BATWOMAN versus ALICE
Elegy Part 2: Misterioso (DC)
Where: Detective Comics #855 When: September 2009 Why: Greg Rucka How: JH Williams III

The Story So Far...
Inspired by an encounter with the Batman, Kate Kane joins the Gotham City masked vigilante fraternity as Batwoman! Adventuring alongside her lover and ally, The Question, she becomes embroiled in a conspiracy involved Intergang and a mysterious text called the Book of Crime.

The Question soon uncovers a disturbing prophecy that declares the "twice named daughter of Kane" will suffer a brutal end. An end she only narrowly escaped, having to survive mortal wounds inflicted during a sacrificial ceremony under Intergang's leader, Bruno Mannheim. Recovered; Batwoman returns to Gotham's streets and rooftops to pursue the thirteen covens of the Religion of Crime. An act that brings her into conflict with the newest leader of the criminal zealots - Alice!

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Batwoman 3 (Athlete)
Intelligence: Batwoman 4 (Tactician)
Speed: Batwoman 3 (Athlete)
Stamina: Batwoman 4 (Athlete)
Agility: Batwoman 4 (Gymnast)
Fighting: Batwoman 5 (Martial Artist)
Energy: Batwoman 2 (Projectiles)


- At the tender age of twelve years old, Kate Kane was schooled in the harsh realities of combat when she, her mother, and twin sister were kidnapped by armed gunmen. Rescued by her military father, Kate was the only apparent survivor of the ordeal, her mother and sister executed.

Kate followed in her father's footsteps, entering the military academy where she excelled in physical and academic pursuits, until lifestyle choices saw her exit abruptly. Returning to her native Gotham City, she encountered the Batman when foiling her own street mugging. Inspired by the dynamic Dark Knight, she created her own modified persona of Batwoman, utilizing the aid and resources of her father in the pursuit of justice. She battles Intergang and the Religion of Crime, who regard her with zealous interest. She also dated and worked alongside Renee Montoya, The Question.

- Little is known of the true identity behind Alice, save that she is a leader of the Religion of Crime, and speaks only in quotations from the works of Lewis Carroll. Her name refers to Alice Pleasance Lidell of Adventures in Wonderland fame, but the esoteric criminal bares no apparent connection to her thematic predecessor in Gotham City, Jervis Tetch (aka; The Mad Hatter).

Serving the prophecy of the Crime Bible, Alice shows particular interest in the exploits of Batwoman. Before plummeting to her apparent death, the villainess uttered a quote suggesting she may in fact be Kate Kane's thought-dead twin sister, Beth.

Math: Batwoman Ranking: Draw (Not Ranked)

What Went Down...
Having hunted her way to the top of the Religion of Crime; Batwoman wastes no time firing a gas pellet at her primary target -- Alice! The compound does it's work, delaying the leader with choking tears, whilst disposable henchman charge head-long into a balletic martial arts assault of neck twisting and gauntlet slashing! The final blow is a stiff punch delivered to the gut of Alice herself.

The caped crusader bundles her newest nemesis under one arm, launching them both into the night air on the end of a powerful grappling line. Their travel brings them to a remote spire at the top of the Religion's church! There; the Batwoman intends to see to the interrogation of her mysterious foe. Alas, in order to do so, she must grant mercy from the effects of the gas which rendered Alice inert.

Alice hurls lines of Carroll, requesting a name, whilst Batwoman throws the villainess' leg-bound knife across the launch to a neutral corner.

The maniacal high mistress of crime proves undeterred by her predicament, staying a strategum of fictional misdirections and curio. Batwoman is not amused by her fancy.

The threat of violence raises the stakes as Batwoman dangles her prey from the jutting turret at the top of the medieval house. A strategy often employed by her predecessor, but rarely with a resulting glee from the threatened recipient. Indeed, Alice reaches smiling toward the oblivion below, forcing Batwoman to recant her threats, and jerk the villainess back toward stone safety.

"I think you might do something better with the time, than wasting it asking riddles that have no answers."

The umpteenth quote tips Batwoman off to the nature of her nemesis, but not to any hidden meanings behind her evasive words, save the obvious.
"How do you know I'm mad?" asks Alice, communicating perhaps more directly than could usually be surmised. The formal introduction is soon interrupted by the arrival of henchman, but a boot heel to a trapdoor has a way of dealing with those sorts. Leaving Batwoman to find new ways to gain the answers she seeks.

The merit of Batwoman's threats goes untested as Alice produces a razorblade from within her own mouth! Poison-tipped and clamped firmly between her teeth, it becomes the instrument of Alice's criminal salvation. A snape of her neck is all that's needed to slice through Batwoman's exposed cheek. The poison goes to work on her equilibrium quickly, leaving her ripe for a stiff boot from Alice.

The High Mistress retrieves her dagger with evil intent, but Batwoman still has the woozy presence of mind to evade her wild swing. Penchant for a landing is less impressive, seeing the poisoned heroine go to her hands and knees. The facade of her long haired wig is the difference between life and death, coming loose in Alice's murderous hands with the grace of a second chance. Batwoman wastes no time taking it, leaping from the turret despite her condition!

Batwoman makes her escape, gliding to the ground below on leather wings. It's a rough landing in the surrounding forest, but one that keeps her alive amidst swirling hallucunations of a traumatic childhood. A trauma that will threaten to play out again when her father recognises her predicament, rushes to her aid, and enters into a gunfight the Religion of Crime. Batwoman will take two shots to the back to rescue her father. She will be helpless to aid him, but other forces will have an interest in this war between good and evil...

The Hammer...
I had a tough time deciding whether or not the latter stages of this confrontation would constitute their own Quick Fix entry, or be included here. I think, as part of a continuous confrontation, they make a nice decider, earning Alice and the Religion of Crime a victory over Batwoman.

It isn't the most auspicious way for a hero to make their debut in the rankings drama of this here Comic Book Fight Club, but frankly, it's lucky we even got that far. I am completing this entry well into October of 2010, which probably tips you off to the state the site's been in for the past year. Suffice to say, the action has been thin and slow, culminating in a grinding hault with the last shipping list of June.

I'm far too stubborn to completely call it quits, but it seems apparent that the enthusiasm I expressed last December just won't be enough to carry the site to regular updates. I suppose now is as good a time as any to thank regular readers and supporters of the site, and assure you that the information it contains will remain live as long as Blogger permits.

Having an issue of the Rucka/Williams collaboration on Detective Comics at the top of my to-do stack was an interesting challenge. I think it's fair to say that it was never in danger of being your average DC comic book, but for me, I'm not sure that's the compliment it was for many other readers.

A frugal reader by necessity; I wasn't compelled to finish this first arc, let alone continue onward into the adjoining Batwoman story. I think it's fair to say that I don't yet have any affection for the character herself, who was overwhelmed by controversy after being announced through mainstream press as a gay heroine, only to tumble out of print shortly after [after the conclusion of 52]. Granted, marketting stunts aren't often the fault of the comics themselves, but it added to the uninspiring hot air that seems to surround this character and her exploits.

The concepts Batwoman tackled in her 52-debut, and beyond, are nice enough, and I think it's reasonably intelligent to try to establish the character with a mind for an independent niche, rather than reducing the concept to female Batman stories. That said, the literary aspirations of Elegy fell short for my tastes, a trait I tend to associate with Greg Rucka's philosophy and manner when approaching writing comics. As the issues unfolded, I found myself increasingly unconvinced by the depth behind the cover of each issue. The Carroll gimmick and it's relation to the story felt more like an unsuccessful attempt at a smoke screen -- a device not quite elaborate enough to make this feel like a developed story, different, or otherwise. It felt a little sophmoric, if I can be so bold. [Not that I'm about to rattle off as comprehensive a list of quotes as Rucka's Alice dialogue!]

I wouldn't be arrogant enough to suggest that it was any kind of confirmation of this assessment of the work, but it certainly came unsurprising that Batwoman would be shunted out of the flagship DC title, and Rucka would part ways with the writing staff. If nothing else, it was almost inconceivable that the company would invest longterm in a Detective Comics without a Batman, even if that fact came a bit more sudden than was expected. You might speculate that it was an abrupt decision to direct the Batwoman scripts toward Detective, with conspiratory clues suggesting it might not have always been devised that way.

It will be interesting to see how Batwoman's future unfolds.
We know, of course, that JH Williams will co-tackle the writing and art chores on an upcoming Batwoman series, which should be very interesting. There've also been those recent DCU appearances in both Grant Morrison's work on Batman & Robin -- which included a meddlesome reference to the Crime Bible that resulted in the brief death of Batwoman [during Blackest Knight] before her Lazarus Pit resurrection; and Justice League: Cry for Justice, which is probably a piece of the canon Batwoman die-hards would be happy to forget, along with many other DC fans...

As reluctant as I am to accept gender-swapped facsimilies, I think there's certainly merit to what was attempted with Batwoman. Whilst sensationalizing the fact did little to create an admirable precedent, we must accept that homosexual characters are as much an absent necessity of plausible fiction as any other grouping, and by putting that trait on such a (potentially) prominent brand, DC made a fair effort. I'd probably rather they administer these types of creations with a bit more accepting non-chalance, which is another criticism I might lay on [Greg] Rucka's shoulders, at least in terms of treatment in the characters' out-of-costume attitude, but it's shared blame.

Kate Kane in her civilian persona takes boystrous to utterly obnoxious levels, flaunting her sexuality in a manner that probably fairly approximates some archetypes, but with the baggage of this character's path to creation, feels more like ham-fisted liberal sentiment rammed through a shallow character. It's needy in it's methodology, shouting pro-gay sentiments like the book is looking for that approval. Which, granted, it certainly seemed to get from some readers.

I'd be remiss if I didn't, in closing, refer to another influence that has a role to play. Darwyn Cooke was recently grilled for expressing his opinion that there's little to be gained from forcing a new sexual orientation or gender on established heroes -- something I personally agree with. His perspective, even when clarified, isn't especially generous to those actively seeking a perceived equality, but is a strong starting point for the creative side of comics.

Killing off classics -- as was done with Vic Sage [The Question] -- in order to shift the role over to a stunt like Renee Montoya, is frought with danger. In these shared corporate universes, it would be nice if new creations could join their ranks, earning their way up. It doesn't share the wealth of the white washed classics, but then, there's a universal truth to the integrity of a consistent creation, especially in a serialized medium. I should note, I'm perhaps paraphrasing Mr. Cooke's words, to add my own take. If you're interested, you should certainly seek out his thoughts, rather than take my word for it.

In closing; this was probably one of the better issues of the Batwoman/Detective experiment, at least in my opinion. Fisticuffs doesn't always make for a better comic book, but in this case, it added some honesty to pages that I feel were unnecessarily elongated. JH Williams has given the character a very distinct and exciting visual take, which might be refined even better with a different script. I look forward to seeing where the character goes with new creators, and hope I will have the opportunity to share that transition with you in future updates. Cheers!

The Fight: 5 The Issue: 4

Batwoman: Elegy is available in a single collected volume.
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BATMAN & ROBIN versus
THE CIRCUS OF STRANGE
Batman Reborn Part Two: The Circus of Strange (DC)
Where: Batman and Robin #2 When: September 2009 Why: Grant Morrison How: Frank Quitely

The Story So Far...
On a day when evil appeared to have won, it was Batman who stood between the evil New God, Darkseid, and his plans of total annihilation in the pursuit of the Fifth World. With humanity enslaved by the Anti-Life Equation and the heroes seemingly defeated, Batman broke his one rule, utilizing a cosmic gun of Darkseid's own design to undo the uber-villain in an ironic stalemate that saw the Batman fall to the villain's dying gambit -- the Omega Sanction!

Believed dead by his friends and allies; a displaced Batman's mantle as protector of Gotham City is reluctantly picked up by the eldest of his adopted sons, Dick Grayson. The former-sidekick quickly grows into his own brand of Dark Knight Detective as he fights to rescue the city from it's descent into a madness introduced by the vaccuum of power created during his mentor's absence.

A Circus of Strange has come to Gotham City to spread it's unique brand of crime, working in tandem with a brilliant killer whose deadly science will disfigure the innocent, and sway them to hisdo evil. Professor Pyg is on the loose, but before the Dynamic Duo can stop this killer and uncover a grander mystery, they must first stop the jailbreak of slimey Mr. Toad, launched by the infernal Phosphorous Rex and his friends in the Circus of Strange!

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Big Top 4 (Enhanced)
Intelligence: Batman 4 (Tactician)
Speed: Robin 3 (Athlete)
Stamina: Batman 4 (Athlete)
Agility: Robin 4 (Gymnast)
Fighting: Robin 5 (Martial Arts)
Energy: Batman 4 (Arsenal)


- A talented circus performer, Dick Grayson was witness to his parent's murder when their Flying Graysons trapeze act was sabotaged, leaving his mother and father to plummet to their doom. The crime involves Batman in Grayson's life, as the Dark Knight pursues the killers and takes an interest in the young orphan's life. With youthful vigor, Grayson accepts training from the Dark Knight that adapts his own flair for acrobatics into a formiddable fighting base.

Inspired by his circus performances, Grayson becomes the contrasting light to the shadow of the bat as Robin, the boy wonder. With years of experience; Grayson is as skilled a fighter and detective as his mentor. Upon Batman's apparent death, it is ultimately he who inherits the legacy of his adoptive father, leaving behind his Nightwing identity to become a new Batman.

Grayson is joined by his mentor's illegitimate son, Damian, who in turn is given the Boy Wonder identity of Robin that Dick Grayson originated. With extensive training under his mother, Talia al Ghul, and the fabled League of Assassins, the genetically tweaked junior is bred and trained to be every bit the crime-fighter his father was. Though brash and arrogant; Damian possesses all the skills to back his attitude up, with talents that rival even his seasoned mentor, Dick.

- The Circus of Strange are: Big Top, Siam, & Phosphorus Rex.

Little is known of the mysterious Circus of Strange, suffice to say that they are a mob of misfits possessing unique abilities. Numbered among them: an amphibius human, Mr. Toad; a morbidly obese man, Big Top; a flaming human allotrope, Phosphorus Rex; and a militant trio of conjoined triplets, Siam.

Collectively they are destined to bedevil the Batman far into the future, and have formed an association in the present with the murderous madman known as Professor Pyg, himself working with the Russian mob.

Math: Batman & Robin (Avg) Circus of Strange (Ttl) Ranking: Batman (#16)

What Went Down...
With the horror of his flaming visage providing Phosphorus Rex unchallenged and unsuspecting entry into the Gotham City Police Department; the assault on the precinct by the Circus of Strange begins!
Burning all he touches -- Rex clears a path for his fellows in the macabre cadre, whose mission, it would seem, is to rescue Mr. Toad. For extra measure, Big Top fires a hallucinogenic gas to render any further police opposition incapacitated.

Adequately prepared for the gaseous attack; Batman and Robin enter the fray with mask filters on, ready for a fight! With their entrance spotted by Siam, Robin vaults into action, throwing a diving kick that is aptly countered by the conjoined triplets who use their opposing legs to shift their foundation and toss Robin into the wall with devestating force! The twin on top powers his legs, following with an immediate flurry of kicks, but Robin is able to deflect the blows and clear the way for his Dark Knight mentor.

The leaping silhouette of Batman's cape forces the hero to contend with gunfire from a hallucinating cop, but Robin is ready to disarm the threat, while Batman tags in to battle Siam.
He leads with a flourish of his cape, disarming Siam enough to give him a hard-style advantage with a straight kick and forearm hits. A jumping roundhouse kick overcomes the tripod of legs and topples the circus fighter.

Meanwhile; Big Top makes his way into the bowels of the station where Mr. Toad is stowed in lock-up. The plus-sized performer couldn't have anticipated the stealthy disobedience of Damian Wayne, whose disregard for the order to stay close to Batman leads him into a confrontation seemingly above his weight class.

Strategically placed batarangs bury themselves in the rolling fat of Big Top's arm, staking deep enough to render a paralyzing blow. Even as dead weight, each arm deals a devestating blow as Big Top throws his weight into the path of an oncoming Boy Wonder. The blow sends Robin hurtling into the sturdy external wall of the prison cells, and leaves him stunned while the bearded giant draws a concealed blade from his cane.

Elsewhere, Dick Grayson's Batman is discovering his sidekick's disobedience when the absconded Boy Wonder fails to answer his call.

The Dark Knight tosses aside Phosphorus Rex, while Siam brings up the rear with a taunting jibe directed at the breakdown of teammwork. It has little effect as Batman snatches a fire extinguisher and in one fluid motion uses the cannister to swat the face of Siam, and disperse it's contents on Rex, whose advances are again repelled with a well placed kick to the gut.

Robin turns the tables on Big Top as he jabs at him with his cane, leaning in to the wall with his lunge, instead. Robin springs from his parry to disarm Big Top by prying his fingers open, clutching at his rist to gain the leverage to throw a kick to the face. With thumb and pinky still in his clutches, Robin twists himself around, taking the big man's hand with him. Bones snap and poke through layers of fat like nobbly knees dancing beneath the bed covers. Hand ruined.

Upstairs; Commissioner Gordon arrives on the scence with a gas filter to protect his state of mind, while Batman wraps Siam up in rope, and recalls a childhood spent with the circus as he converses in argot slang. The triplets make seemingly idle threats, referring to Tober Omi on the loose, "road man" in coded lexicon.

Gordon arrives downstairs with Batman and another cop in tow, only to find Robin applying forceful interrogation techniques on a hapless Big Top. With a bucket over the Circus man's head, he continues to hit him with a broken mop handle, still demanding further elaboration on obtuse clues despite orders to stop.

Batman forces his ward to stop, despite the lad's attempts to justify his actions with the revelation that the Circus' boss, Professor Pyg, is planning an attack on the entire city. It is a crime forecast with few clues, "wooden cloppers" all that was volunteered by a now concussed Big Top.

Though the Circus were foiled in their presumed attempts to rescue Mr. Toad, it is a shocking twist that awaits Commissioner Gordon and the Dynamic Duo behind the locked door of Toad's cell. With a domino in his limp hand, Mr. Toad sits slumped against the windowless subterranean wall -- dead...

The Hammer...
Despite emerging none the wiser from their encounter, Batman and Robin are undoubtedly victors in the combative stakes!

It's taken me an awful long time to finally get this feature written up, and in part that's due to mixed feelings I've had about these opening issues. I'm not quite sure what it was I expected, but there's a sombre tone about the series that hasn't provided the thrillride I thought we might've been in for with this new series.

Much like other Grant Morrison projects; I find it very nice that these issues can be enjoyed on multiple levels. Here we are, talking about the series on a Comic Book Fight Club blog, all the while the issue presents the traditionally cerebral affair of a locked room mystery. It's that type of indulgence in the fiction that I so very much respect and love in Morrison's work, where new and innovative ideas run in conjunction with tried and true popcorn, and retro conventionalism.

The colourful energy of Frank Quitely's artwork (and Alex Sinclair's colours) gave the impression that this was to be a dynamic and improvisational reinvention of the Batman/Robin dynamic. In hindsight, that was probably a silly assumption on my part, and as I reflect on Morrison's previous Batman run that I generally went out of my way to avoid, I suspect there's some consistency in the tone.

Quitely immediately evokes a sort of bubblegum approach that is quite a contrast to the nasty pencils and motley dark colour applied to Tony Daniel's work in RIP. I really didn't expect any consistency between the two phases, and yet, here we are, witnessing the retroactively unsurprising overlap of Morrison's last run via the appearance of villains forecast in his Batman #666 future.

Interrupted by Final Crisis and the apparent death of Batman; Batman RIP went on to be one of the most misunderstood storylines of, perhaps, all-time! Without reading it myself, I can't really attempt to judge whether mass confusion was at all justified, but if Final Crisis and other Morrison-written comics are anything to go by, it probably wasn't. Still, to give disgruntled readers the benefit of the doubt, I'm beginning to wonder if Batman and Robin might not produce some of the fruits of RIP, better elaborating on a tale that certainly seems to have felt abrupt in it's conclusion, and connected to this run, if by no other detail than the inevitable return of Bruce Wayne from his post-Final Crisis 'Omega Sanctioned' exile. Then again, maybe it's just a fun bit of fluff introducing villains from a possible-future in a present context. Something for future writers to wax over.

It's nice to get a little bit deeper into the Dick Grayson/Batman persona, but I think the real character insights this issue came from Damian, even if they only reinforced what we already know. B&R might feel like it's the lynchpin of the new direction, but it looks like other writers, like Judd Winick, are getting the chance to look more specifically beneath the skin of the new Batman, rather than a pensive passing glance, which feels a little bit like the tail wagging the dog, but fair enough. If there's a positive quality to come from the line-wide revamp of the Batman books, it's that they each serve a distinct purpose that differentiates one from another.

With it's situation in the middle of the issue, sandwiched between Dick Grayson's sense of failure, as part of a recounted flashback, the locked room mystery of Mr. Toad's death could be easily forgotten. Damian's issue-closing disobedience that brings him into the clutches of Professor Pyg and the Circus of Strange has me chomping at the bit for the first fully realised glimpse of this new Bat-villain!

The long fight scene left this issue feeling a little bit on the shallow side, saving the big time fun for the next-issue tease of the final scene (which includes Robin's capture at the condemned circus hideout of Pyg), but there's a little bit more going on here than immediately meets the eye. Hopefully the next issue can live up to the simmering imagination that hasn't quite exploded onto the page the way I had hoped.

The Fight: 5 The Issue: 5

Batman and Robin and other Batman: Reborn titles are currently available monthly from DC comics. For more of the Dark Knight's adventures be sure to check out the Infinite Wars Secret Archives where you'll find Amazon purchase links to collected editions of most stories. For an entire range, visit the Online Gift Shop, and take advantage of Amazon's pricing and convenience. By using purchase links provided on the site, you help sponsor future entries!

RED ROBIN versus KIDNAPPERS
The Grail: Part One of Four (DC)
Where: Red Robin #1 When: August 2009
Why: Christopher Yost How: Ramon Bachs

The Story So Far...
The death of the New Gods brought about a final crisis for Earth as Darkseid and his evil minions were reborn among us as gods-as-men intent on bringing about the Fifth World through out doom. On this day when evil won; the majority of humanity was enslaved by Libra, harbinger of the Anti-Life Equation, and leader of the unionized Society of super-villains. Only a few free minds are left to rebel, but in the end it was one of the first to fall, Batman, who stands between a renewed Darkseid and the end of everything.

In possession of the only weapon capable of stopping Darkseid, Batman willingly sacrificed himself in a stalemate stand-off that resulted in Darkseid's defeat at the apparent cost of his life. In truth, the Dark Knight was not killed, but rather shunted through time and space as a result of the Omega Sanction -- the death that is life. Misled by the smouldering corpse left behind, the superheroes and adopted family who survive the Batman must strive to honor his legacy and fill the massive void his dark shadow once filled.

For Bruce Wayne's adopted son and sidekick, Tim Drake, there is cause to believe his mentor did not truly perish under the bizarre cosmic circumstances that fooled the world. Driven from the Batcave by Dick Grayson's decision to induct Damian Wayne as the Robin to his Batman; Drake assumes the identity of Red Robin -- a violent guardian trekking across Europe to seek answers from the world, and from within himself.

Though the orphaned Drake assumes his new mantle to avoid association with the prestige and integrity of his mentor's brand, his globetrotting does not escape the notice of powerful forces. While he distracts himself with cases in Europe - such as a political kidnapping in Madrid - there are larger forces at work, such as those in the employ of the League of Assassins and Ra's Al Ghul!

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Fire Hands 3 (Athlete)
Intelligence: Red Robin 4 (Tactician)
Speed: Red Robin 3 (Athlete)
Stamina: Red Robin 4 (Athlete)
Agility: Red Robin 4 (Gymnast)
Fighting: Red Robin 5 (Martial Artist)
Energy: Fire Hands 3 (Explosives)


- The death of the second Robin, Jason Todd, weighed heavily on Batman.
With the original boy wonder, Dick Grayson, having grown into his own mature hero; the Dark Knight's world turned invariably darker as he internalized the struggle of his responsibility. Recognising this grim turn, a young boy embarked upon a mission to return balance to the Batman's life by enlightening him to the value of the famous sidekick.

Tim Drake, having deduced the dual identities of Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson, showed an aptitude for detective work that made him unique candidate for the legacy of the boy wonder. When Batman and Nightwing's lives were in peril at the hands of Two-Face, Grayson donned the costume for the first time, forcing even the gruff Batman to accept the possibility of training a new Robin.

Under Bruce Wayne's tutelage, Tim Drake developed the acrobatic and combative skills associated with the previous Robins. Drake also further honed his skills as a detective, benefitting from the Batman's bredth of knowledge, experience, and technology. Drake also expanded his network, following in Dick Grayson's foot steps as a member of the Teen Titans. When Dick Grayson appointed Damian Wayne as his new Robin, Drake travels abroad, distancing himself and his actions from his family under the new identity of Red Robin.

- In Spain, the fifteen year old daughter of an outspoken politician, Yessenia Penalba, was taken hostage by forces whose agenda was uncertain, but included additional demands for a ransom secret police did not expect to save the girl's life. Working with the kidnappers is a cybernetic assassin capable of channeling flames through his prosthetic hands. During their battle, Red Robin considers a Gotham-like handle for the super-powered crook; Manos de Fuego, "Fire Hands."

Math: Red Robin Ranking: Red Robin (#53)

What Went Down...
Despite the unlikliehood of retaining the kidnapped daughter of an outspoken politician alive, the Spanish police were willing to bow to demands for a sum of cash from the group responsible for taking her hostage. In their attempts to track the cash collector, Spanish Secret Service are fooled by an exchange, unnoticed by their agents, but witnessed by a more cunning force for good.

When the cash mule arrives, he collapses in the doorway as throwing discs shatter lighting in the apartment hideout of the kidnappers. The darkness provides a dramatic entrance for the black and red garbed Red Robin!

Four men make-up the kidnapping cartel, but only three of them possess visible arms. While the unarmed fourth among them stands his ground, Red Robin disables the most immediate threats, crushing one gunman's nose beneath his fist, before tripping another with a fluid pivot of his extendable fighting staff.

Making mental comparisons between the Madrid wildlife and what he's used to in Gotham City; Red Robin evades a hail of shots from the bald goateed leader of the group. Considering the possibility the city is the Gotham of Spain, Red Robin is confronted by the unarmed man who wields a hidden power within cyber-organic synthetic arms.

Red Robin puts himself between the bound blindfolded girl and his opponent as the mysterious Spaniard unleashes a focused inferno from his synthetic hands.

His cape protects him from the licking flames, but the defensive strategum has left Red Robin with an environment now posing as big a danger as his enemies. With the apartment building beginning to burn, he recognises the urgency of his situation and plays it accordingly.

Presumably unfamiliar with the practises of costumed vigilantes, "Fire Hands" has reason to be boastfully ignorant of his opponent's abilities. With his hands engulfed in flame he readys his attack, only to have his burning fist caught by the unerring fist of Red Robin!

From the grapple, he executes a short and sharp headbutt that shatters Fired Hands' nose and glasses. It's a harsh but efficient finishing move for an increasingly dire situation.

With the kidnappers thwarted, Red Robin rescues the girl - not far his junior - and leaps from the window in a gust of flames and broken glass! His pneumatic cable line sends them to safety and a happy ending the local law enforcement never anticipated.

The Hammer...
We continue to be embroilled in the world of Batman: Reborn as Tim Drake picks up his first victory under the guise of Red Robin!

In a lot of ways, this was the Reborn series I was least looking forward to, but on reflection, might actually be the longest lasting change to come from the post RIP/Final Crisis shake-up of the Bat-family titles.

While I'm inclined to expect Grant Morrison to make good on plans to be the man who resolves Batman's Omega Sanction conundrum, it's Red Robin that's already alluding to the canonical possibility that Batman did not actually die. This might be more about the state of mind of a young man whose world has been turned upside down. Then again, I might be getting ahead of myself...

For those of you who don't know -- Batman is not dead!

Though mainstream news outlets were quick to report the death of the Dark Knight, it was readers of Final Crisis [#7] who had it immediately made clear that the fate of Batman was far from final. Granted, the specifics of his current status remain overlooked; deliberately passed in favour of more immediate creative concerns of the DC Universe; we do know that Batman suffered the same fate that shunted Sonny Sumo through cracks in time to land in feudal Japan.

Such is the cosmic fate of the Omega Sanction -- described by it's master, Darkseid, as 'the death that is life,' as opposed to your standard Omega Beam which just disintegrates you in your boots. Not your standard Gotham City fare, but not as silly as it might sound to the uninitiated. [With any luck we'll be able to document the events more thoroughly, later in the year.]

Assuming the silhouetted owner of a utility belt carving Bat symbols into Anthro's cave was indeed Batman, we can assume that there's some sort of archaeological evidence to be found regarding his predicament. That's the fact that makes Tim [Wayne]'s journey to find evidence of Bruce Wayne's survival such a compelling premise -- assuming, of course, he isn't just being a bitchy teen.

With Damian Wayne invited into the family business as the second half of Dick Grayson's Batman and Robin, Tim has been quite unceremoniously ousted from his position as the boy wonder. In many ways, he was the wearer of the costume to whom the role meant the most. He was the first to actively seek-out the mantle during a period of darkness that saw Batman working alone, abandoned by Dick Grayson (who had become Nightwing), and dwelling on his failure to protect Jason Todd from a fatal beating by the Joker. Drake was the self-appointed light to Batman's dark -- a cunning young boy who chose this life, intent on protecting Gotham City's protector from self-destruction.

After growing into the role and losing his biological family, Tim Drake became more like Bruce Wayne than many of the other heroes who have dwelled within his Batcave. It is clear that being Robin was an important part of the person inside the character, so the underlying angst and emotion of Red Robin is a really fun additional arc to the book. It casts into doubt the reliability of the narrator's perspective, but gains a lot in the flow-on effect felt through characterization.

We saw this character attempt to be Batman in the pages of Battle for the Cowl [#2], and it's here that we're likely to reconcile the aging of the character. Damian's induction makes Drake's permanent status as Red Robin an obvious choice as he mature enough to be somewhere between boy wonder and dark knight. This, to go back to the beginning, is what makes the series one with a lot of potential to have lasting effects beyond the temp-Bat focus of other books.

Ramon Bachs isn't spectacular inking his own work, giving it a bit of a rough and unpolished look akin to some of the attrocities committed against Scott Kolins' work, earlier in the decade. More unflattering, however, is the colour palette provided by Guy Major, who weighs heavily on the book with a motley hue of dark colours peppered with bright highlights. I imagine both artists worked in the digital realm, and it hasn't produced very attractive results.

The writing struggles to elevate Red Robin from it's B-status, particularly with much less focus on the high-concept fodder. Keeping Tim Drake away from a contemporary "emo" attitude will be a bold task, but I hope, particularly as plotlines involving Ra's Al Ghul gear up, is one Yost is up to.

There isn't a spectacular amount of meat in the issue, but it's important to note that the action is never in excess. Yost and crew use their pages to communicate adequately a Tim Drake who has become weary and darkened by Bruce Wayne's death, too driven to distraction by his superheroic goals to work through the emotions of his perceived abandonment (by Grayson). We get that sense of drive through his movements through the world, methodical planning, and even the artwork, which undoubtedly captures the mood of the book, regardless of preference of style.

I think Red Robin will unfortunately struggle against the intrigue of all the other titles in the Bat-family relaunch. Despite being a fairly decent read, it lacks the immediate colourful hooks and glitz of the other titles. It's a fantastic read and I hope fans of the Tim Drake Robin will be able to embrace his maturation into a new type of hero, which will be a process I'm sure the title will deal with as long as it exists. With minimal connection to the character, I would interpret it as a very appropriate step forward, even as it accordian folds time in the DCU.

The Fight: 4.5 The Issue: 4

Red Robin is currently appearing monthly from DC comics, but despite this, apparently you can already preorder the collection of the first big storyarc via Amazon! I would recommend pooling more information on the series before making the investment, but believe it will be well worth it for anyone interested in the developments in the character, and where this storyline might potentially go. By using purchase links provided on the site, you help sponsor future entries in the Infinite Wars! You can find more collections featuring reviewed issues in our Online Amazon Shop. Navigating the Secret Archives will also lead you to more from these characters, including other titles in the Batman: Reborn relaunch, and major issues from 2009!

QUICK FIX: BATMAN & ROBIN vs MR TOAD
Batman Reborn Part One: Domino Effect (DC)
Where: Batman and Robin #1 When: August 2009
Why: Grant Morrison How: Frank Quitely

THE TAPE...
Strength: Batman 3 (Athlete)
Intelligence: Batman 4 (Tactician)
Speed: Batman 3 (Athlete)
Stamina: Batman 4 (Athlete)
Agility: Robin 4 (Gymnast)
Fighting: Batman 5 (Martial Artist)
Energy: Batman 4 (Arsenal)

Math: Batman & Robin
Ranking: Batman (#21)

THE FIX...
It's times like these I really wish we were doing these reviews on time, because the visceral excitement of the long awaited released of Batman & Robin #1 is something I cannot recreate. That fact in itself is probably a commentary on the lasting impression of the issue (and series), but I wouldn't want to start on an overtly negative tone. Continue with those assumptions at your own risk.

You can now retroactively see that there was deliberate method to the madness of going back to Batman: Battle for the Cowl #3 in our previous Friday feature.
With the exception of a coy final page in the aforementioned issue, B&R #1 is the first official outing for Dick Grayson as Batman after he accepted the mantle whilst defeating Jason Todd's violent alternative [RE: Battle #3].

The details of Batman's death in Final Crisis remain unknown to readers and the fictional survivors, alike. It's fitting, then, that Grant Morrison, the man behind DC's last summer epic, is the one to spearhead the stylistic reinvention of Dick Grayson as successor to the Dark Knight's Batcave throne. Morrison isn't alone in the world of Gotham City and it's protectors, however, and that is a fact that has greatly enhanced the strength of new series like Batman and Robin.

Battle for the Cowl touched upon details key to a variety of the series, most significantly by defining the landscape of Gotham City to some extent. It gave us the decimation of Arkham Asylum, the apparent return-from-the-grave by Black Mask, his recruitment of some of Gotham's nastiest into his new syndicate, and his opposition to existing bosses, Two-Face and Penguin.

Judd Winick, the writer who oversaw much of Black Mask's previous reign as Gotham's kingpin of crime (before he was killed by Catwoman), returns to explore some of these developments, notably those involving the ire of Two-Face and Penguin. Paul Dini picks up Black Mask's other operations, as well as those of minions such as Firefly and Zsasz, over in the newly launched cop-friendly, Batman: Streets of Gotham. Dini's tour of the streets also continues in another new series, Gotham City Sirens, which delivers the continuation of his Detective plotlines concerning Catwoman and Hush, as well as Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn, completing the trio he famously worked on with Batman: The Animated Series.

Winick's Batman will also explore Dick Grayson alongside B&R, while Red Robin takes the emotional response and solo independence found by Tim Drake, who was unceremoniously dumped in favour of a new Robin. His story also contains the earliest hints toward the eventual return of Bruce Wayne as he embarks on a journey across the globe to find evidence of his mentor's survival -- a tale that will bring him into conflict (or confluence) with Ra's Al Ghul.

The line-up has created a very thorough network of titles that offer many things to many types of readers. Those with allegiances to certain characters or ideas might need to adjust their plans, but there's plenty on offer for everyone.

Over the years, readers have come to resent heavily marketted stories that interfere in alternate publishing agendas. DC have been quite brilliant in taking the organic make-up of their Bat-launch to naturally produce a line of series that compliment the larger viewing picture without forcing deviation on readers.

With Batman & Robin, [Grant] Morrison and Frank Quitely take the reigns of what is effectively the flagship title of this particular era of Bat-books.
Here, Morrison gets a chance to essentially play in his own little box, free to define the key points of the relationship shared between the new dynamic duo and their operations, whilst also telling his own unique tale(s). As the man who killed Batman, you get a great sense of control and direction from the writer, who should arguably know the goals of this course of action the most, given DC's open references to the carte blanch the writer has earned.

Morrison isn't the only creative force given rope on the project, although, I don't doubt he and Quitely collaborated closely when designing the visuals of a bubbly new take on Gotham City, and slick, sci-fi Italian sports-car that the new flying Batmobile is. On visual flair alone, you know this is a Morrison/Quitely book, but what that means will be dependent on your own sensibilities. As is often the case, this work will be devisive, particularly for more stubborn Bat-fans.

Like many of the classic visual takes on Batman, there's a dance between the far future and the distant past in Batman & Robin. The flattened bendy lines of the new Batmobile share the road with deeply retro escape vehicles, and pedestrian 2000-era public buses, neither particularly out place in a world of pure fiction.

The red-tinged cockpit of the Batmobile gives Dick Grayson's distanced reactions to his arrogant new ward a tone reminiscent of Frank Miller's tank-driving Batman of The Dark Knight Returns. It's an oddly subdued atmosphere for the interior of a flying car, but is hardly the sole example of the subdued living in parallel to the totally unreal and fantastic.

This isn't Final Crisis or the pre-RIP Batman, but as is common of Morrison's work, you get a sense that it's informed by what's come before it. Details like the skyscraper underground base of Batman will recall an influence like The Dark Knight, and the new Batmobile feels like it might be channeling the sixties TV vehicle. I don't know of any appearances of Mr. Toad or Pyg before this series, but I'm reluctant to rule out the possibility that they might be spun-out from one of the wacky fifties issues that Morrison has shown great acceptance for.

Of course, observations like these aren't just the fodder of a friendly blog post trying to inform as much as it reviews. These details are what occupy most of the first issue of the new series, which spends most of it's time laying out the land of the Batman of this particular series, done so through the vivid stylings of Quitely and Morrison's unique art direction. They make no attempt to lure you in if you aren't ready to accept intergrated sound effects in the artwork, toady circus men, or geography not pulled from a gothic coffee table book.

While it could be said that Morrison's books often start slow like this, B&R feels very practical in it's pacing. It jumps head-long into the action with the first page and that speaks to the interim of Batman: Battle for the Cowl, which created a sense of expectation beyond even the mere change of Bruce Wayne for Dick Grayson. However tangential the Battle mini-series was, it's given a feedline of context that Morrison's book benefits from far better than Final Crisis did the clumsily retro-fitted end of Countdown, despite what I suspect was a similar course of creation.

Unfortunately, DC's efforts to market the book meant when I finally got it in my hands, the first handful of pages were so familiar, there was little wonder left in them. Seasoned readers will know exactly what to expect from the book, but the uncertain should probably investigate further before taking a chance.

In the pages we've seen so often, Batman and Robin pursue the villainous Mr. Toad, who is somehow connected to the first circus borne villain, Pyg.

A graphic missile disables Toad's getaway car, allowing the Batmobile to lift it airborne and evade potential casualties in favour of dispensing the car into the waters of Gotham Harbor. Mr. Toad, slippery fellow that he is, doesn't let this deter him from his goal, swimming to the docks in an effort to continue his getaway. Waiting there, however, are the new Batman and Robin, who Toad had previously referred to in the past-tense. There's nothing past about the double punch knock-out he suffers from the dynamic duo, however.

Grayson later tries out one of his mentor's tricks, interrogating a blindfolded Mr. Toad whilst dangling him from the flying Batmobile. Speaking to the humor of the series, Toad is actually no more than twelve inches off the ground, leaving him with little more than a burned ego after his fall.

Batman and Robin might not have immediately lived up to the immense hype of the Batman: Reborn key title, but it sets up what is sure to be an exciting ride. There's a danger it might be lost along with Flash: Rebirth as DC's major summer event, Blackest Night, takes over the DC Universe. Morrison won't have to worry about that fact any more than Johns' pre-Blackest Night Flash book will, but it is worth considering if you're worried about future availability of the series.

Perhaps the most significant thing this issue does is promise the quality and conviction of direction of the series. A series, I'm sure it will take back "Batman and Robin" for the comics, cleaning off those negative associations.

The Fight: 4 The Issue: 4.5
Winners: Batman & Robin

Batman & Robin is currently available monthly from DC comics!
It'll be a while before you see the series collected, but for those among you eager to get the first bite, you can pre-order the Hardcore Collection via Amazon. By using purchase links provided, you help sponsor future entries in the Infinite Wars, and you can find plenty more in the Online Gift Shoppe. There, editions featuring most issues reviewed in the Secret Archives are on offer, among others.

RED HOOD versus NIGHTWING
Battle for the Cowl: Last Man Standing (DC)
Where: Batman: Battle for the Cowl #3
When: July 2009 Why: Tony S. Daniel
How: Tony S. Daniel

The Story So Far...
The Death of the New Gods was far from an end to their epic existence. Darkseid and his siniter forces were reborn on Earth, creating a crisis that threatened to end humanity under the oppressive weight of the New God of evil and his proliferation of the Anti-Life Equation. With hero and villain under the control of his mathetmatic malfeasance and the direction of his harbinger, Libra; Darkseid appeared to have the day won, but ultimately it was a powerless human who brought an end to his reign. Batman, wielding the weapon that killed Darkseid's son, Orion, breaks his one rule, saving the Earth from it's darkest day and would-be final crisis. The cost of his success, however, is his apparent death as he falls before Darkseid's Omega Sanction, leaving a smoking husk to be retrieved and mourned by his fellows.

In Batman's city of Gotham, those who had become his family struggle with not only the loss of a loved one, but of the symbollic heroism that prevented the city of madmen from breaking. As the Dark Knight's absence from this plane of reality becomes increasingly evident, his enemies once again run rampant in the streets, spreading a plague of chaos threatening to destroy them.

Recognising the necessity for a Batman, two of the Dark Knight's former wards attempt to fill the void. In Jason Todd, there rises a lethal avenger of the night, whose methods are as deadly and unruly as those he confronts. In opposition is Tim Drake, the most recent Robin whose undying faith in Batman survives him to spur the young hero to fight to maintain the integrity of his memory. Despite his willingness, Tim Drake is not ready to be a Batman, and although Dick Grayson may have the strongest reservations of Batman's children, this very fact may be what makes him the most worthy of the role. Forced to realise this, Nightwing descends on Gotham to find his fallen brother, Jason Todd -- "Batman."

Tale of the Tape...
Strength: Nightwing 3 (Athlete)
Intelligence: Draw 4 (Tactician)
Speed: Draw 3 (Athlete)
Stamina: Draw 4 (Athlete)
Agility: Draw 4 (Gymnast)
Fighting: Draw 5 (Martial Arts)
Energy: Draw 2 (Projectiles)


- As a streetwise orphan, a young Jason Todd was hardened by the hardships of life in the gutter of Gotham City. Todd's first encounter with the Batman came when he tried to steal the tyres off a parked Batmobile. This would be the first of many as the wayward youngster proved his potential to become a potent force for justice or crime, leading Batman to train him as a replacement for Dick Grayson, who had abandoned the role of Robin, to become Nightwing.
Though he lacked Dick Grayson's natural athleticism, Jason Todd's years on the street had made him tough. With training from Batman he was able to attain a level of skill to rival his predecessor, but his impulsive and vengeful nature had the potential to undo him.

After a string of indescretions as Batman's "boy wonder," the second Robin fled his mentor upon learning the true identity of his birth mother. He was led into a lethal encounter with the Joker, who eventually beat him to death. Unbeknownst to a mourning Dark Knight, however, cosmic forces were conspiring to resurrect Jason Todd in the grave. Todd narrowly escaped his burial site, returning to the streets with little memory of his past, before being discovered and restored by Talia al Ghul and her father's Lazarus Pit.

Maddened by perceived abandonment, Todd teamed with another of Batman's enemies, Hush, to seek revenge. He eventually adopts the identity of Red Hood -- originally worn by his would-be killer, the Joker. As Red Hood he continues to seek revenge against Batman and his wards, whilst launching his own war against the criminals of Gotham City. Upon Batman's apparent death, Todd adopted the vacant mantle to maintain the Batman brand with new lethality.

- A talented circus performer, Dick Grayson was witness to his parent's murder when their Flying Graysons trapeze act was sabotaged, leaving his mother and father to plummet to their doom. The crime involves Batman in Grayson's life as the Dark Knight pursues the killers and takes an interest in the young orphan's life. As Bruce Wayne, Batman ultimately takes the young Grayson as his ward.

With youthful vigor, Grayson accepts training from the Dark Knight that adapts his own flair for acrobatics into a formiddable fighting base. Inspired by his circus performances, Grayson becomes the contrasting light to the shadow of the bat as Robin, the boy wonder. Together they share many adventures, but eventually the boy outgrows his childhood, and becomes a force unto himself as Nightwing.

With years of experience, Grayson is as skilled a fighter and detective as his mentor. Upon Batman's apparent death, it is ultimately he who inherits the legacy of his adoptive father, and the confronting task of filling the void of a force in Gotham City that maintains the balance between chaos and order.

Math: Draw Ranking: Nightwing (#29)

What Went Down...
Having brutalized his successor as the Boy Wonder, Jason Todd drags a mortally wounded Tim Drake deeper into the makeshift Batcave formed in the decrepit subway tunnels beneath Gotham City. Garbed in an older incarnation of Batman's uniform, Drake is unwittingly traced by Oracle under the command of Nightwing.

When Nightwing descends into the bowels of the city, he finds a burning symbol of the bat -- a message from the new "Batman" that reads, "Too late." It is the first of the psychological blows to be delivered by the mad former-Robin, who hides behind the visage of Drake's disembodied cape and cowl and a microphone. Clutching his father's cape, Nightwing listens to Todd's rantings, playing right into his hands as he remotely triggers an electrical charge.

The false-Batman emerges from the shadows with gun drawn, lauding over his predecessor with the demand that he become his sidekick. Inspired, Nightwing rises and strikes the fake Batman, demanding the whereabouts of a Tim Drake he knows his opponent could not have killed, despite his claims. Firing back in the war of psyches, Grayson offers a holographic recording made by the real Batman before his death, who speaks soulfully to his former ward of his psychological state. It inspires only rage in the unhinged impostor.

Rage is something Nightwing can work with, however, as the two former-Robins come to blows. It's Nightwing who kicks the impostor as they descend deeper into the cave, striking him, enduring shards that dig into his face, and returning it in kind with a headbutt that rebreaks Jason's nose. He has a clear advantage as he thrusts his knee into Todd's mid-section, knocks him toward the ground with a right hook, and props him back up with a kick to an already bleeding face!

Despite the regular practise of innoculation shared by Batman's allies, Todd unleashes a blast of the Scarecrow's fear gas in an attempt to disorientate his rival. The inhalent fails to trigger an uncontrolled response of fear, but is enough to rattle Nightwing's concentration. The false-Batman delivers a stiff kick to the mid-section, capitalizing on his own opportunities.

Todd continues his violent guided tour through his twisted parody of the Batcave, luring a still fighting Nightwing through draped curtains as he receives a jumping kick. Far from beaten, Todd produces a remote trigger that unleashes a massive explosion as he leaps clear of the blast on the end of a bat-line cable.

Grayson escapes on his own chord, taking chase as Todd leads him toward an exit into the in-use subway tunnels. There, the false knight drops onto the top of a speeding train, with Nightwing in close pursuit.

Refusing to abandon his goals to succeed Bruce Wayne as Batman, Jason Todd attacks his counterpart's unwillingness to assume the role, even as Black Mask begins a new reign of terror in Gotham City (having already destroyed Arkham Asylum and liberated it's inmates as part of a new criminal syndicate).

Ironically, Todd removes his cape and cowl, using the mass of material as a weapon against his charging adversary. Nightwing clutches the cape and drives his boot into Todd's face, only to be swatted away with a stiff punch, forcing him to renew his grip with the cape. The clotch becomes a literal transliteration of their symbollic struggle over the mantle of the Bat.

Grayson becomes swathed in the cape, blind and seemingly ripe for a finishing blow. The lethally minded Jason Todd takes his chance, but fails to anticipate Nightwing's leap as he searches through the cape for a knock-out blow...

... As the speeding train emerges from the subway to traverse the Gotham brookes by bridge, Nightwing parts the folds of the cape and delivers a flying kick that topples his foe! Though Jason Todd successfully snags the edge of the bridge, he chooses to chance the depths below, plummeting into the shadows toward death or glory. If he survives, he will no doubt return again, as the Red Hood, or some other perverted shadow of the Batman persona.

The Hammer...
The winner of this bout, via the ol' bridge plunge, your new Batman, Nightwing!

With Dick Grayson's first major outing as Batman in this week's Batman & Robin #1, it seemed like a fitting time to go back and look at the moment when he really took on the mantle. The first time around the issue missed out to Punisher #5 and Super Young Team in Final Crisis Aftermath: Dance -- a potentially infamous decision, if anyone actually cared about our week-to-week reviews a couple of months after-the-fact. In the end, I think we got the best deal for variety's sake, and have adhered to any subversive philosophies the Infinite Wars might unwittingly subscribe to.

It's interesting to speculate what the importance of this issue might be to the future of the comic. As much as DC have been completely forthcoming about the continued existence of Bruce Wayne and the gimmicked trappings his "death" in Final Crisis, they've managed to achieve a certain respectability that previous stunts haven't retained. In particular, I'm thinking of the last time Batman was significantly removed from the role, when Bane broke his back, and Jean Paul Valley (Azrael) became a new Batman tailored to the style of the nineties [Batman: Knightfall].

Ironically, one can't help but get an uncomfortably nostalgic recollection of those days from Tony Daniel's work. It's difficult to criticize the fundamentals of Battle for the Cowl, but there's an intangible lack of consideration from page-to-page that suggests a penciler filling the role of writer. That might even be the case, given the focus put on the relaunch titles, and Daniel's better known career as a penciler who was indeed among those "iconic" nineties artists.

A deliberately "dark" colour palette does little to compliment Daniel's art style, which is probably the most significant provocation of a pavlovian recollection of the nineties. Nothing is subtle, as characters bumble their way through a series of action-highlights and soap opera. I have to admit, this art direction was enough to steer me clear of Grant Morrison's Batman RIP arc, which seems to have universally stumbled during the transliteration of script to comic.

Last time Morrison was involved in spearheading a major new direction, it was with the (apparently) esoteric summer blockbuster, Final Crisis. The gap between his work and preceeding issues resulted in a well covered struggle to reconcile storylines into positions required for the start of his story, something Morrison himself expressed some disatisfaction with. So, one has to wonder if Battle for the Cowl wasn't a similar insertion of connective tissue between the bold new direction of the Bat-family comics, and the illdefined details of RIP and Crisis.

Battle was promoted with images that inferred a wider cast of characters vying for the role. Instead, much like the series itself, those promotional posters seem to have been suggesting red herrings and the future landscape. It's odd that DC would spend three-plus months playing coy about the identity of the new Batman and his impostor, as both are fairly obvious choices, and suitably so. The angsty transition does little to add depth to the change, serving mostly to preview the cityscape of crime, ie; Black Mask's alleged return from the dead, liberation of Arkham, takeover of crime (again), and building feud with Two-Face and Penguin. I suppose we also got one last hurrah of the massively expanded supporting cast, which included brief cameos by the likes of The Knight, Squire, Black Canary, and Wildcat, even if they amounted to little more than gratuitous links.

Not surprisingly, the debut of Dick Grayson as Batman (and other) will wait until Batman & Robin #1. As the apparent lynchpin of the new direction, it's probably for the best that it be there that readers meet the new conditions. Certainly, it appears Batman & Robin, and other series, will continue relatively divorced from Battle for the Cowl, even if additional context might be gleaned from upcoming appearances by Red Hood, Black Mask, or Two-Face [in Batman].

As a far more natural promotional transgression than Knightfall, Dick Grayson's ascendence to the role of Batman seems assured of providing something fresh and exciting about the Batman universe. Though I'm quite content to dwell in the soggy shadows of a brooding Bruce Wayne, I'm inspired by the technicolour exuberance Morrison and [Frank] Quitely's work is already promising.
They are also surrounded by a quirky array of new opportunities, including the presumably street-bound perspective of Batman: Streets of Gotham and the Animated Series inspired, Gotham City Sirens, starring Catwoman, Poison Ivy, and Harley Quinn, both series under the watchful eye of fan-favourite, Paul Dini.

[Dini] looks to be the writer for traditionalists craving the option of a throughline from the Bruce Wayne era, as maintained via the continuation of previous plotlines, most notably Dini's acclaimed revamp of Hush. The unique visions of each series are part of what makes the near bat-future look so promising, a steady contrast to the inevitable comparisons of Captain America's death/return.

With Flash: Rebirth providing a prelude to the event-season, which will no doubt be dominated by Blackest Night fever; you could say the Batman relaunch is DC's big second-stage of a three-pronged assault on the comics readership.

Despite my reservations about the specific quality of Battle for the Cowl, it is the literary harbinger of greater things to come, a footnote in DC's continuing ability to thoroughly impress. I think longtime Infinite Wars readers will recognise the fair shake we give Marvel, but I simply cannot fathom how anyone could disagree with the dominating volume of quality DC have been able to produce over the past five-or-so years. With so much on the way, I sincerely doubt we'll be able to keep up these weekly reviews, for the financial strain.

The Fight: 4.5 The Issue: 3.5

If you're reading the Batman: Reborn titles but find yourself curious about what set them up, by all means, be sure to check out Batman: Battle for the Cowl. The series is available collected, along with a companion edition featuring the one-shot tie-ins starring Commissioner Gordon, Man-Bat, Two-Face, Black Canary, and other characters affected by the change. All are available through Amazon, and by using purchase links provided on the site, you help sponsor future entries. The Gift Shop will also provide you with a catalogue of other collections featuring most issues reviewed in the Secret Archives, including Final Crisis -- the series featuring Batman's apparent death!