Batman And Robin 2
Writer: Peter J Tomasi
Artist: Patrick Gleason, Mick Gray
Date: Dec 2011
This issue really brings the father and son theme to the forefront, opening with Daddy Batman trying to figure out how to raise Damian to be a good, moral person – not an easy task given Damian’s early childhood education.
I love seeing Bruce share his inner thoughts with Alfred, it shows us how important that relationship is to Bruce (and kind of sets up a parallel, reminding us that Alfred never tried to be Bruce’s father). Gleason and Gray capture Batman at his best, I’ve been very into the art in this series so far. Check out the Bat-Ass at the top of the page:
The Dynamic Duo head out and intercept a weapons shipment, in a very exciting fight sequence. Once they’ve subdued the criminals (Damian managing not to kill anyone this time around) we have another Great Moment in Wayne Parenting as Daddy Batman tells Damian “Don’t think I didn’t notice the restraint you just showed, Robin. Refusing to pound these felons with the excessive force you wanted to is commendable.” Alfred thinks Bruce could have done better and tells him so in classic Alfred style:
Damian’s still a troubled little boy, and Bruce has a few other ideas about how to deal with that, including one that I never thought I’d see outside of fanfiction – he buys a dog! With the new canine addition to the Wayne family and the return of the Bat-Pole entrance to the Bat-Cave, the relaunched Batman & Robin clearly connects itself to the earlier incarnations of these characters, even though Robin’s a different person.
There’s also a whole storyline going on that involves Batman Incorporated, in issue 1 we saw the Russian Batman killed and here in issue 2 the killer confronts Batman in the final pages. This works to place Batman & Robin in the larger context of the DCnU, which is helpful given how many Bat books there are and the still-fuzzy details of exactly what’s changed in the relaunch. When we combine that with Daddy Batman and the exciting work to protect Gotham City, we get an excellent series that and an issue that I really enjoyed reading.
