All-Star Batman & Robin The Boy Wonder #10

Yeah! A new copy of what may just be my favorite ongoing comic book series(move over JSA, Captain America, Daredevil, LoSH and Nova!).

Overall- This issue focused on the family of Gotham City Police Captain, Jim Gordon. There actually isn't much of the Goddamn Batman in this comic at all. We open with Capt. Gordon tactfully dropping evidence(a piece of cardboard with bloody writing)a Gotham Police Officer received from a beaten and heavily bleeding Catwoman to the Goddamn Batman. The Goddamn Batman, upon receiving the cardboard rushes to a pre-arraigned spot both he and Catwoman knew about. The Goddamn Batman arrives, with Robin in tow, and discovers Catwoman, near death, barely able to state that it was the Joker who put her in this condition. Unfortunately, that's about all we see from Robin and the Goddamn Batman.

From here, we find Capt. Gordon's daughter, Barbara, dressing up as Batgirl, and attacking some drug dealers near a local arcade. After she knocks down the dealers, an angry mob attacks the dealers and begins to really lay into them. Batgirl, realizing that the mob would likely kill the dealers, tries to convince the mob to stop, but she receives a punch to the jaw that knocks her out cold. She awakens to see that the police had been called to the scene and that she was being handcuffed and brought to jail.

While this was occurring, Capt. Gordon arrives at the scene of a single vehicle car accident involving his wife, who he had spoken to on the phone earlier in the evening. During the course of the phone call, Capt. Gordon realized his wife was very drunk. Capt. Gordon has his wife sent to the hospital, and after investigating the scene, he goes to her bedside. The doctor there explains to Capt. Gordon that his wife, who is also named Barbara, would ultimately recover from her injuries, but that she should admit herself to a detox center, due to the large amount of alcohol(and who knows what else)in her bloodstream. While Capt. Gordon is dealing with this, one of his officers walks in and tells him that his daughter had been arrested for inciting a riot, while dressed as Batgirl.

Capt. Gordon meets Batgirl/Barbara in an interrogation room, and Barbara tells him that she would plead guilty to all the charges against her for her role in the riot at the arcade. She tells her father not to do anything to sully his reputation and she also states that she wouldn't blame Batman for her actions(even though she was obviously inspired by him). Capt. Gordon tells Barbara about what happened with her mother's car accident, and Barbara doesn't seem surprised. Barbara tells her father he should call Sara(Capt. Gordon's mistress?), since speaking with Sara always makes him feel better. Capt. Gordon returns to the hospital and does indeed call Sara, speaking to her while waiting for his wife to wake up.

The main purpose behind this issue seemed to be to show us the stoic attitude of Capt. Gordon. On the surface, Capt. Gordon's demeanor never changed, whether he was dealing with his daughter in jail, investigating his wife's accident, visiting his wife in the hospital or speaking to what I presume is his mistress. Throughout the whole issue Capt. Gordon remained calm, almost eerily so. Nothing phased him at all. Regardless of what was going on, Capt. Gordon rolled with it, and never broke stride.

Although I could appreciate looking into the life of one of the important characters in this comic, I was kind of disappointed by the lack of the Goddamn Batman and Robin in these pages. Robin nearly killing Hal Jordan in the prior issue is hardly mentioned, nor is the fact that Robin now knows that Batman and Bruce Wayne are one and the same. I would have much rather had these occurrences examined as opposed to the focus on Capt. Gordon. That's not to say that this wasn't a good comic book, because it sure as hell was, but it just wasn't exactly what I wanted to read about. Oh well, hopefully next issue we'll see more from Robin and the Goddamn Batman.

Yes, from now on, every time I write Batman's name, I am going to put Goddamn in front of it, since every single character in this comic book series calls him the Goddamn Batman. I figure I should follow suit. Hell, I wish DC would change the title of this series to "The Goddamn Batman & Robin The Boy Wonder". Unfortunately, I doubt DC could get away with that! For this issue, I'll give it a score of 9 out of 10. Like I said, I'm hoping the next issue puts the focus of this comic back where it belongs, on Robin and the Goddamn Batman.