Battle for the Cowl: Gotham Gazette: Batman Alive? #1

That's one hell of a long title! I'll give this a read before I head over to the other blog tonight. I'm honestly not expecting much from this comic, I can vaguely recall not liking "Batman Dead", which was the first part of this mini. This comic is written by Fabian Nicieza, a childhood favorite of mine.

-There really isn't all that much to review here actually. This comic is basically a set-up issue for the various Bat-comics spinning out of the "Battle for the Cowl" storyline.

-Harvey Bullock will be chasing after Azrael in the upcoming Azrael comic book.

-Leslie Thompkins is trying to restart her clinic in Gotham after that dumb Spoiler/Africa business. She also has the criminal formerly known as the Cavalier serving as her bodyguard.

-Spoiler and Tim Drake/Wayne are still dancing around each other. I'm sure that they'll be more of that in the new Red Robin comic... Well, unless Chris Yost kills them both off, which IS a pretty strong possibility.

-And finally Vicki Vale has managed to figure out the identities of all of the main members of the Bat-family. Wha-huh?!? Yep, that's right. After spotting Tim's cut up face(thanks to Jason Todd)at a police ball, she remembered Bruce explaining away injuries he had recieved as Batman from playing polo. She then picked up on the obvious sexual tension between Babs and Dick, and after arriving home, she began comparing pictures of the various Bat-people to their alter-egos. Although she seems to believe her theory, she realizes that proving it will be a whole other story.

For a comic that was only loosely tied together, this was a pretty enjoyable book. The Vicki Vale story stole the show(for obvious reasons), but the other stories weren't half bad. For a score, I'll give this comic a 7 out of 10. I'd give this comic a slight recommendation just to check out the Vicki Vale part.

Battle for the Cowl: Azrael: Death's Dark Knight #3(of 3)

This should be fairly brief, due to the fact that I really don't care about this comic. The only reason I'm bothering to read it is because I've read the first 2 issues and once I start something I have to finish it, no matter how bad it may be. This issue is written by Fabian Nicieza, who I know can do better than what I've read thus far in this mini-series.

-We open this issue with Nightwing and Azrael battling in the Batcave. During the battle, Azrael convinces Dick that he wasn't the same Azrael who killed a cop a while back, and the two stop fighting. The two talk some more and Dick knocks out Azrael with an electric jolt. That tricky Dick! Dick then proceeds to inject Azrael with some kind of drugs that selectively erases Azrael's memory of the location of the Batcave and other Bat-related information... How convenient.

-Dick heads to Talia's penthouse and tells her to leave the new Azrael alone. Talia tells Dick she wants the Suit of Sorrows back, but Dick tells her that the Suit now belongs to Azrael, and that if Talia makes a move to repossess it she'll have to deal with Dick. Talia decides to leave the Suit alone, and Dick leaves.

-Azrael wakes up the next day in his apartment and discovers the Suit, along with a note telling him that for now the Suit was his, but if he screwed up it would be taken from him. After that, some other unimportant junk happens, and this issue ends.

This wasn't a horrible comic book, but I just never really connected with this new Azrael. I was hoping that that the former Azrael would've made an appearance, but that never transpired. In case anybody cares, a new Azrael monthly book is going to spring out of this mini-series come the Fall. I can say right now that I won't be buying that comic. For a score, I'll give this issue a 5 1/2 out of 10. This mini definitely got better with each passing issue, but like I said earlier, I just never connected with the new Azrael.

Battle for the Cowl: Azrael: Death's Dark Knight #2(of 3)

After reading Fantastic Four #566, I'm in such a foul mood that I figure I'll give this comic a read. I think I gave the first issue of this series something like a score of 1 out of 10, so this should be VERY ugly. For the record, this is written by Fabian Nicieza, who for the most part I am a fan of. Hopefully last issue was some sort of aberration.

-We begin this issue with Talia Al Ghul and her assassins attempting to remove the Suit of Sorrows from the new Azrael. Azrael fights back and Talia decides to try to talk instead. Talia tells Azrael that the Suit is hers(well it was before she gave it to Bats)and that it causes insanity in the wearer. She then tells Azrael that she wants to give it to her son. Azrael listens to all of this before taking off to confirm what Talia told him.

-Azrael heads back to the people who gave him the Suit and they tell him that the last guy who wore the suit did indeed go crazy, but that the last guy wasn't prepared properly to wear the Suit. After hearing that, Azreal leaves.

-This comic ends with Azrael strolling into the Batcave(how does he know about that?)and running into Nightwing, who thinks this Azrael is the same one who killed a cop(it was actually the previous, crazy Azrael).

Well, that wasn't very good, but it was definitely better than the last issue. I really don't care about this storyline, or these characters at all, so I really don't have much to say here. I was hoping this Azrael was the original one, but he's just some cheap knockoff. For a score, I'll give this comic a 4 out of 10.

Battle for the Cowl: Oracle: The Cure #3(of 3)

This is the final issue of Oracle's "Battle for the Cowl" mini-series. You know, I have NO idea why this even has the "Battle" banner on it... It has nothing to do with the whole "Battle" storyline. Anyway, this issue is written by Kevin Vanhook.

-Picking up from last issue, Babs kills the power at the home of her hackers to prevent Calculator from attacking them through the computer. From there Babs traces Calculator's location back to Gotham and heads back home.

-Back in Gotham, Babs meets with the guy who created the online world Calculator is abusing. Babs has the guy write some new code in the game that would give her an edge for when she confronts the Calculator online.

-While Babs was doing all this, the Calculator was creating crystals that were supposed to serve as the deliverer of the Anti-Life Equation. Calculator heads to his daughter Wendy's hospital and goes online in order to program(?)the crystals with the last of the Anti-Life Equation, which Calculator hopes will bring his daughter out of her coma.

-While Calculator was finalizing the code, Babs attacks his online avatar, causing him to feel the effects of the attack in the real world. Calculator shuts down the computer and rushes to Wendy's hospital room with the hopes of using crystals to wake Wendy. Upon reaching Wendy's room, Calculator is surprised to find Babs there already... I'm kind of surprised as well. For a woman in a wheelchair Babs sure can hustle!

-Babs and Calculator argue a bit and Wendy wakes up even though Calculator never used the crystals on her... Huh??? The cops arrive and Babs tells them Calculator is a murderer, which throws Calculator into a rage. Calculator tries to attack Babs with the crystals(?!?)but she simply smashes them with her staves. The cops then decide to step in(gee, thanks guys)and tackle Calculator to the ground. This mini-series ends with Babs taunting Calculator by telling him she infected him with some sort of virus(I guess)that will alert her whenever he goes online. While Babs is taunting Calculator, Wendy is screaming and crying in the background about not being able to feel her legs... OOOOK...

What the flying hell was THAT?!?!? I'm at a loss... Hmm, where to start... I guess I'll start by saying that it was totally ridiculous that DC put the "Battle for the Cowl" banner on this mini-series. This series had absolutely NOTHING to do with the events of the "Battle" story. Literally nothing. On top of that, wasn't Calculator able to merge himself with Kilg%re near the end of the "Birds of Prey" series? What ever happened to that? I guess it was forgotten, because Calculator sure didn't seem to remember he could do that!

I truly didn't like the story, and to be honest, I have to say I didn't like the any of the characters in this mini. I was a fan of Babs in the "Birds" series, but I really didn't like her at all here. She was really nasty and demeaning to everyone she worked with. Even people who were working with/helping her wound up facing her wrath. Jeez Babs, chill out!

Finally there was the ending... Wendy suddenly wakes up out of the blue while Calculator and Babs are arguing in her room??? WTF??? That just made NO sense on so many different levels. If she could wake up whenever, I guess this whole mini-series was for nothing, since the whole idea was that Calculator was trying to wake his comatose daughter up. On top of that, where exactly did Calculator get the idea to wake Wendy up by using the Anti-Life Equation? It's called the ANTI-LIFE Equation, not the Restore-Life Equation!!! Ugh... For a score, I'll give this issue a 2 out of 10. I have NO idea why I even bothered to read this mini. It didn't add anything to "Battle for the Cowl" or to the characters of Barbara Gordon and the Calculator. My advice? Avoid this mini like the plague!

Battle for the Cowl: Oracle: The Cure #2(of 3)

Well, I was either going to finish up this mini-series, or the Azrael one, and after remembering how awful the 1st issue of the Azrael mini was, it was a no-brainer. This issue is written by Kevin Vanhook. I'll be honest, I don't remember what issue #1 was about, so hopefully this issue will remind me.

-Now I remember why I've been avoiding this comic book! Oracle heads to Hong Kong and is promptly attacked by three hoods looking to steal her computer(for starters). Babs manages to beat the hell out of them from the ground and gets her computer back.

-From there Babs heads to a den of hackers(I guess)and has them hook her up to some kind of fancy virtual reality equipment where she does some stuff(sorry, that's all I understood!).

-Meanwhile, the Calculator is still searching the Internet for fragments of the Anti-Life Equation which he believes will help him heal his comatose daughter Wendy. To help accomplish this, Calculator attempts to meet with a hacker friend of Babs' online to use him as a guinea pig of sorts to test the fragments of the Anti-Life Equation he has thus far recovered.

-Babs makes a phone call to her hacker friend in the States and discovers that Calculator is trying to meet with him. Babs tells the hacker to leave town and avoid all contact with computerized things, but the hacker decides to meet with Calculator anyway.

-The hacker finds Calculator's online safehouse and uses his online avatar to attack. Calculator swiftly demolishes the hacker and somehow manages to find Babs' location from the hacker's avatar(don't ask me how he did that!). The issue ends with Calculator appearing on the computer screen Babs and her hackers were using.

Man was that frigging confusing! The worst thing about this comic is the fact that I still have to read issue #3! I am not looking forward to that. I'll save most of my comments until I read issue #3, but I will say that I really didn't enjoy reading this comic. For a score I'll go with a 4 out of 10. Just thinking about this comic gives me a mild headache. I definitely wouldn't recommend this book.

Secret Six #9

This is a Battle for the Cowl x-over issue written by Gail Simone. I have to say, I have very high hopes for this comic book. Here's hoping the BftC logo on top of this comic will bump up the sales numbers for this book.

-This issue opens with Catman, Bane and Ragdoll(dressed in an imitation Robin outfit and referring to himself as the He/She Wonder)stopping a kidnapping in Gotham City. It seems that three teams of kidnappers were planning on kidnapping three children from influential families in order to ransom the kids back later.

-Catman, Bane and Ragdoll halt the first kidnap attempt, and maim/kill all of the kidnappers in the process... Whoops! When pressed by Ragdoll as to why they were in Gotham, Bane explains that they were hired to help carry out the kidnappings, but for some reason, Bane has decided to halt the kidnap attempts instead. That fact causes Catman to accuse Bane of wanting to become the next Batman. Bane reputes that claim and counters that Catman is the one with delusions of becoming the Bat. Catman says he could easily become Batman, since in his mind they are alike, but Bane tells Catman he is nothing like Bats.

-The trio stop the next kidnap attempt with similarly brutal methods, before heading to the final home.

-The three Secret Six members cut through the final kidnappers as easily as they went through the previous two teams, and proceed to maim/kill them. Before they can complete the job, Nightwing(Dick Grayson)shows up on the scene. Nightwing takes control of the situation and tells the trio to leave the house immediately. Catman takes offense at Nightwing's attitude, and threatens a fight, which Nightwing doesn't back down from. Bane realizes that Nightwing is destined to become the next Batman and decides to leave, apparently figuring that Nightwing's new life will be difficult enough without having to fight him and his allies. Catman and Ragdoll reluctantly follow Bane's lead.

-The issue ends with the trio leaving Gotham City in the hands of Nightwing and the other "heroes".

This was a very good comic book. This issue gave us a good look into the characters of Catman and Bane. It was nice to see Gail give Bane a chance to shine in this comic, since Bane has had very little time to establish himself thus far in this series. As usual, the humor was dead on and the visuals were also very nicely done. I particularly enjoyed the scene where Catman and Bane were descending from a rooftop in a similar fashion to Batman and Robin in the campy Batman series of the 60's. One thing you can always count on in a Gail Simone written comic book is plenty of funny scenes/moments. For a score, I'll give this comic an 8 out of 10. This was a very solid comic that I'd have no problem recommending.

Batman: Battle for the Cowl #3(of 3)+ A look at the aftermath.

Yay, I finally got my hands on this comic, which means I can finally dedicate a post to it. This book was written by Tony Daniel. Needless to say after the review itself I'm going to have a lot of extra stuff to add.

-We start with Nightwing(Dick Grayson)rallying the troops in Gotham, telling them that they have to reestablish order in the city. After his rooftop meeting with Gotham's costumed community, Dick goes off to find Robin(Tim Drake), since Tim hasn't been heard from since he went after the evil Batman impostor.

-The Gotham Police force mistakenly believes that Two Face is behind the recent crime wave in Gotham. However, the cops are basically out of the battle since the military has moved in to capture or kill Two Face and the Penguin. Penguin surrenders to the Army, while Two Face gets the hell out of Dodge via a boat.

-Damien wakes up and is paired with Squire by Alfred and told to earn his keep. Squire and Damien then proceed to go out in search of the evil Batman.

-Meanwhile, Black Mask(the true architect of the Gotham crime wave)sits alone in his home with his face shrouded in shadows, taking a moment to savor his victory.

-Dick finally arrives at the evil Batman's faux-Batcave and confronts him. The evil Batman taunts Dick by claiming to have killed Tim, but Dick refuses to believe it until he sees the body. Dick then reveals that he knows the evil Batman is Jason Todd, and shows Jason a recording made by The Batman prior to Batman's "death"/disappearance. In the recording, Bruce apologizes to Jason for failing him and implores Jason to seek out a doctor to help with his fractured psyche. Jason flips out after hearing the message and attacks Dick.

-While Dick and Jason battle each other, Tim wakes up and begins to slowly make his way out of Jason's Batcave. Unfortunately, the injuries Tim sustained during his earlier battle with Jason cause him to collapse again before escaping.

-By this point Damien(who is now dressed like Robin)and Squire have reached Jason's Batcave and have begun to hunt for any trace of either Jason or Tim.

-Dick and Jason battle for a few pages before Dick begins to gain the upper hand. Jason, sensing defeat, blows up his Batcave and makes a break for it, but is trailed by Dick.

-The force of the explosion awakens Tim, who staggers around in the smoke and flames of Jason's Cave, unable to find an exit. Damien swoops in from above and grabs hold of Tim, bringing him to safety.

-Jason makes his way to a train and hops atop the roof, but is doggedly pursued by Dick. The two continue their battle on the train with Dick managing to knock Jason over the edge. Jason clings to the edge of the train and Dick holds out a hand, offering to pull Jason to safety. Jason seemingly chooses death to dishonor, letting go of the train and falling to his apparent demise, but not before promising Dick that he hasn't seen the last of him yet.

-This issue comes to its conclusion with Dick realizing that Gotham City will always need a Batman, citing the psychological hold the cape and cowl seems to hold over the denizens of Gotham. Dick FINALLY dons the mantle of the Bat and takes to the rooftops of Gotham City as the new Batman.

OK, Before I say anything critical, allow me to state that Tony Daniel did a fantastic job on this mini-series. Not only did Tony write the story for this mini, he also did the pencil work, and managed to get everything out on time! So, big time props go out to Mr. Daniel. I actually liked this series a lot. The story was very good, and I couldn't wait to discover what would happen next. With that said though, I have to admit to being just a bit disappointed with the way things turned out here. I think EVERYBODY expected Dick to wind up as the new Batman and for Damien to become Robin #5. Jason Todd seemed the most likely to be running around as the evil Batman as well. There really weren't any curveballs thrown during this entire mini-series. Everything wound up EXACTLY the way I expected it to. I would have liked ONE surprise occurrence in this mini, you know, some kind of "Holy ###!" moment. That moment never happened. While this story WAS very good, it was also extremely formulaic.

The only mystery to come out of this series was the identity of the Black Mask. Is he actually the original Black Mask returned from the dead, or is he an impostor? Personally, I believe Black Mask is really Jason Todd. Why? During his climatic battle with Dick, Jason seemed to be dropping hints that he almost wanted Dick to get out from behind Bruce's shadow to "save" Gotham. Dick also thinks to himself that the only time he had a potential lead on the Black Mask, Jason was there to screw everything up. It is also important to note that the Joker isn't one of the Arkham escapee's who the Black Mask has coerced into working for him. It's not a stretch to say that the Joker is the one person Jason would absolutely never work with, so the Joker's absence here could very well mean something. For more evidence pointing at Jason as the Black Mask, one only has to look at the "Underground" comic that tied into "Battle for the Cowl". In that issue, Catwoman spots the Black Mask at a distance in an alleyway. She chases after him but winds up running into Jason Todd in his evil Batman guise... How could Black Mask have passed by Jason without Jason attacking him? Hmm... Of course I could be TOTALLY off base here(it wouldn't be the first time!)and the Black Mask could be the original, or maybe someone completely unexpected like the Joker. I guess only time will tell.

Besides Dick becoming the new Batman(which I like)is the fact that Damien is taking the name of Robin(which I really don't like). I don't like Damien. There I said it. I mean I really don't like him. The character has NO redeeming qualities. He's a nasty, self-absorbed, thoughtless, obnoxious, spoiled little punk. I'd love to hear from any fans of Damien out there, because I'd love to know what you see in the character. In a perfect world, Dick would have become the Batman and Tim Drake would have remained Robin.

Speaking of Tim, it seems he'll be taking the role of Red Robin in the new "Red Robin" comic book... That makes me very sad... After reading this comic, I went to check out the solicitations for the upcoming Bat-books, and I discovered the new Red Robin comic would be written by Chris Yost. Anybody who knows me knows of my blinding hatred of Yost's work, and my refusal to read ANYTHING written by him. That means I will not be reading Red Robin, which is unfortunate, considering the fact that I do like Tim Drake. Oh well, hopefully Yost won't be on that book for long.

Boy, I sure wrote a lot here! For a score, I'll give this comic a 9 1/2 out of 10. Even though this comic was very predictable, it was also very engaging. I truly enjoyed this mini-series and would easily give all three issues a very strong recommendation.

Battle for the Cowl: Arkham Asylum #1

This is going to be another very quick review. This comic was written by David Hine, who was responsible for the very underrated and very good "District X" series.

-This issue follows Dr. Arkham as he returns to the scene of the destroyed Arkham Asylum. Dr. Arkham wanders the hallways, thinks about the lunatics who were once held there, and ultimately makes his way down to the bowels of the building, where the weirdest of the inmates were being held. Arkham discovers that a few of these inmates were still down there and he decides to help them out while rebuilding Arkham Asylum.

I have to admit that I did enjoy this comic. It was a strange little offbeat tale that revolved around characters that I had never heard about before. It was nice to read something written by David, he's one of those writers who if given a chance could outshine many of the "big name" comic writers out there today. I'll give this comic a score of 8 out of 10. All in all, I'd recommend this comic, it was better than I expected.

Battle for the Cowl: The Underground #1

Much to my shock and dismay, this comic was written by my sworn enemy, Chris Yost... If I had known that, I never would have purchased this book. I thought Yost was Joe Quesada's boy, what the hell is he doing writing for DC??? Since I truly abhor anything written by Yost, I can't be expected to give a proper review. Basically I just looked at the pictures in this comic, so I'll very briefly describe what I saw.

-Penguin spoke to the Riddler about something, Catwoman tried to attack Two-Face, but to no avail, Poison Ivy and Killer Moth had a conversation and Catwoman beat up Killer Moth before he flew away. Riddler winds up picking up Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy for some reason, and Catwoman runs into evil Batman and gets tossed off a rooftop by him. This comic ends with Riddler, Ivy and Quinn happening across Catwoman's body.

Well, I'll be damned! Yost managed to refrain from killing off any children in this comic! Break out the party hats and streamers!!! I guess Yost only hates mutant children or something... Since I figured Yost and Joe Q were attached at the hip, I thought I could buy DC comics without really having to check the writer... My mistake. Next time I'll be way more careful with my comic book purchases. Mark my words, this is the LAST time you'll ever find a Yost penned comic book review on this blog. Since I didn't really read this comic, I can't give it a score.

Battle for the Cowl: The Network #1

Well, this was laying at the top of my comic pile, so I guess I'll give it a read... For the record, this is written by Fabian Nicieza.

-Basically this comic detailed Oracle organizing the various costumed crimefighters in Gotham City. With Bats gone and presumed dead, Oracle seems to be the point-woman when it comes to dealing with crime in Gotham. This issue showed how, with the help of Huntress, Misfit, Batgirl, Manhunter, Wildcat and Ragman, Oracle is able to free 3 hostages from Dr. Hugo Strange. Yep, that's it.

How's that for a quick review! I did like this comic, but since it's getting late, this review gets the shortform treatment. This comic actually read like an issue of Birds of Prey, which is a good thing, since I used to really enjoy Birds. One negative thing this comic did was really cause me to question whether Batman was all that important to Gotham City. I know the knee jerk reaction is to say that Gotham needs Batman, but Oracle seems to have things in some semblance of control with Bats out of the picture. To be honest, things seem to be running rather smoothly with Babs organizing everything. For a score, I'll give this comic an 8 out of 10. If you're a fan of any one of the characters I listed above, or if like me you miss the Birds of Prey comic, then this comic is well worth a read.

Batman: Battle for the Cowl #2(of 3)

Overall- So, did I hit the nail on the head here or what? What am I talking about you ask? Well, before I go any further, I'd better type up a quick review of this comic. We begin with Nightwing(Dick Grayson)and Damian Wayne standing face to face with one of the impostor Batmen. This Batman has already killed several people, and tells Dick that the only way to clean Gotham City up is by killing the criminals running the streets. Needless to say Dick disagrees and the two fight. During the course of the fight, the evil Batman makes several references to things he shouldn't know about, such as secret identities and stuff along those lines. Dick decides that this Batman has to be Jason Todd, and the evil Batman says nothing to dissuade Dick from that idea.

Damian tries to help, but is outclassed and winds up just getting in the way. Before Dick can gain the upper hand, the evil Batman shoots Damian in the chest, before cutting a hasty getaway. Dick lets the evil Batman escape and takes Damian back to the Batcave where Alfred can patch him up. After Alfred fixes Damian up, Alfred and Dick have a conversation in which Alfred basically tells Dick to take up the Batman mantle since he was always the closest morally to Bruce Wayne.

While this is occurring, Black Mask is organizing and pulling off a major criminal operation against Commissioner Gordon and the Gotham Police Department. Mask sends a couple of his Arkham escapees to GCPD headquarters and has them blow the building up. As Mask is attacking the GCPD on one front, he is also pitting the Penguin and Two-Face(his main criminal competition)against each other in the hope that they will wind up killing the other.

Meanwhile, Tim Drake(Robin)is dressed in one of Bruce's old Batman outfits and is hunting for the evil Batman. Tim has already deduced the fact that the evil Batman is Jason Todd, and winds up following Jason's trail to a makeshift Batcave. While Tim is searching around the evil Batcave, he is jumped by Catwoman, who mistook him as the evil Batman. After they clear up that misunderstanding(Tim is too short to be the evil Batman!)the two begin to search around the evil Batcave. The evil Batman returns and jumps Catwoman, knocking her out of the fight quickly. Tim goes after the evil Batman and the two fight for a few pages. Ultimately, it looks like Tim has the upper hand when he begins to wail away on the evil Batman with a crowbar. Unfortunately though, while Tim was beating on the evil Batman, the evil Batman managed to impale Tim with a Batarang, possibly killing him and ending this issue.

I've already stated that I don't like the idea of killing Tim off, and this issue didn't change my mind at all on that. I think Tim can be repackaged in a similar way that Dick Grayson was after he out-grew his role as Robin. The question now becomes is Tim dead? Well, he sure looked dead at the end of this comic book, but we all know that looks can be very deceiving in comics, so I'm not going to start ranting about Tim's apparent demise just yet... With Catwoman still on the scene, although she was knocked out, I tend to doubt Tim has reached the end of the road just yet, but I guess we'll find out for sure next issue.

The next issue of this mini-series really has A LOT of ground to cover. We have to have the big climatic battle between the evil Batman and Dick Grayson, there is still the matter of the escaped Arkham inmates, along with the fate of Tim Drake and Black Mask's scheming. I don't know how Tony Daniel is going to do it, but with how good the first two issues of this mini have been, I have no reason to doubt Tony's writing abilities. For a score, I'll give this issue a 9 out of 10. This was an exceptional comic, but it just wasn't quite as good as the first issue. Maybe it was Tim getting stabbed, or maybe it was the fact that Dick Grayson stood around whining instead of actually doing anything that bugged me, but this issue was missing SOMETHING...

DC wouldn't kill off Tim Drake, would they?

After reading the Commissioner Gordon one shot, and seeing that Gordon wasn't going to tolerate any false Batmen running around Gotham City, I began to think about the Battle for the Cowl mini-series itself. I think it's a safe assumption that Dick Grayson is going to become the post-Cowl Batman, while Damian Wayne will become his Robin. That obviously leaves Tim Drake, the current Robin, out in the cold. He's already quit the Teen Titans, doesn't have a solo title anymore, and can't even take the Nightwing name, since it has already been taken by Chris Kent over in the Superman books. So, where exactly does that leave Tim? Either he'll be taking on a new identity, or he'll wind up dead.

With Dick Grayson so adamantly against becoming Batman you would have to think that it would take some kind of tragic event to push him towards taking up the Batman mantle. Could that event be the death of his "little brother"? With the Gotham police force now on full alert and probably trigger happy, I could totally see Tim, who was dressed like Batman at the end of BftC #1, getting gunned down by the cops, which would be the catalyst that would drive Dick to become the next Batman. Of course, I'm probably WAY off, but I figured I'd post these thoughts, that way, if I'm right, I'll look like a genius! Still, I'm holding out hope that Tim lands on his feet after the BftC mini, and gets a solo series with a new identity.

Battle for the Cowl: Commissioner Gordon #1

Overall- This was a good comic book, much better than it had any right to be. This comic follows the antics of Mr. Freeze and Commissioner Gordon. Going in I wasn't expecting much, but Royal McGraw(who's work I'm completely unfamiliar with)delivered a nice little one shot here. We start with Freeze capturing Gordon after a failed attempt by Gordon and the Gotham Police force to re-capture Freeze after the break out at Arkham from Battle for the Cowl #1. Freeze explains that he wants to help Gotham City deal with the fact that Batman is dead by forcing them to deal with a great tragedy, that tragedy being Freeze destroying a chunk of Gotham City, or some crazy villainous act like that.

It's around this time that Gordon finally realizes that Batman isn't going to drop in and make a last minute save and that he'll have to take action himself. Gordon summons up the last of his strength and attacks Freeze from behind, before stealing the keyboard from Freeze's machine, and running away... You know, that's the best plan I've ever seen! Without a keyboard, Freeze can't make his machine DO anything! That's brilliant!

Freeze gets rather pissed about Gordon stealing the keyboard and chases after him, breaking through a wall to get at Gordon. However, in a stroke of luck, the wall Freeze busts through ruptures a gas pipe and Gordon lights a match, which triggers an explosion that incapacitates Freeze. This issue ends with Gordon returning to police headquarters and discovering that a Batman has been spotted in Gotham City, but is killing criminals as opposed to capturing them. Gordon declares that from this point on, the Gotham Police Department is going to re-take the streets and stop relying on others to deal with the crime in their city.

This issue gave the reader a good bit of insight into the minds of both Gordon and Freeze. For most of this issue, Gordon was hoping Batman would make the save, while Freeze was sure Batman was dead. By the end, Gordon realized Batman was gone, and upon being defeated, Freeze thought Batman had been the one who beat him. The way the two characters completely switched mindsets by the end of this comic was a neat touch.

It was also funny to realize just how spoiled the Gotham Police Department had become due to Batman's presence. The cops always seemed to count on Batman to show up whenever the going got too tough. With Batman seemingly gone, it'll be nice to actually see Gordon and his police actually try to take charge of the streets, as opposed to allowing vigilantes to do the police work. For a score, I'll give this comic an 8 out of 10. This was a perfectly acceptable comic book.

Battle for the Cowl: Azrael: Death's Dark Knight #1(of 3)

Overall- OK, so I was intended on writing a review for this new Azrael comic book. But, there's a problem... I didn't understand a single thing that happened in this comic book. I really mean that too... Maybe it was me. Maybe I didn't read this comic the right way or something... I can't even give a real review here, because like I said, I didn't understand anything from page 1 to the last page... I guess I'll post what I can and be done with this comic book.

So, there's a new Azrael going around killing people in God's name. This Azrael isn't Jean Paul Valley, the guy who used to be known as Azrael. He's dead(don't ask me how). A weird cult of Azrael(or something similar)has been apparently recruiting guys to fill the Azrael role for centuries now, but filling the role comes at some kind of price, we don't know what the price is, because the cultist are of course overly vague. Off-panel, the cultist somehow get the Azrael armor and sword away from Azrael(?)and offer it to a former cop who has basically lost everybody near and dear to him. The cop puts on the armor(?)and he fights some guys for some reason, and umm, that's about it I think...

Yeah, I was absolutely, positively, completely and totally lost here... I really can't think of anything else to say... This comic was a total mystery to me. For a score, I'm going to give this book a 1 out of 10, which is one of the lowest scores I've ever given out. I guess the artwork was OK... That's pretty much the best thing I can say... I'll buy the next issue, but only to see if it helps make any sense of this issue. Boy, this was bad, really bad!

Battle for the Cowl: Oracle: The Cure #1(of 3)

Overall- OOOOK... I'm not even going to pretend I understood what the hell just went on in this comic book! Instead, I'll review what I did understand(not much)and try to muddle through the rest.

Oracle has decided to move back to Gotham City from Platinum Flats. She moves onto an old building and does some rewiring in order to get herself some extra juice to run her computers. Babs meets with her father, Commissioner Gordon for dinner, but she is obviously VERY distracted, and the Commish finally decides to cut the dinner short, since Babs' mind is else where. Meanwhile, the Calculator is checking on his daughter, Wendy, the girl from the Teen Titans who was mauled near to death by that big dog(whose name is escaping me right now). Wendy was transfered from San Fran to Gotham and Calculator promises revenge, as all villains do. We also discover that both Babs and Calculator are trying to find any traces of the Anti-Life Equation that may still be floating around in cyberspace. That was about all I understood...

From there, Calculator has a a guy from a jewelry store cut some crystals into exact mathematical shapes. He is also adamant that the crystals are not to touch each other. One of the hackers Babs has looking for info on the Anti-Life Equation meets with Calculator in one of those online worlds and they share information about what they've discovered about the Equation. The online avatar of Calculator creates crystals in the online world with the info he gets from the hacker and has the hacker's avatar combine the crystals. Upon combining the crystals, the hacker screams and her head explodes, much to Babs' horror, since she has a webcam feed into the home of the hacker...

What the hell??? This comic started off well enough, and then it just went kind of crazy. I'm sorry, but I REALLY didn't understand literally half of this issue... The first half, I was totally down with. The second half though... Totally over my head! The Calculator can make people's heads explode via the Internet? Why? How does that help his comatose daughter? Why were both Calculator and Babs trying to rediscover the Anti-Life Equation? Didn't it cause enough trouble already? After reading this comic I thought MY head was going to explode! Well, I won't be too harsh yet, since this was only the first of three issues. The story may still come together and make sense... Hopefully. For a score, since I only understood half the comic, I'll go right down the middle and give his issue a 5 out of 10. Maybe after I read part 2, this will all make sense...

Batman: Battle for the Cowl #1(of 3)

Overall- OK, there is a lot to cover in this issue, as I'm sure anyone reading this would expect. Batman is gone. The streets of Gotham City are in a constant state of turmoil due to the fact that the Caped Crusader is no more. In response to the chaos, Nightwing(Dick Grayson)has organized all of Gotham City's vigilantes and protectors into a group loosely called the Network. The Network consists of Dick, Robin(Tim Drake), Knight and Squire, Huntress, Catwoman, Oracle, Black Canary, Wildcat, Lady Blackbird, Batgirl and a few others. Even with all of these heroes operating together, the street gangs of Gotham feel that with Batman out of the way, the time is ripe to make a grab for power. Two-Face and the Penguin have basically divided up the major gangs of Gotham and have them attacking and killing each other as well as innocents in an attempt to garner as much power as possible.

Dick is totally against the idea of ANYONE dressing up in Batman's cape and cowl, while Tim and Alfred feel that Gotham NEEDS their Dark Knight to pull the city out of the abyss. While Dick and his allies fight around the clock, they are making little progress in the crime riddled streets of Gotham. However, there have been rumors of someone dressed as Batman, but dealing with criminals in an extremely brutal way, a way that often ends with the criminals dead. At one of this "Batman's" crime scenes, Tim gets a hold of an authentic Batarang, which means that whoever this fake Batman is, he has or had access to Batman's equipment at one time or another.

While Tim and Dick argue again about the idea of one of them needing to fill the cape and cowl, the Black Mask makes his dramatic return from the dead(you know villains never stay dead in comic books!)and frees nearly one hundred of the worst inmates Arkham Asylum has to offer. The Arkham inmates, being a crazy bunch, refuse to follow Black Mask's leadership, so he tells them that they were secretly fed a radio activated chemical implant that can kill any one of them at the touch of a button. To prove this point, Black Mask proceeds to kills one of the inmates by remote control. He then tells the lunatics that Batman is dead and to emphasise his point, he blows up Arkham Asylum while all of the inmates watch. Black Mask then activates an altered Bat-Signal from the destroyed Asylum which illuminates the night sky with Batman's logo with the letters R.I.P. written across it.

Commissioner Gordon and Nightwing arrive at Arkham and are surprised at the level of planning this attack must have taken. Not only is Arkham nearly obliterated, but most worrisome of all, the inmates seem to have vanished without a trace. With Dick out of the Batcave, Tim makes the fateful decision to take one of Batman's old costumes(the one with the yellow and black Batman logo on the chest)and goes out in search of the murderous fake Batman.

Black Mask sends Killer Croc and Poison Ivy to the Gotham docks to destroy a shipment of weapons Two-Face was expecting, in order to show Two-Face that Black Mask is the new king of the Gotham underworld from this point on. While Croc and Ivy are at the docks, we find Damian Wayne trying to impress some girl by joyriding with her in the Batmobile. Oracle jams the controls of the Batmobile and tells Damian that since he is closest to the docks and something is happening there, he should go and check it out. Oracle then remotely ejects Damian's girlfriend from the passenger seat and sends him towards the docks.

Unfortunately, Croc smashes into the Batmobile and Ivy wrecks the road, which sends Damian careening into a swamp. Damian emerges from the wrecked Batmobile, and finds Ivy and Croc waiting for him. Croc spits out Damian's girlfriend's shoe and says that he's still hungry. Before the two villains can grab Damian, Nightwing swoops in on his glider and flies Damian to safety... For the moment.

Before long, Nightwing's glider is hit by a massive blast which knocks Nightwing out cold. Nightwing and Damian crash into a building and Damian helps the groggy Nightwing to his feet. Within seconds, they are struck from behind by another explosion that sends them flying. The second explosion seems to have cleared Dick's head a bit and he tells Damien to stay down and out of sight, since he realizes they are surrounded by several heavily armed thugs. Dick stands up to draw the thugs attention away from Damian and tells the thugs to come and get him. The thugs inform Dick that Black Mask has ordered the death of every Gotham vigilante and prepare to turn Dick into Swiss cheese. Before any thug can take a single shot at Dick, a heavily armored(and armed)Batman jumps out of the shadows guns blazing, killing the armed thugs left and right, while stating, "I AM BATMAN."

This comic was WAY better than I expected and was well worth the $3.99 cover price. Tony Daniel(writer)masterfully handled the relationships between the various members of the Bat-family, from Dick and Tim's fundamental disagreement concerning Tim's viewpoint that Gotham needs a Batman, even if it isn't Bruce and Dick's reluctance to have anybody "replace" the man who has meant so much to him throughout his life, to the dynamic between Tim and Squire, as well as the relationship between Dick and Damian. Everybody acted exactly how I would have expected them to act, which means Tony did his job very well. Nobody seemed out of character.

The return of the Black Mask was a pleasant and unexpected surprise(what can I say, I like the sadistic S.O.B.), and I'll be interested in seeing just how long Black Mask will be able to keep the nutcases from Arkham under his thumb, I'm guessing not very long at all! Most importantly, this was the first time I ever actually liked Damian Wayne in any Batman comic book! Normally, I can't stand that little pest, but this book showed him to be human as opposed to the emotionless fighting machine Grant Morrison was fond of writing him as. Damian actually acted like a kid his age, instead of someone 5 times older than his age. I was VERY happy with the way Tony Daniel handled Damian, and I hope Grant follows suit.

So, the question is, who is the psychotic fake Batman? My money is on Jason Todd, since he would have access to the various Bat-gadgets Robin was finding at the scenes of his fights. Of course, Azrael is also an option, since this fake Batman is constantly leaving notes at the scenes of his crimes that simply say, "I am Batman". Since Azrael WAS Batman back in the 1990's, he's also a strong possibility. All in all, I really and truly enjoyed this comic book and for a score, I'm going to give it a 10 out of 10. I was really on the fence concerning what I should score this comic, and was torn between 9 and 10, but since I really had no major complaints about this comic book, a 10 it is. I can't wait until the next issue!

Gotham Gazette: Batman Dead? #1

Overall- This comic book basically consisted of 4(very)short stories, which focused on 4 different Gothamites. The first story looked at Vikki Vale, who was writing for the Gotham Gazette newspaper again. Vikki wrote a story about Batman's sudden disappearance, but was more interested about where Bruce Wayne had disappeared to. Vikki begins to hunt for Bruce, but comes up empty at every turn. Finally, after a long day and a fruitless search, Vikki returns to her apartment and finds some roses, champagne and an invitation to a fancy ball, signed by Bruce.

The story then moves on to Stephanie Brown(Spoiler). Steph wants to help fight crime in Gotham, but is still pining for Robin. She watches Robin stop a crime from a distance and thinks back on their rocky relationship. After she gets home, she stares at her Spoiler costume.

Next, we focus on Dr. Leslie Thompkins, who is returning to Gotham after spending the last year in Africa. After checking in to her hotel, Leslie takes a walk around town to get a feel for Gotham now that Batman is gone, and winds up witnessing some of Two-Face's goons springing a couple of inmates from a prison van. Leslie looks to help any injured people and winds up coming face to face with an injured inmate called the Cavalier.

Finally, we look at Harvey Bullock as he attempts to solve a case where a man was decapitated and the wound was cauterized. After returning to the station house, Harvey gets reprimanded by Captain Sawyer, talks to his new partner, Jamie Harper, and then thinks he may have figured out who the perpetrator of the crime was.

And that was it... Was this comic book really necessary? This comic didn't really accomplish anything. First off, putting 4 stories in a regular size comic book is a huge mistake, because the writer, in this case, Fabian Nicieza, doesn't have any time to develop ANY of the stories properly. By the time you blink, you're reading the next story. I really didn't like this comic book, which kind of surprised me, because I like Fabian's work alot, and I'm also partial to Spoiler. For a score, I'll give this comic a 2 1/2 out of 10. If anyone is on the fence about picking this comic up, save your money, it had NOTHING to do with the upcoming "Battle for the Cowl" storyline.