuff earlier on in this series following Damian’s passing.
Gleason on art did a fantastic job in bringing the emotion out of these characters. Everything looked great! If I have one jibe with the art it is the panel when Superman flies down to Bruce’s level, to stop Bruce hurting his neck. I just felt Bruce and Clark could be the same person they are literally drawn exactly the same.
Going back to the story, it really didn’t progress too much from the last issue in terms of actual resolution, but what it did so well was create a tension and draw the reader in to the disagreement of the cause that divides Batman and the Justice League. Luckily however, Batman has other friends and this is where the story is heading next.
And I can’t wait to see what happens next as this is a great story with the ability to genuinely draw the reader in and care about these characters. It’s interesting, it’s fun, and it looks great! There really isn’t much to grumble about. If you are a fan of Batman, Bat-Family, and/or Justice League you should definitely be reading this.
