I got a couple comic books as gifts awhile back for my birthday and this was one of them that I finally got around to reading.
OLD SPOILERS AHEAD
To sum up Bruce got the family together to patch things up just so they can follow his mission outlines while he still deceives them and goes on his mission to get Damian's body back. The bat kids think him going off alone is BS and Alfred gives them outfits to honor Damian with as they go off to help. They dupe Cyborg who runs after them anyway.
Overall: I've been trying to figure out if it's Tomasi or the state of things in the bat universe but I was really bothered reading this. The exchange with Alfred and the remaining bat kids (minus Dick) just bugged me. Here's Alfred saying how their family and how he knew they would be there for Bruce...really? This is the same guy that lost his temper with them because they had the gull to question Bruce's crappy actions. Also if their such a great family that's always there for each other then how come in the main books they don't come to each other's aid more? It's usually Bruce their helping anyway not each other with little exceptions.
The dialogue sadly remains as bad as I remember. The redhead kick-ass central line would only ever work if Dick said it anyway. I always had a feeling Tomasi was biased based on things in other bat work but Kate's "Who's the idiot" line plus the follow up seems to confirm it further. Doesn't she know since they worked together in Batman Eternal? This HAS to be after that because Damian isn't around in that story--of course there's the added confusion of Barbara wearing her old costume. Honestly I'm not sure why the Batwoman scene was needed other than to say their not leaving the city unprotected and the cameo. They could have just had Alfred say he'd contact Batwing and her. In fact they don't even tell Kate that Batwing will help out too.
It's sad to say I didn't feel any real bond between the bat kids. While Barbara is written better than other books she still goes out of her way to be irritating. Jason just seems to stand around to comment on everything while Tim works mostly in the background as he doesn't stand out like them. It would have been nice to at least see Tim and Jason bonding since their the only living "brothers" at this point. I already went over what I'm not fond about with the Robin costumes elsewhere so I won't repeat it here. While I didn't think I'd like this given how I felt about past issues I thought I'd at least find it more entertaining. Bruce's sections were boring but I would have thought the bat kids would be the fun part. Disappointing but not too surprising.
I felt a little sorry for the Bat Kids as Bruce is hugging Damian at the end. It was all heartwarming for the two of them, but the other three had to feel just a little bit bit left out of things.
ReplyDeleteI also wonder if Damian noticed that Dick was missing. He was...very close to Dick after all.
Especially with Bruce using and abusing them lately.
ReplyDeleteI figure their draw it out longer than it needs to be for the next conflict with Bruce.