Comic Pick of the Week: July 1st, 2009

Reading List;

• Batman:Streets of Gotham #1
• Green Lantern Corps #38
• Dark Tower:Fall of Gilead #2
• Batman & Robin #2
• Irredeemable #4

Pick of the Week;

Batman & Robin #2

Written by: Grant Morrison
Pencils by: Frank Quietly
Colours by: Alex Sinclair



I'll admit it, I'm in love with Dick Grayson. I'm secure enough in masculinity to say that I think. I had never read Batman until Bruce Wayne's death... I was, of course, familiar with Batman, what living breathing human being is not? But I had never read any of the comics, other than the occasional issue I managed to find lying around wherever I happened to be killing time. But when I heard the they were going to kill Bruce, and that it would be Grant Morrison doing it, I was fully on board. At the very least, I thought, it would be an interesting story arc that I could drop afterwards. Much to my surprise though, it hasn't been the death of Bruce that's been interesting, but how the people around him have dealt with it.

For anyone who doesn't already know, Bruce is dead. Now in the reality of the comic book universe, we all know he'll be back some day. He only has to stay dead long enough for "Blackest Night" to finish. But in the meantime, we get Dick Grayson as Batman, and Damien (Bruce's asshole son) as Robin. It's been a fascinating story to follow, Dick wants anything except to be Batman, he has spent a very long time carving out a separate existence as Nightwing and this issue gives us some real insight into how much he hates the idea of giving that up to follow in his "father's" footsteps, to take several steps backwards and in so doing filling some enormous shoes. Page one is a full page of a very defeated looking Dick, sitting on the steps. In front of him is a discarded Robin symbol and Alfred asks "May I ask what happened?" We then get the story of Dick and Damien taking on an attempted prison break at Arkham, which turns out to be an assassination. After it's over, both Dick and Damien have a palpable sense of failure about them, Damien, clearly frustrated, says to Dick "Look at you! This pathetic impersonation of my father makes a mockery of his memory!" and dissapears.

The relationship between Dick and Damien is intense, and a refreshing departure from the Bruce/Dick relationship. Bruce was Dick's father, and now Dick has to rise to become Damien's father, but unlike Dick... Damien has no intention of needing a father figure. Dick is struggling with having to re-build the trust that a superhero needs, the cops suspect he's not Batman, Gordon doesn't know what's going on. There's a great scene where Alfred convinces Dick it's like performing a great character, Hamlet, Willie Loman, or even James Bond. Dick admits that the show must go on and takes off after Damien.

Everything about this book is spot on, all of the relationships are intense and convincing in every way. When Alfred admits he's not okay, I literally leaked three tears. The art is stunning, the panel layoust during the prison break is very cool and lends itself to a fight. The only other Frank Quietly I've seen is the All-Star Superman stuff, which is VERY different. That style suited that book very much, as does THIS style suit Batman.

I had every intention of dropping the book after the death of Bruce, but Dick is a much more interesting Batman than I ever imagined, and I'll keep reading this as long as it stays that way.