Reviewer: Tim Byrne
Story Title: Fire & Ice
Written by: Robbie Morrison
Artist: Charlie Adlard
Colored by: Brad Anderson
Lettered by: Clem Robins
Editor: Matt Idelson
Publisher: DC Comics
Wow!
Where the heck did this come from?
I’d never heard of Robbie Morrison, the fill-in writer on this issue. But hopefully I’ll be hearing a whole lot more from him in the near future.
This one-shot starts with Batman and Mr. Freeze facing each other in a cocoon of ice, apparently created by Freeze as a shield from a fire raging all around.
In an interesting twist, we follow the inner monologue of Freeze rather than that of Batman, as the two exchange barbed comments and insults. The story then moves to flashback, as it tells of how the two rivals came to meet in these circumstances. But that’s really just a means to an end to get to the wonderfully written, razor-sharp dialogue that permeates through this issue.
Batman and Freeze are written intelligently and with depth, with Batman coming across as driven and powerful, but not to the unfortunate extents of War Games.
The art by Clem Robins is functional, with Batman looking dark and square-jawed. My only quibble would be an action sequence about half-way through that perhaps doesn’t flow as well as it should.
The only problem with the writing is two references to the titles of other DC titles that stick out a mile. I suppose they were meant as harmless insider references, but they simply served to yank me out of the compelling story.
Read this issue, to prove wrong all the people that say you can’t cram a great story into just 22 pages.
