Reading Comics #135 "Batman and Family"

I've been meaning to say this, but I love Batman and Robin.  What's that?  I've said it before?  Can't hurt to say it again.

I love Batman and Robin!

via DC Comics.  That guy in the middle, by the way, is Batman

In #34, "Robin Rises" Part 2, Pete Tomasi and Patrick Gleason sort of swiftly undo whatever it is "Death of the Family" was supposed to accomplish, with Batman closing circle with Batgirl, Red Robin, and Red Hood and then later with Dick Grayson, who mentions this:

"You know how much Damian meant to me, Bruce..."

It's a subtle reminder that in the pages of a different Batman and Robin, Dick wore the cowl to Damian's Boy Wonder, an era that is more important to both characters than subsequent stories tended to acknowledge.  It's the sort of deft storytelling this series has constantly featured.

And then stuff like this, too, a quote from Shazam this time:

"See, Wonder Woman, I told ya I'd beat you here."

Tomasi has become near-impeachable in his grasp of the DC landscape, transforming the series into a phantasmagoria where the constant remains the Dark Knight, but everything around him can shift (hence the period where even the title wasn't constant) but always steeped deeply in old and current lore (which itself seems impossible for most other writers).  This is not a nostalgia ride.  This isn't just a series that provides commentary for things that happen elsewhere.  It's become a touchstone.  

And, of course, with "Robin Rises," where things are most definitely happening.  I keep saying that Batman and Robin is arguably the essential Batman series of the moment, even as it becomes increasingly timeless, a synthesis of everything it is and should be.

via IGN

In the Futures End one-shot, we receive an unexpected glimpse at a new Robin, a character introduced in Scott Snyder's "Zero Year" arc (everyone always assumed that it would be Harper Row, who instead has transformed, in the pages of Batman Eternal, into Bluebird), Duke Thomas, who like all Robins starts out as a boy impressed with Batman but who apparently was given a considerable gestation.  If Futures End at all leads to actual continuity, I hope Duke makes it.  Tons of story potential in an instant, unlike every other Robin with a built-in extended training period like Bruce Wayne himself.

The writer for the issue isn't Tomasi but rather Ray Fawkes.  I've previously wondered if Fawkes was ever going to impress me, so it was great to see that he did, and under the banner of Batman and Robin, which has come to represent true excellence for me, whether the writer is Tomasi or originator Grant Morrison.  Fawkes handles the storytelling deftly and seamlessly.  It certainly doesn't hurt that he has artists Dustin Nguyen and Derek Fridolfs (who've partnered before on material like Streets of Gotham and Li'l Gotham and have been begging to be given a shot at some major league material).  On the whole this trio accomplishes the impossible, matching Tomasi and Gleason as a perfect creative team for this series.

The story itself is also interesting, since it's Batman in hot pursuit of Heretic, the brute Morrison introduced as a henchman in "Batman R.I.P." but who gained far greater significance when he was revealed to be an altered clone of Damian in Batman Incorporated.  His appearance here hopefully certifies him as a standout villain in his own right, a sort of less sophisticated Bane (anyone who's actually tried that with Bane himself has only managed to neuter the character).