Changes may be coming up for the Bat Family, but this issue’s story is a call back to simpler times: recruit a teammate, fight a bad guy, set the scene for a new chapter in a familiar story. Click the jump for a (spoilery) review of Batman Rebirth #1.
A lot of the book is a straightforward Batman story: Bruce Wayne pushes himself past his limits at least three times (electrocuted, then hangs from a skyscraper by one hand for a “workout,” then goes without air for six minutes before getting exploded out of the sea) while trying to stop the evil plan of the Bad Guy (in this case Calendar Man, who I’ve never thought much of before but they did a very nice job of making him creepy here.)
He wins in the end, which we knew he would, but the story’s nicely action-packed and exciting anyway.
The motive behind that traditional Batman story, though, is that Bruce wants to bring Duke Thomas into the Bat Family. (Or DOES he?)
If you haven’t read We Are Robin or Batman: Zero Year, the main thing to know is that Duke is a young, intelligent, kind of rebellious but in a good-hearted way, African-American teenager who headed up a group of vigilante teenagers to protect Gotham. He’s not an orphan, but his parents were victims of Joker: they’re still alive, but not exactly sane.
An alternate timeline had him becoming the next Robin, but in this book he makes it clear to Bruce: being Robin to Bruce’s Batman isn’t necessarily what he wants. He’s fine on his own.
Batman says that wasn’t what he was recruiting him for, he’s trying something “new.” And then he shows Duke the brand new suit he’s got waiting for him.
It’s definitely not anything Robin-like, and it does look pretty cool: yellow and black, the Bat-symbol in the chest, a futuristic look to the arms and helmet and very stream-lined altogether.
It brings up the question though: what counts as being a Robin and what doesn’t?
It looks like Duke and Batman will be working together, fighting crime, Duke learning from Batman. Isn’t that pretty much what a Robin does, nevermind the new suit design?
Or is this a Nightwing situation, where Duke will have his own territory to protect, independent of Batman?
Story-wise the main plot of this issue was pretty cut and dry, which is a good idea: don’t bring in too many plot lines right away. It felt odd to have a big #1 issue with such a simple story, but that was refreshing too.
As for the art, Mikel Janin did an excellent job. The action shots were extremely well done, and there was lots of detail in every panel without it getting confusing. The colors by June Chung took on an almost watercolor look in places, bringing out highlights even in the darkest pages. There’s a splash page of Batman and Duke walking in the Bat Cave, and I keep going back to stare at it.
I enjoyed the issue, I think they made good on their promise to return to a Legacy format for the book: good guys and bad guys, tentative alliances and Batman winning against the odds (though really, we knew he would.) Nothing too complicated, just Batman being Batman. I’m interested to see if it’ll continue this way.