Batman and Robin #15 Review
- Details
- Published on Monday, 25 October 2010 03:31
- Written by Kevin
“Batman and Robin Must Die” has been the best story arc since this title launched. Morrison is really working his magic with this arc and so far reminds me of the quality storytelling I expect from him. And this is not very surprising as Morrison is finally following up on Batman RIP, which I loved. It has been great seeing the Black Glove and Joker back and I cannot wait to see where the story is going to go. Now let’s check out Batman and Robin #15.
Creative Team
Writer: Grant Morrison
Artist: Frazier Irving
Story Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 4 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 6.5 Night Girls out of 10
Synopsis: After dancing with his “bride” Joker takes Robin out of a coffin.
At the Wayne Manor front gate Dr. Hurt, still posing as Thomas Wayne, arrives with the press and tells Alfred to let him in. As soon as he is inside Dr. Hurt as Thomas Wayne announces that he has returned to restore Gotham from its chaos.
Joker asks Robin about how to defuse a bomb and what he would do if he can’t defuse a bomb. Robin says he can do it and Joker says that if he fails it would be a bad time to be the first time to fail. Joker let’s Robin go just as Pyg drives into the manor with Commissioner Gordon, who is still craving Pyg’s drugs.
Robin knocks Pyg out of the van and frees Gordon. He tells Gordon to go control the chaos while he deals with Hurt and Pyg’s army. Robin puts up a valiant effort against Hurt’s army but there are to many of them and he is captured.
Inside Wayne Manor Dr. Hurt has both Batman and Robin captured and shots Batman in the back of the head. The shot does not kill Batman as Hurt shot him in the skull so that he would turn into a vegetative state. He then tries to have Robin swear his allegiance to the Black Glove. But as he is going through the ritual the Barbatos box opens by itself.
Hurt looks inside the box and sees a Batman tracker and a posted note with the word “Gotcha” on it. He turns around and is knocked down by Batman and Robin. Batman then tells Hurt he walked into a trap. Hurt hears a voice telling him “Turn around Doctor. It’s all over.” We then see, as Batman put it, the Bat-God.
Commentary
The Good: Batman and Robin #15 is another strong chapter in what has been the best story arc of this series. It is no secret that I have been very mixed about Morrison’s work on Return of Bruce Wayne but this story is showing everything I love about Morrison’s writing. The story is focused while still going all out with the crazy ideas that Morrison has to expand on the Batman mythology.
Throughout his run on Batman Morrison has done a great job expanding on the Batman mythology. It is what has set his run apart from all the other writers that have worked on Batman. For Morrison Batman is not just a costume or an alter-ego that Bruce, and in this case Dick Grayson, assume but it is a rich history. There is a lot that goes into Batman and he is showing it with his creation of the Black Glove.
Much like Joker, the Black Glove represents the chaos that Batman was made to stop. And unlike the Joker who represents a force for Batman to stop/limit the Black Glove is a personal challenge to the Wayne legacy. This is not just the typical fight that the Batfamily gets into when they put on the costume as Dick Grayson, Damian, and Damian have to find a way to stop Dr. Hurt from continuing to ruin the Wayne legacy.
This personal attack that Dr. Hurt has done is unlike what the Batfamily have come across because Dr. Hurt has actually succeeded in ruining Bruce’s parent’s legacy by controlling some high powered officials in Gotham. It is really interesting seeing how he has been doing all of this and has made Gotham a chaotic city. He has done all of this and we still don’t know his complete motivation for doing this which will be interesting to find out in the next issue.
Now, while Dr. Hurt is continues to prove himself as one of the biggest challenges for the Batfamily the star of the show continues to be the Joker. No one writes a better Joker than Morrison. Morrison just knows how to make Joker a very scary and unpredictable character. Joker dancing with a corpse dressed like a bride highlights just how scary he can be.
And while Morrison portrays Joker as a very scary character he also shows him to be a very smart and calculating figure. I loved how Joker manipulated Damian to do what he wants. Also, his interaction with Damian continues the question about how much Joker actually knows about Bruce being Batman as he showed he has a lot of knowledge of the Batfamily. Right now it is a toss-up in what role Joker will play and that makes what he does in the next issue so much fun because we do not know what he is going to do.
Even though Dick was not in this issue much I liked how Morrison showed him to be very competent and able to come up with a plan very quick. Even with being shot in the back of the head he was still able to power through and get free help Damian not be turned over to Damian. It was a very cool scene and hopefully Dick will play a much bigger role in defeating Dr. Hurt in the next issue.
And just as has been the case with his whole run on Batman Morrison continues to make Damian a badass. It was awesome seeing Damian fight off all of Dr. Hurt’s men even though he was at a huge disadvantage. The fight also showed how far Damian is willing to go to in order to save Dick. It shows that while he might not admit it he does have a lot of respect for Dick as Batman and he takes his role as Robin seriously.
The ending was a great hook ending with the Bat-God appearing in front of Dr. Hurt. It’ll be interesting to see who the Bat-God is as it looks like it might be Bruce or it could be something else.
Though I continue not to be a fan of Frazier Irving’s art I will give him credit for drawing a fantastic opening sequence with Joker dancing with his corpse bride. He did a great job capturing the creepy mood of the scene. It showed how good his art could be when done consistently.
The Bad: With that said Irving’s art continues to be a major damper on the story. His character designs continue to be inconsistent, especially when it comes to drawing characters faces. The backgrounds aren’t any better as all of the settings look dull and lifeless. Scenes like Dr. Hurt shooting Dick or Dr. Hurt announcement on TV don’t have the impact they should have thanks to the inconsistencies in art.
Overall: Batman and Robin #15 was another strong read in “Batman and Robin Must Die.” This has easily been the best story arc that Morrison has done since starting this series. Even with some weak art Morrison impressive writing is able to make up for it and deliver a great sequel to Batman RIP. Morrison is doing a great job creating an event style story for Dick and Damian to be in. I just wish the rest of his run on this title was this strong. So, if you like Batman and are a Morrison fan this is a story you should be reading as it is one of the best stories Morrison has written.
Batman and Robin
Comments
However, the character's faces are appalling at best.
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