Superman/Batman #76
Written by Judd Winick
Art by Marco Rudy
“The Brave and the Bold”
It’s been almost two years since Batman was killed during Final Crisis.
It’s been about a year and a half since there was a Battle for the Cowl.
And currently we’re in the process of the Return of Bruce Wayne.
Dick Grayson is Batman, leader of the Justice League. Tim Drake is Red Robin, defeater of Ra’s al Ghul. Damian Wayne is the new Robin, partner of Batman and soon to be on the Teen Titans. Stephanie Brown is Batgirl, working with Oracle as Cassandra Cain vanishes into limbo.
In essence, a lot has changed in the past two years, but there was something missing. Nobody reacted to Bruce’s death, not in the immediate fashion. We’ve seen bits and pieces of a funeral, in the Judd Winick written Batman, but we’ve never truly seen the moment where Superman reacts to his dead friend. Where Dick and Tim find out that the man who may as well be their father is gone. We’ve never had a chance to see how these characters dealt with the loss of Bruce Wayne so much as we’ve seen where they go from there. That’s the point of this issue, the story Judd Winick wanted to tell here. And I’d like to think he succeeded.
Somewhere along the way it was forgotten that Bruce Wayne meant so much more to so many characters than just the fact that he was the Bat, he was a friend, a mentor, a father. He was one of the best that their community had, and despite the years of being Bat-Jerk, there will always be more good than bad coming out of him.
Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your perspective, Winick truly does excel in stories like this. Where he can dig down deep and expose the emotional core of the situation and start ripping at your heart strings. How often do we get to see Dick Grayson screaming in disbelief? Demanding proof that the man who raised him has died? How many times have we seen Tim Drake crying in a corner in front of Superman and Wonder Woman?
How many times do we see the autopsy of Batman?
Winick hits all the right notes in this book, both the big ones and the small subtle ones. We see him revisit the funeral of Bruce Wayne that he wrote back in Batman #687, and we see, most importantly, Superman’s first reaction to the revelation that Dick has stepped into the shoes of his mentor. While this does slightly contradict the whole “Superman wasn’t on Earth” deal of New Krypton, I’ll let it slide just on the fact that….well, this is a better story.
The anger that seethes off of Superman at the notion of Batman being replaced, the rage he feels at the concept of his friend not being respected right. It’s human, all of it, it’s believable. His best friend died and now someone is running around dressed like him, acting like him, saying he is him. And no, I don’t mean. Dr. Thomas “Hush” Elliot, who is running around Gotham with Bruce’s face. I mean Dick Grayson, I mean the fact that while Superman has always been the mask for Clark Kent, that Bruce Wayne was Batman’s mask. That Superman accurately describes it as Dick wearing Bruce’s skin to go with the name.
Batman was his best friend, and not just because the book they shared made it to 76 issues. There was a relationship there that both characters found benefit from, and that both are that much weaker without. They were kindered spirits in ways that most people, fans included, never really picked up on. There were so many similarities between the Man of the Tomorrow and the Dark Knight, and oddly enough, survivors guilt wasn’t one of them.
The story is truly Superman’s, his coming to terms with the death of his best friend, but Dick Grayson shines through repeatedly as you see him trying to cope with burying his father, replacing him, and then getting Superman to respect that the hardest choice he’s ever had to make is not one he made lightly.
The book ends on a hopeful note for the future, and caps off an already great issue with a perfect final page.
As far as art goes, Marco Rudy did nothing for me my first time through and I groaned at his rendition of Superman over and over…and then I read the book a second time. I realized my problem with the art was that I was looking for the typical ‘iconic’ Superman look, the one where you expect to see on issue covers or movie posters or whatever. I was looking for something larger than life, but what I got was a very human looking Man of Steel. It was by no means perfect, nor would I want to see it on a monthly Superman title, but given the nature of the issue I found the style to be very fitting. We got to view Superman as a man, even in his costume.
At first I read this issue assuming that the art wasn’t fitting and that the characters were too melodramatic, but the more I read it, the more I thought into it, the more I realized….it couldn’t go any other way. If my best friend died tomorrow, there’s a good chance I’d start screaming at people who didn’t deserve it. Blaming people who didn’t do anything wrong. When you’re overcome by grief it’s easy to let blame assign itself in all directions, to not have to face up to what you’ve lost.
But then sometimes two characters have to accept that they’ve both lost their fathers, and that sometimes moving forward is the only way to really not be consumed by their grief. Sometimes you have to admit that you’ve lost someone close to you, that they aren’t coming back, and you just don’t want to let them go. I think that’s something that everyone can relate to.
Overall?
8.5/10
