Batman and Robin Annual #2 (DC)

writer: Peter J. Tomasi
artist: Doug Mahnke, Patrick Gleason

I've mentioned a few times here how much I love Peter Tomasi's Batman and Robin.  It got to the point last year where I was ready to name it to the top of the 2013 QB50 (it ended up settling for fourth), which makes it from this point a perennial contender for that spot, however long the run lasts (hopefully a good bit longer).

It's one of those series that I want to add in its entirety to my trade collection, and in fact is at the moment how I've been reading it (not quickly enough, but it's an excellent way to savor the work all the same).  Every so often, though, I dip back into the individual releases, and this annual seemed like as good a time as any to do so again.

The story brings Damian back.  Damian, the son of Bruce Wayne and Talia al Ghul, was famously (or infamously, depending on who you listen to) killed off by creator Grant Morrison last year in the run-up to the conclusion to both Batman Incorporated and his Batman run in general.  Any new Damian story, then, is bound to be notable.

This one isn't really a Damian story at all, but a Dick Grayson one, looking back at his debut as the first Robin.  Since Dick's glories days are firmly in the Golden Age, and readers are far more familiar with his Teen Titans transition period or his Nightwing years (I'm still wondering how I feel about the Forever Evil developments), anytime there's a new Dick Grayson/Robin story, it's pretty much the same as a new Damian story these days.  One of the famous examples from years past is Batman Chronicles: The Gauntlet, a one-shot from 1997 (that's how infrequent it is), although there has also been Batman: Dark Victory and All Star Batman and Robin, the Boy Wonder (which angered fans because it portrayed Batman as...grim; no, really), neither of which was as direct a focus on him, though.

Add this one to the mix.  And it kind of leaves you begging for more.  Sometimes in comics, which are often hard-pressed to move on with the careers of superheroes, you end up with a situation where progress has been made and suddenly you realize there's still more to tell about that earlier period.  It's all well and good if you're Batman, but if you're Robin?  You're kind of screwed.

Tomasi's Batman and Robin has always been more of a Robin (and Batman) than anything, the lost Robin solo series that remembers Robin sometimes is most distinctive in association with his old partner.  With the loss of Damian, the series has become not so much a team-up book, but a series that explores Batman in relation with other characters.  Lately that character has been Two-Face (I've been savoring the prospect of reading that one, all at once, the way I read the first arc of the series, by accident, but that's exactly how it should be enjoyed, all at once).  For the annual, Robin gets to return.

And so, this is a Year One story for Robin, Dick Grayson's version.  Nightwing is known as a Spider-man kind of guy, always cracking jokes.  It can sometimes be easy to forget that he was like that as Robin, too.  That means, in essence, he was hardly the grim crusader Batman tends to be, and consequently that Batman probably had a hard time dealing with that.  Tomasi gets that.  He gets everything.  That's what makes his Batman so great.

The way Damian is incorporated acknowledges that he is technically dead and so not able to be an active participant.  I love these little reminders Tomasi is able to do.  In a few months, a new storyline in the series will feature Batman and Damian all over again, but with another twist.  (It will also feature Frankenstein, the Grant Morrison, Seven Soldiers of Victory version.  I still can't believe he had his own New 52 series.  I still can't believe I never read it.  I will have to correct that.)

Tomasi also has room to create an interesting villain in the story, a Dick Grayson foe, Tusk.  I'd love to see that whole story expanded.  Maybe Tomasi will do that some day.  Hopefully!

Also noteworthy, besides the assist from regular collaborator (and fellow Batman and Robin saint) Patrick Gleason, is the art of Doug Mahnke.  Mahnke is best known recently for his Green Lantern collaboration with Geoff Johns.  For some reason, even though he became one of the go-to guys during that run, Mahnke's name never really became especially elevated.  The fact that he's illustrating an annual is at once awesome because it's for Batman and Robin, and also a little worrying.  Surely the guy deserves another high profile assignment.

It's especially nice to see a distinctive style from Manhke in the issue, one that's different enough from his Green Lantern work that you might almost not even know it's the same artist, but still very much the same remarkable talent.

Maybe this is a way of saying that if Gleason isn't available for an issue of Batman and Robin, it's Mahnke we'll get instead?  Because that would be nice.  Because Gleason and Tomasi are too perfect together to settle for something worse.  Mahnke isn't worse.  He's almost as perfect a match for Tomasi as Gleason.  And that's pretty awesome to see.

Even if you're not obsessed with Batman and Robin like I am, I think this annual is easy to recommend, to see Dick Grayson as Robin, and to see Damian once again in that role, too.

Cover via Comic Book Database.