Batman and Robin, Volume 3 by Peter J. Tomasi

Tomasi revealing a softer side to Bruce while giving Alfred more of a story presence was great, like reuniting Alf with the English stage and his ex-fiance - you want to make me a happy Batman reader, write Alfred well, and Tomasi does. Damian sends Bruce and Alfred on a wild goose chase around the world with Bruce discovering previously unknown moments from his parents’ lives while Damian puts on the 666 outfit and becomes the Batman of Gotham for the first time (I call it the 666 outfit as future Damian/Batman debuted in Grant Morrison’s Batman #666 and was AWESOME!).

If you like Damian Wayne, you’ll like them, and I love Damian.

The other two stories are inconsequential but quite pleasant. Page after page of real Hannibal Lector shit - hats off to you, Mr Gleason! I’ve seen a number of artists draw this and not one has come close (even Capullo) to showing the true horror something like that would look like - until I saw Gleason’s depiction which was utterly chilling. By far the best part was Patrick Gleason’s rendering of Joker who, remember, cut his face off and is wearing it as a mask. It’s an average story that, like the other Death of the Family tie-ins, didn’t really need to be told but I didn’t hate it. Tomasi’s been hitting the father/son relationship angle pretty hard in this series and that continues in this book with the way Damian defeats Jokerized Batman. Damian tracks Joker to the Gotham zoo where he has to fight a Joker toxin-infected Batman for Joker’s amusement. Tomasi’s Batman and Robin run - two standalone issues bookend it with a three-issue Death of the Family arc in the middle (one of which is Batman #17 by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo which I’m almost certain anyone picking up this volume will have read at least once already) essentially it’s four B&R issues long.īut it’s also surprisingly good and one of my favourites in the series so far! Ironically the Death of the Family arc is the weakest part so let’s get that out of the way first. This is the shortest collection in Peter J.

Batman and Robin, Volume 3 by Peter J. Tomasi