Wednesday, March 13, 2013

365 Comics...72: Batman and Robin #18 (2013)

I still haven't read Batman Inc. #8.  Thought the second printing was out this week but my shoppe didn't have it.  But I know Damian is dead and that's a about all you need to know for this ish of B&R.

The silent issue can only really come about when a writer trusts his artist completely.  Pete Tomasi has been working with Pat Gleason for years, first with an extensive run on Green Lantern Corps before taking over B&R.  They're a very solid dynamic duo themselves.  Gleason has become a very formidable artist and this issue really spotlights it, as the writer intended.  The dialogue-free story deals with Bruce Wayne and Batman's grief over the loss of his son, and it takes a cold heart to not let Gleason's powerful and expressive pictures get to you. 

It's a beautiful issue though I found it somewhat undercut by a letter from Damian to his father, the implication being Robin knew his death was a potential outcome of his actions.  To me, however, letter took me out of the emotional visuals I had sunk into because it seemed manipulative on Tomasi's part, unnecessarily so.

1 comment:

King Beauregard said...

Myself, I didn't have a problem with the letter, but chalk it up to personal taste.

Well done all around, with Bruce seeing Damian and then not. Have we seen loss represented quite the same way in comics anywhere? This looks to be a first.