Review of Batman and Robin #9

Hello everyone! Jack here, filling in for William on this month’s Batman and Robin review. After studying all week to try and remember which one is Batman and which one is Robin, I think I’m finally ready to give this a shot!

Batman and Robin opens with Batman captured in Man-Bat’s lair (Man-Bat swears he’s not Man-Bat anymore, and is instead operating under his real name, Kirk Langstrom, even as he, a man-sized bat creature, heads up a cult called the Cult of Man-Bat. Alright.) Man-Bat has set up his own Batcave and is forcing Batman to watch as his plans for Gotham begin to unfold. We then shift to a school day for Damian and Nika, aka Flatline, and witness the two of them scheming to get themselves thrown into the detention in order to try and oust their principal as secretly being Mistress Harsh, one of Damian’s childhood trainers (and therefore a member of the League of Assassins). I won’t spoil what exactly it is the adolescent detective duo uncovers, but suffice it to say that they may have ended up with more information on their hands than they bargained for.

This month’s script from Joshua Williamson is a bit of a snooze. Both of the plot threads feature nothing as much as classic villain posturing, and the more fleshed out middle section is rife with such high school cliches as food fights and detention. The villain posturing is perhaps to be more understandable when it comes to Batman’s current stagnant situation. In contrast, one would hope that the Damian portion would provide a bit more of a jolt, but its final pages feel like Williamson simply plugging in plot reveals without attaching them to any larger sense of meaning.

Having two artists trading off pages and sections within a single issue can be unavoidable, but the back and forth here ends up not being terribly intrusive as Di Meo’s and Čižmešija’s sections are pretty geographically siloed; we have Di Meo depicting the events taking place in Man-Bat’s lair that bookends the issue, while Čižmešija covers the high school adventure of Damian that makes up the issue’s interior. Both artists are clearly influenced by manga, especially Nikola Čižmešija, whose character poses and facial expressions, as well as accentuating features like motion lines and impact effects bring this Japanese influence readily to the reader’s mind. Di Meo’s work really shines next to Čižmešija’s, both literally and figuratively— Di Meo and Giovanna Niro, the colorist for the Man-Bat sections, clearly have a penchant for neon lights and their reflections. It’s an eye-catching, in-your-face style that can verge on the obnoxious issue after issue, but it’s all delightfully crisp and clean compared to the sloppy, rushed-looking pencil work of Čižmešija, whose mouths in particular look unfinished. This reviewer wonders if he was asked to fill in for these bulk pages late in the game.

This is a title that has, at least for this reviewer, been heavily reliant on its slick and dynamic art. Coming across an issue in which this quality consistency is broken up reveals some significant narrative shortcomings. I think an upcoming showdown with Man-Bat can still be exciting, however.

Recommend if…

You’re excited to see where this Shush storyline goes
You’ve been waiting for Damian’s school life to really bleed over into his crime-fighting
You love a good old fashioned villain monologue

Overall

This is an issue that feels like it desperately wants to be more than a set-up issue for a couple of big upcoming face-offs, but it all falls a bit flat by sagging noticeably in the middle.

Score: 6.5/10

DISCLAIMER: DC Comics provided Batman News with a copy of this comic for the purpose of this review.

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