Batman and Robin #17
Written by Paul Cornell
Art by Scott McDaniel
1. Grant Morrison’s run is finally over and we get a story from Paul Cornell and Scott McDaniel that could have fit right in with the tone of the Morrison work, if not the substance.
2. The storytelling here is a bit choppy, but I think that’s intentional, as Cornell is following the format Morrison has established for the book. It isn’t as impressive without the over-arching story threads to tie it together, but still takes some skill and it’s nice to just see a normal Batman and Robin story for the first time in awhile.
3. It’s good that Dick and Damian are having so much fun in this issue, as they aren’t the only ones.
4. Apparently, another ex-girlfriend of Bruce Wayne is a villain, the Absence, and has a great gimmick of making the hero figure out what’s missing, which Dick does in short order. He isn’t Bruce, or even Tim as a detective, but he’s still damn good.
5. Cornell gets that Dick and Damien work best when they’re bantering, not outright at odds, so he plays that up all issue.
6. The art, however, is overly cartoony and not expressive enough. The action, in particular isn’t fluid enough, though I guess given that this is a rush job, it’s not the end of the world.
7. Commissioner Gordon is a bit of a cipher here. If we’re going to use the Comissioner and not a generic detective, then he should be more… important… to the plot.
8. Telling the Commissioner that Bruce Wayne is in Japan while Batman is in Japan doesn’t put up warning signs that they’re the same guy and there’s more than 1 Batman?
9. Dick Grayson is probably my favorite DC character at this point since so much great work has been done on him lately between Peter Tomasi, Morrison and even James Robinson. Glad to see Cornell follow up.
10. Rating: 7/10 For a filler book this is a lot of fun and we have a new villain I certainly wouldn’t mind seeing more of. I love Cornell, the best DC writer right now, getting this kind of exposure, too.
