10 Thoughts Review on Batman and Robin #13 by Grant Morrison and Frazer Irving

10 Thoughts

1. Batman and Robin confront the Joker over his Oberon Sexton personality, while Dr. Hurt arrives in Gotham and pretends to be Thomas Wayne.

2. Dr. Hurt will apparently have Batman in a very compromising position in three days, during an eclipse. In Return of Bruce Wayne, Batman is time jumping during eclipses, so this seems particularly significant.

3. This is a book of mirror images with Joker going sane, mirroring Jason Todd, Damien mirroring Bruce, reversed panels from Batman Year One, the Killing Joke, earlier in this series, and more. This is a fantastic piece of detective fiction with so many secrets to unlock.

4. The Joker is, unsurprisingly the star here. Without Bruce’s Batman as a foil, he’s gone somewhat sane and is mostly behaving himself, killing the Black Hand and meting out justice while trying to help Grayson’s Batman with Dr. Hurt. So, is he really trying to help? His sheer joy at determining the new Robin, Damian, is like Bruce is phenomenal, but nothing compared to…

5. Robin beating on the Joker with a crowbar. It’s poetic and perfect.

6. The art is amazing and it’s hard to believe this has been done digitally.

7. In the three days in the future scene, it sure looks like Dick Grayson actually gets shot. Let me just note that this had better be a bait and switch. Dick is probably my favorite DC character and with my disatisfaction with the company’s current direction, this could be enough for me to drop the line.

8. Dick’s respect for Commissioner Gordon is a great contrast to Bruce’s more cordial relationship and even better in counter to Bruce’s adversarial relationship with the other police, as Dick is friendly with them and whom prefer Dick as Batman.

9. Professor Pyg should not be this creepy. It just goes to show- it isn’t the gimmick, but the execution that counts.

10. Rating: 10/10 – Everything here is perfect and I’m not sure whether this or the standalone Iron Man Annual is the best book this year. Morrison has finally (for Batman anyway) mixed accessibility with the creative, brilliant ideas and storytelling that is his hallmark.

Glazer is a former senior editor at Pulse Wrestling and editor and reviewer at The Comics Nexus.