Comics

Batman and Robin #4 & #5 by Peter J. Tomasi & Patrick Gleason

Well, I never: Batman and Robin has moved (as I recently thought it might) from being a middling-to-weak Bat book that I was aiming to drop at the end of the story (gotta finish a story) to my second-favourite current Batman book (Batman is fairly unassailable as one of my favourites fullstop right now).

After the newbie-bothering past-looking setup of the first two issues, it's built into a new and engrossing story. It's not faultless -- Tomasi allows some scenes to toddle on too long, with Gleason's art not always intricate enough to justify some of the needless splash pages -- but, overall, it's an entertaining read.

And Alfred rescuing the titular duo with a remote-controlled Batplane? Win.


Batman: The Dark Knight #5 by David Finch & Paul Jenkins

That was... actually not as bad as it has been. Still fundamentally flawed, mind: it's far, far too short, shamelessly padded with splash pages, double-page splashes, and whole pages given over to a series of large panels conveying something that would have worked just as well in a single regular panel. So all this issue has is a Scarecrow-Batman fight followed by a Batman-Superman fight, albeit with a slight twist... but that's still all it is. And while much of Finch's art is good, I still hate his rendering of human faces.

This book was still on my ditch pile, hoping to reduce my comics spend, but just as that day begins to approach (#9 ends this story) they've gone and announced a new writer will take over after the current story: Gregg Hurwitz, who's just penned the highly-praised Penguin: Pain and Prejudice miniseries (which I now intend to catch up on). So I guess I'll keep it on a bit longer. Well played, DC.