Three cheers for Christmas shutdown! Now I can try to sleep
normally for a couple of days…
Next up on the list is of Batman wanna-bes is Batman… sort
of. No, this isn’t the John-Paul Valley variety either. I didn’t want to center
on too many of Batman’s supporting characters this month. A lot of them are
more or less knockoffs. I did at least
want to look at a couple who tried to take on the mantle of the Batman. Only a
few have tried it. I won’t be looking at Comm. Gordon’s more recent time as
Batman aka RoboBunny. Yes, that’s happening now and it’s actually not that bad.
It is Scott Snyder after all.
I’m actually looking at Batman: Battle for the Cowl, a three
issue-crossover series that occurred after Final Crisis. It basically served as
a midway point for Grant Morrison’s time on Batman. In Final Crisis, Batman “died."Yeah, he was actually getting his Sam Beckett on, but he’s not in
Gotham where trouble is always brewing right now. By the way, I’m only looking
at the three-issue crossover from the trade. The trade also has two issues that
looks at other supporting characters in Batman’s world. Tony Daniel wrote and did the pencils for this
small series and I think it was his first time writing.
Batman: Battle For The Cowl
Writer and Pencils: Tony S. Daniel
Inks: Sandu Florea
Colors: Ian Hannin
Letters: Jared K. Fletcher
SYNOPSIS
Gotham City isn’t doing so well right now. Ever since Batman
disappeared and Arkham Asylum got abandoned, the criminals have been at it.
Nightwing (Dick Grayson) has assembled the Network, a group of Batman’s most trusted
allies, and that is doing little in getting Gotham under control. Robin (Tim
Drake) realizes that someone needs to take on the mantle of the Batman. Dick
isn’t hearing any of it since the title was Bruce’s. Also, Bruce told Dick that
he didn’t need to become Batman in his will. While all of that is going on, a
new Black Mask is out freeing Arkham inmates from Blackgate.
Okay, that is a cool suit!
Another problem arises in the form of another Batman who is
really brutal and is taking lives. Tim starts to investigate this new threat.
He realizes that whoever this is, he’s really good and knows their tactics. He
also decides to throw on one of Bruce’s old suits since Dick isn’t relenting
from his position on a new Batman. Meanwhile, Black Mask has the Arkham inmates
do things in order to make Penguin’s and Two-Face’s gangs go to war with one
another. He also gets inmates to blow up Gotham’s banks and kill the new
district attorney.
Meanwhile, Dick and Damian run into the new Batman who is
revealed to be a crazier Jason Todd. The three fight and it ends with Jason
shooting Damien in the chest. Luckily, some other heroes were in the
neighborhood and get Damien to the Batcave. Dick realizes he needs to do something
about this, but he then notices that Tim has gone out in a Batman suit. As for
Tim, he ends up finding Jason’s lair later and Catwoman even tags along. It all
goes bad though as Jason returns, knocks out Catwoman (who then disappears for
the rest of the story) and fights Tim. They go at it until Jason stabs Tim and
takes him captive.
Oh Tim... low blow. I guess this is for that time he beat you senseless?
Dick knows Tim wouldn’t be a match for Jason, so he gets
Oracle to find Jason’s lair and he heads off. Alfred has a somewhat recovered
Damien and Squire provide some back up. Those two end up rescuing Tim at Jason’s
Batcave. Dick and Jason end up facing off against one another. Dick tries to
calm Jason down by showing him a piece of Bruce’s will, but that doesn’t stop
him. Their fight then moves to a moving train. Luckily, Dick is able to end the
fight before anyone gets hurt. They fall
off the train and Jason falls from a ledge refusing Dick’s assistance. Dick still
knows he’s out there somewhere. In the end, Dick Grayson assumes the title of
Batman and Damian becomes the new Robin.
So... Jason wears his mask under other masks? Does he do it to see the vision in his eyes or something?
OPINION
I thought this was good for the most part. I do have issues
with it but it did succeed in showing us how Dick became Batman. That was the
main focus of it all. We got to get into the heads of the three sidekicks and
see how they regard Batman. I liked that most about the story. Even though
you know Dick is going to be Batman (seriously, who else would it be), I did
like seeing him accept the mantle. Yeah, one can go on all day about how Batman
should only be Bruce, but it would be cool to see what happens after Bruce is
gone. I know he does come back, but I do like seeing someone else don the
bat-ears for a change.
The artwork is really good. Tony Daniel’s work on Batman was
pretty good at this time. “Batman R.I.P.” is probably my favorite of his Batman
artwork. The action scenes are cool and everyone looks good. I especially like
Jason’s Batman costume. It looked pretty cool and reminded me of something else
from Morrison’s run. While there are a couple of spots where it’s not as good,
the artwork is definitely the best thing about the little series.
Even though I did like this, it does have its problems. I
didn’t necessarily care for what was done to Jason Todd here. I guess the idea was to make him
into a full-on villain, and I don’t see him as that completely. He’s more of an
anti-hero and having him almost kill Damian and Tim was taking it too far. The
subplot of Black Mask’s attacks felt a little weird. We really get no
resolution on it and it feels thrown in at times. If the main series was a
little longer, we might have seen more of this.
I also thought some other characters didn’t ring true to me.
Damian was one that felt off especially when he’s introduced here. I will say
he does start to act like “The Brat” we all love towards the end. Also, the
dialogue wasn’t always that good at times. It just felt off to me at times.
Lastly, the ending feels a little rushed. I guess they didn’t want to spoil
Dick’s earliest times with the suit or something. I know other writers did
something similar to Dick finally donning the costume, so that maybe why the
ending feels short.
Black Mask wants you to wait until Tony Daniel comes back to the book. He's apparently waiting too.
Even though it has its issues, I did like this mini. It
tries to introduce a new Batman while showing what Batman is and isn’t about.
It also had great artwork. Well, I got to call it a night. I’m getting close to
the end and it’s looking good. Peace and God Bless.
NEXT TIME: BATMAN… OF THE FUTURE!
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