Reviewer: Tim Sheridan
Story Title: Undertow
Written by: Andersen Gabrych
Penciled by: Pete Woods
Inked by: Cam Smith
Colored by: Jason Wright
Lettered by: Par Brosseau
Editor: Bob Shreck
Publisher: DC Comics
Wow, check out that cover. Isn’t that a great piece of art? No, I’m not being sarcastic, I really like it. In fact, I love Jock. His work in The Losers impresses me every month. But we’re here to talk about what is under the cover, the whole comic. And it’s pretty good.
As we kick off act 2 of War Games, seems like Batman has gone public. Sort of. He allowed himself to be filmed and put on television. Which any Bat-fan knows, is kind of out of the ordinary for him. It’s fairly moot to give a plot summary for this book, other than there is a big ol’ gang war in Gotham, and there is just general rioting happening. It has been going for a month in the Batman books, and it gonna continue for another month, so get used to it. This has upset a lot of readers who are not big fans of the Batman crossovers. And while I am enjoying it, I understand where they are coming from. This is a very long story, and you have to get just about every book to understand what is happening, even though it is somewhat redundant. There is a lot happening, but it doesn’t seem like there is a lot of forward motion in the general sceme of the story.
I’m sure many will agree with me that the best part about this issue is all the stuff happening with Tim Drake. He makes a decision to take up the mantle of the Robin (does that make sense?) again, and even though we all knew he would, it’s very well done, and I for one, was really happy to see him back. I’ve followed him since his first miniseries 14 years ago, and it was nice to see him back in the costume.
Oh sure there is other stuff happening, with other gang leaders, but before this story, we’ve never really seen them, so frankly, we don’t care. I’m sorry to say that, and I don’t mean to be rude at all, but it’s true. I’m not reading this to see the bad folks, I’m reading to see how Batman regains control of his city. Oh, and to see when he and Oracle will stop their petty squabbling, which is getting old, fast.
Final Word: An enjoyable opener to the middle act of War Games, and worth it just to see Robin back.
