Art by: Ed Benes

Release Date: June 10, 2009

Price: $2.99

REVIEW BY: Jamie Desrochers

***SPOILER ALERT***

Love him or hate him, Judd Winick has been instrumental in several key storylines for Batman in the last few years, notably the resurrection of Jason Todd in Under The Hood. With his return to Batman, many fans have been quite vocal…and most people are not huge Winick fans. I myself don’t mind Mr. Winick. I find his dialogue to be engaging and fun, usually. His “voice” for Batman (Bruce Wayne) tends to be pretty abrasive, but he writes him as the most competent character in the DCU.

Where Winick usually fails is his story plots. He will often throw a plot device in the mix, promising a raison d’être at a later date…and it ends up being pretty weak. The obvious example is Jason Todd’s return, which was great…until Superboy puched a wall. But regardless, Judd is usually able to spin a good yarn.

The story opens in the past. We get a nice recap establishing Dick Grayson’s competence as Robin. We see that Bruce challenged his young ward to best Batman in his own city, where Dick surprises him in his own cave.

From here on, we get a series of sequences that frankly, surprised me. It was a “fill-in-the-blanks” between Final Crisis, Battle For the Cowl and the recent Batman and Robin #1.

Many fans (myself included) have wondered why we haven’t seen any reactions from the JLA and how there was an apparent lack of knowledge that Bruce was “dead”. Winick shows us the moment that the Bat-Family discovered that Bruce was gone. Superman and Wonder Woman come to the Batcave in order to give the cowl, and the bad news to his sons.

We also see the grieving process of Dick and Alfred, who are crushed by Bruce’s death. Regardless of the nature of their work, they both saw Bruce as immortal. One thing is certain though, his values and code would need to continue in his absence. At Bruce’s “funeral”, it is made clear by Dick that Batman is not dead. No one must know of Bruce’s death, and nobody will.

Meanwhile, Damian strikes out on his own (I’d place this sequence just before the Battle For The Cowl) in a confrontation with Doctor Phosphorous. Dick comes in with the assist, as he and Alfred discuss how they are accountable for Damian’s upbringing and well being now. Its very clear that Alfred wants Dick to take up the mantle of the Bat…and Dick isn’t quite sure how he could do it. How do you replace the world’s greatest hero???

Dick decides that only by becoming his own kind of Batman, will he do so.

With the establishment of the Bat-Bunker under Wayne Tower (as seen in Batman and Robin #1), Dick needs only to make his first appearance. Luckily two weeks later Scarecrow is up to his old mischief and will succeed….unless someone can stop him.

Enter The Batman.
Winick did well here. He’s taken on a Geoff John’s approach to filling in the gaps that nobody cared about with something tangible. It did read as a filler, but it was good filler.

The Bad: An over-muscular last page of Dick as Batman

The Ugly: That damned utility belt…yikes!

SCORE: 3.5 out of 5