Reviewer: Tim Byrne
Story Title: Decompression (Wargame : Epilogue)
Written by: Andersen Gabrych
Penciled by: Paul Lee
Inked by: Brian Horton
Colored by: Guy Major
Lettered by: Pat Brosseau
Editor: Bob Schreck
Publisher: DC Comics
First of all, let me just point out the huge editorial oversight of having the names of Winnick, Mahnke and Nguyen on the front cover, when the internal credits appear to reveal that they had nothing to do with the shaping of this issue. We’ve all noticed that? Good.
Anyway, this issue serves to summarise the fall-out from Wargames for those among us who didn’t purchase all twenty-five issues. It also provides some nice emotional resonance as Bruce, Dick and Alfred essentially sit around pondering and talking about recent developments in their lives (and also, in voiceover, pondering the developments that are less open).
For people reading Identity Crisis, a time-frame is provided, as the death of Jack Drake is mentioned as happening in the past, while he was seen as very much alive during the Wargames cross-over.
As a general point, the editorial cohesion from DC is often something to behold, especially when compared with other title umbrellas *cough* Spider-Man *hack* status of Norman Osborn *sputter*.
Their are some well-received flourishes in this issue, including the breaking of the news to Robin about Spoiler, and Alfred rescuing Nightwing, with the stoic mask that so clearly only barely hides his deep emotions for everyone in the Bat-family.
I also enjoyed the subtext that, despite the disintegration of Batman’s ‘army’, he, Alfred and Dick are joined by bonds so deep it will take so much more to truly sever them.
The arts was generally excellent in this issue, although the judgement was at times a little off. Particularly, the full-page splash where an unmasked Bruce tells Robin how sorry he is… Robin looks as if he forgot his homework, rather than hearing about the death of someone close to him.
Anyway, on to the Red Hood…
