Bruce Wayne: The Road Home: Batman & Robin #1

Overall: This issue begins with Batman(Dick Grayson)and Robin(Damian Wayne)fighting the Hangmen gang, who had come to Gotham to assassinate the mayor. The Dynamic Duo manage to defeat all but one of the Hangmen, with the team leader, Killshot, escaping. Damian is naturally incensed that Killshot escaped but Dick explains that it was all a part of his plan as he had placed a tracer on Killshot during the battle. So Dick and Damian leave the scene, while a mystery man watches them, critiquing their battle plans and strategies. Who is this mystery man? Well if you've checked out my Bruce Wayne: The Road Home: Batgirl review, you already know, but if you didn't I'll hold off on that info until later. Dick and Damian crash into Killshot's warehouse and prepare to take him to justice, but the mystery man sneaks in, kills the lights and helps Killshot escape, since Killshot's capture would interfere with his own plans. Once again Damian is incensed, but Dick is not bothered by Killshot's escape, even though Killshot managed to ditch his costume, meaning the tracer was useless. Since Dick deduced Killshot was Russian, he heads down to a Russian mafia owned airstrip and sure enough discovers Killshot trying to make his getaway. This time there is no mystery man there to save Killshot, and as such, he gets busted. From there, the mystery man returns to one of Red Robin's bases and takes his mask off to reveal none other than Bruce Wayne! Tim and Bruce talk about how they were disappointed that Dick and Damian had captured Killshot, but Bruce does end this issue by thinking to himself that he was proud of the way Dick had filled in for him during his “death”, and that he was especially proud of the way Dick had managed to rein Damian in. Even with those compliments though, Bruce has his doubts about the way Dick prepares for battle.

You know, annoyingly I think I was supposed to read this issue first, as opposed to the Batgirl one. It would have been nice if DC would have put some kind of numbers on these comics so I would have known which one came first... Idiots... Anyway, the main story involving Bruce, Tim, Dick and Damian wasn't bad, but it definitely wasn't up to the standard set by the Batgirl one-shot. Fabian Nicieza(the writer)really seems in love with this annoying Vicki Vale backstory, which I for one don't really care for. Yeah, okay, SOMEHOW Vicki has managed to do what practically nobody else in Gotham has been able to do, figure out not just that Bruce was Batman, but figure out the identities of pretty much every other member of the Bat-family as well. Whatever. Either release the info or go the hell away. I for one am really sick and tired of seeing her eying her Batman wall menacingly. So yeah, the Vicki Vale stuff bugged me. Besides that, the fact that Bruce didn't reveal himself to Dick and Damian also bothered me. He tells Batgirl who he was, but he doesn't tell his biological son nor his ward turned adopted son that he's back?! That's pretty cold. So although I had a few complaints about this comic, it was still way better than most of what I've been reading from DC lately.

Score: 8 1/2 out of 10.Much like a bad rash, Damian is slowly starting to grow on me...