Tue
Jul 19 2011 3:36pm
Reader’s Guide to the New DC Universe: Batman and Robin

Each weekday, Tim will take a look at what we know about each of the upcoming 52 new comics from the September DC relaunch, one series at a time. Today: BATMAN AND ROBIN!

The Concept and Characters: Batman AND Robin. They probably swing around the city and fight crazy folks, like you’d expect, but this dynamic duo is a bit different than the old one. The traditional Batman and Robin team has centered around Bruce Wayne as a father figure to a young man raised as his ward. From Dick Grayson to Jason Todd, and with the Tim Drake Robin of the Modern era, Batman was playing that role, and helping to raise the boy(s) into young adulthood.

Now, though, it’s Damian Wayne in the sidekick role, so it’s a literal father/son team-up comic, and the duo gains a whole new dynamic out of that relationship.

Damian has been playing the Robin role for the past couple of years, and in the previous incarnation of this series, he was the sidekick to Dick Grayson’s Batman. But what’s notable about this new series is that it’s the first time, for any extended period, that the “real” (i.e. Bruce Wayne) Batman will have teamed up with his own son. Regular comic readers know that Damian is one of the best new characters to appear in DC comics over the past half decade. Lapsed readers may not know that this son of Batman was conceived in a previously out-of-continuity graphic novel from 1987 and raised by Talia al Ghul and trained by the League of Assassins. As written by Grant Morrison and the writers who followed on both the main Batman series and the recently-cancelled version of Batman and Robin, Damian has been brash, lethal, and rude, but also hilariously sardonic and committed to winning his father’s respect.

We don’t yet know any of the details of this series, other than the identity of its two protagonists, and the vague PR about the duo battling “the Gotham underworld.” Still, it’s a Batman and Robin comic, so it’s easy to guess the kinds of trouble they will get themselves into. Only this time, there will be a bit more emphasis on family, and the Wayne family is as dysfunctional as you can imagine.

The Creative Team: Peter Tomasi writes and Pat Gleason draws. It’s the same creative team from a) a well-regarded run on Green Lantern Corps, during the peak of that series as it was leading up to the “Sinestro Corps War,” and b) the earlier incarnation of Batman and Robin, sort of.

Tomasi and Gleason were announced as the new, regular creative team on the previous version of this series in 2010, following Grant Morrison’s departure. But then they didn’t take over right away. And when they did slide into the role, they only completed three issues before leaving the book to Judd Winick and a rotating crew of artists.

Now it appears that their disappearing act had something to do with longer-range planning on what we now know as the DC relaunch. They were presumably pulled from the old series to focus on launching this new version, and now we’ll get to see what they had planned. (Although the original series featured a Dick Grayson and Damian team-up, so whatever long-term plans the creative team may have had will surely look quite different with Bruce Wayne back in the cape and cowl.)

Tomasi, former editor of Geoff Johns turned Johns collaborator and legitimate-writer-of-good-comics (in addition to his Green Lantern Corps run, he has done strong work on The Light Brigade and The Mighty) did a nice job on his single Batman and Robin arc from the previous version of the series. He’s identified himself as a character man more than a plot guy, and this series success will hinge on the character work between the Bat-father and the Bat-son.

Gleason has a distinctively bold style, one that served him well as he illustrated the strange alien landscapes and space police officers in Green Lantern Corps, but his first run on Batman and Robin was a bit unsteady. I’ve enjoyed his work for years, though, and I think he’ll settle into Gotham City quite nicely, once he gets a few more issues drawn.

Recommendation: Buy it, if you’re looking for a second dose of Batman each month. Tomasi knows how to balance characters-in-conflict with unusual external threats, and Gleason has the potential to become a vigorously dynamic Batman artist. While the Scott Snyder/Greg Capullo Batman series will be the go-to Bat-book, this comic will make a nice companion piece. I anticipate that it will be a comfortable monthly read, consistently enjoyable, even if it’s rarely surprising. If it does end up filled with a few surprises, even better.

 


Tim Callahan writes about comics for Tor.com, Comic Book Resources, Back Issue magazine, and his own Geniusboy Firemelon blog.

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11 comments
David Stumme
1. grenadier
This book is exactly what's wrong with the reboot. In the DCnU, superheroes started 5 years ago. So how did Batman have a child with Talia who is now Damian's age, if Bruce never met Talia till after he was already Batman, less than 5 years ago? They're trying to have their cake and eat it too, but the resulting history seems to make little sense. Granted, we haven't read any of it yet, but it seems like in trying to cram their 10-15 year timeline into 5, they've missed a few points of logic.
rob mcCathy
2. roblewmac
it bugs the Hell out of me that super-paranoid Batman trusts his bastard son (clone) trained by his arch foe
Tim Callahan
3. TimCallahan
Actually, DC already has a built-in explanation (which fits the current continuity and will fit just as well in the New DCU): Damian was aged at an accelerated rate, thanks to SCIENCE! True fact.

Is Batman super-paranoid? I don't see evidence of that. Super-anticipatory, sure. Super-cautious? Yup. So he is unlikely to be surprised by anything long-term from Damian. Because he's Batman. He's twenty steps ahead of everyone, including fallen gods from outer space who sent avatars back through time to destroy him before he's ever born. I think he doesn't have much to fear from Damian.
Scott Skocy
4. skoce
I am moderalty excited for this one. Over the last couple years I would say that Tomasi has been more like the Johns I like (JSA, Flash) than Johns has. Except the first 3 or 4 issues of Emerald Warriors, which was book searching for a reason to exist.

I am a little sad that Tomasi is not writing Dick here, though. If I recall correctly, his year on Nightwing was pretty good.
ChadW
5. ChadW
Batman and Robin is on my pull list for September, simply because I want to see more Bruce/Damian interaction.

But if it gets trite, or overly sentimental, I'll be dropping it quickly. I don't see that happening, though.

And Batman isn't paranoid; people really ARE out to get him. ;)
ChadW
6. coryj
Recommendation: BURN IT. INCINERATE IT. Just don't give DC your money for it.

Pay no attention to Tim Callahan. This series is merely the Powers That Be at DC crapping all over all the meticulous work Grant Morrison has been doing on the Batman title since 2006. All of Grant's stories were building to Batman Inc (a reportedly 24 issue finite series) were there would be a multitude of Batman's all over the world. But soon after approving that storyline DC (like a psychopath with ADD) reversed themselves and decided that there can only be one Batman. This is a De Facto cancellation of Grant Morrison's plans for Batman.

I would urge everyone who was a fan of Grant Morrison's Batman to NOT buy any of these so-called new titles from DC as a protest.

Marvel did the same thing with Morrison's brilliant run on the X-Men. Morrison planted some new amazing ideas that other writers could have continued with - but since Quesada has a single digit IQ, Marvel decided to IMMEDIATELY GO BACK TO THE STATUS QUO.
rob mcCathy
7. roblewmac
1. Litte to fear maybe but there's ego too. "She cloned me! YOU cant clone me i'm BATMAN
2 UH more later
Tim Callahan
8. TimCallahan
I'm as big of a fan of Grant Morrison as you'll ever see, and I don't see how it makes any sense to ignore possibly good comics just because Morrison's plans got changed by DC corporate. Plus, Batman Inc is returning in 2012, AND the Batmen-around-the-world idea is still in the New DCU, hence Batwing.

coryj -- you are right about Marvel ignoring his X-Men seeds, though. But guys like Jason Aaron and Kieron Gillen are starting to bring some of those ideas back in, which is nice. Way too late, but nice.
ChadW
9. heylook
I think Morrison probably has enough sway that if he wanted to keep writing Batman and Robin instead of taking over Action Comics in the relaunch, he could do that.

And addressing the first reply - it's been stated by everyone writing Batman and editorial that Superman is the first "acknowledged" superhero in the new universe, but Batman has been operating in the shadows for a decade or more.
ChadW
10. jonmwilson1979
coryj doesn't realize that Morrison's plans for Batman are continuing. He has a final 12-issue chapter cooking that will start up early next year. Have no fear.

I was reading when Damian showed up. I didn't care much for him then. We'll see how he reacts to Big Daddy...
ChadW
11. Russell Duckett
Some of the re-boot comics will be set 5 years into the past.... Not all of them guys. I will give this a shot because I love Damian, but I wish they would give this comic the amazing feel it had when every 3 issues another artist would take over. I think DC is missing out on those small things that did make Batman & Robin special.

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