Monday, June 18, 2012

JT's Take: Batman and Robin #10

Hey X-Maniacs, JT here once again, hell if I do any more reviews we're gonna have to change the URL of this place! As much as I wanna say this is because I'm filling in for our buddy X, we all know that I would NEVER miss an opportunity to review a book with my namesake, Jason Todd, in it, especially when he's being written by someone who isn't Scott Lobdell or Grant Morrison. So let's see what trouble we can get into in this issue of Batman and Robin(s).

Batman and Robin #10

Summary: Things get underway with us seeing a group of villains that all have grudges with Batman, including a guy who threw Batman's Batarang at Bats and somehow got it lodged in his own head, a girl who has one of Batman's forearm spikes lodged in her ear, a guy who was kicked in the face by Batman while he was wielding flames and has Batman's boot print permanently on his face, and three guys that were in a fire together (I believe when Damian sabotaged their escape vehicle a few issues back) and somehow melted into one person with three faces. This Motley crew of misfits are lead by a man calling himself Terminus, who simply wants to watch Batman die. From there we jump over to Wayne Manor to see the boys getting a Wayne family portrait painted, we see Bruce, Dick, Tim, Damian, Alfred and even Damian's dog Titus. No Jason for those counting. After a bunch of bickering between Tim and Damian, Bruce tells the boys to stop arguing, and that everyone has honored their time as Robin, even Jason, and the fact they were Robin's should be a bond, not a wedge, which causes Damian and Tim to storm off.

We then jump back to Terminus, who literally seems to be falling apart, but he uses some machine to keep himself from dying until his plan can be followed through. From there we quite randomly jump to a scene that has to be during Night of Owls, as Red Hood, Nightwing and Red Robin all meet on a rooftop, and were apparently summoned (unbeknownst to them) by Robin. He tells the former Robins that he's putting them on notice, that soon he will defeat each of them in something they feel unbeatable at. This of course leaves Dick confused, Jason face-palming, and Tim sighing. Damian states he's doing this to prove he's the best Robin, to himself, to them, and to Batman. Nightwing says Damian has nothing to prove, but Damian says forewarned is forearmed and takes off, leaving Nightwing, Red Hood, and Red Robin to ponder his threat. We then jump over to Bruce and Alfred, Alfred discovers that Bruce hasn't told Dick and Tim about Damian killing Nobody, as Bruce says knowing would only divide them even more, and Damian doesn't even know Alfred knows. The conversation is cut short as the Bat-Signal alarm goes off causing Bruce to spring into action. Later, Tim heads to the cave to tell Bruce about Damian's threats but is met by Damian. Damian plays video of Tim almost killing Fist Point after he murdered Artemis in the Teen Titans Annual. Tim yells that he's nothing like Damian, as he stopped himself from killing Fist Point (horrible name) and attacks Robin. The two beat the hell out of one another until Tim asks Damian what he wants from him, as he admits he thought about killing Fist Point. Damian says he wants Tim to accept him for what he is, a Wayne and a Robin. Tim stares at Damian before leaving, and as the issue comes to a close we see Terminus, now seemingly in perfect health for the moment, ready to take on Batman and destroy him and the city of Gotham with a giant nuke.


Thoughts: First things first, no disrespect to Kenneth Rocafort, but THAT is how Jason's mask should be drawn. Man, Patrick Gleason made me legit smile when I saw that shot of Jason's mask. Anyway, this issue was really fun. The Jason fan in me was happy to see him get to interact with Tim, Dick and Damian all at once, but I really loved Damian here. Challenging the other Robin's to prove he's the best is SO something he would do. I'm interested to see if the four Robins will have to team up to save the city or save Batman. And I really have to commend Tomasi on his work here, everyone had their own characteristics as they should. They all seemed like themselves and how they would interact, which is something we don't always see when you get a lot of characters together, this felt like how a Robin Reunion would. As for the villains, I think they have potential, none are really heavy-hitters but seeing their grudges with Batman was interesting. This was a great start to this storyline, I hope it continues to be this good since the next issue is billed as Damian/Jason.

Score:  8.5/10

Nightwing: You've got nothing to prove, none of us do, well maybe actually you (Jason) still do. But you heard what he said at the portrait sitting.

Red Hood: Portrait Sitting? Guess my invitation got lost in the mail.

14 comments:

  1. Easily the best Batman comic in months/maybe years for me. I've always been a huge Robin fan, so seeing all of the Robins was cool. I don't mind Damian taking out Tim and Jason, but I hope he doesn't take down the original. Dick Grayson should have him outmatched at this point. Maybe when Damien's older and there's a new robin, but I hope that the original stays the strongest

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  2. Good review. I will have to check this one out.

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  3. Dreager - As much as I hate to agree with you, as an unabashed Jason fan, I agree, I can see them giving Damian wins over Tim and Jason, but he shouldn't come out on top against Dick, for the same reason you said.

    Tom - Thanks buddy, glad you enjoyed it.

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  4. HEY X-MAN
    not to bring you down anymore man but Newsarma.com has listed nate grey/X-man as the 2nd Worst x-men member of all time!

    W T F

    http://www.newsarama.com/comics/10-worst-x-men-all-time-1.html

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  5. I believe Nate received such a bad teammate score because in tradition, Nate isn't a team player, but a loner character and many can't accept him as part of a team due to his history of isolation, but hopefully that will change over time.

    Also, JT, since you seem pretty much up on your Batman history, isn't there a Robin that is missing. I seem to recall a few years back that there was also a blonde female Robin trained by Batman. What's her story and what happened to her because she seemed to have disappeared off the earth. Maybe her existence was erased due to the Reboot of DC. Anyway, just thought I'd pick your brain for answers since I'm not an well versed Bat-family fan.

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  6. Yep Rad, our girl Stephanie (Robin/Spoiler/Batgirl) has pretty much been erased thanks to the reboot. She popped up in Batman: Leviathan as Spoiler apparently but she's not popped up in anything else yet.

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  7. Ah...I see. So that's why I've read so much bickering/disappointment about this Stephanie/Batgirl character. So she was another actual disciple of Bruce Wayne unlike Barbara Gordon. I do remember Batman beating that blondie down quite a bit. I guess if you are gonna be on team Batman, Bruce kinda has no mercy on training sessions...even if you are a FEMALE Robin. Ha!

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  8. Yep, basically the short story is, she fought crime as Spoiler and ended up meeting/dating Tim Drake, eventually when Tim retired as Robin for a while, she took up the Robin mantle with Bruce training her rigorously, they then killed off the character during War Games, by Black Mask I believe, only to state later she wasn't dead, cause this is comics.

    She was also best-friends with former Batgirl, Cassandra Cain, who quit being Batgirl once Bruce "died", and passed the mantle onto Stephanie which started to the Bryan Q. Miller Batgirl series, which both X and I agree, is one of the best comic runs in recent memory. If you ever come across those trades with Steph as Batgirl, do yourself a favor and get them dude. Amazing series that was intelligent, well written and extremely fun to read. Plus it's the series that made myself, and X, actually like Damian Wayne.

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  9. Well I'll definitely check into that because I definitely like some Damian Wayne. He's like an evil dark baby version of Bruce Wayne, yet destined and heir to the Batman identity once he matures only with darker edges. I'd go for that any day over having McGinuess taking the Batman throne and identity. How fair is that to young Damian?!

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  10. Oh, and by the way....that's a real gay (slang meaning lame) move on DC and their wack reboot. How are they to keep Damian's two murders in place but erase the Robinette's very existence as one of the Robin's! That's just too cold! Quite outrageous!...I liked the female Robin and thought it was a cool concept. So DC just decides to scratch an awesome and very popular (from the grief I read over Steph) character. That's just retarded!

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  11. Yeah, erasing Stephanie from reality is a really lame move from DC, but I still have some hope that she will apear in the Batman Inc #0 issue coming in sptember and I really hope that Cass Cain show up there too..

    But if you are compelled to see some stephanie brown it's already confirmed that she will be in the Smalville season 11 comic as Nighwing (By Brian Q. Miller the same that wrote her in the awesome Batgirl Run)

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  12. Oh, RadT, I meant to mention, I read a story in a Batman annual i believe, where Damian, as Batman in the future saved a kid that was kidnapped,and the kid was noneother than Terry McGuinness, which basically set that Damian does become Bats in the future, and Terry becomes Batman after Damian.

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  13. Already JT!....I can live with that heir to Batman comic explanation. If it were any other way (with the exception of death or paralysis) I wouldn't accept Terry as heir to the throne of Bats, especially how the cartoon series explained it. Glad the true comic world of DC got it right!

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  14. Yeah, I think they were trying to sync it up, and that way you can come to your own conclusion that something happened to Damian, so old Bruce became Bats again until Terry came along.

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