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!

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.