Published by DC Comics in 2011.
Goodreads Choice Award nominee.
Synopsis
Batman is dead. Nightwing (Dick Grayson) has returned to take over the role of Batman and mentoring the latest Robin, Damian Wayne. With the help of Alfred, Grayson is getting into the mindset of Batman and they are trying to gel into a team.
But, a crime wave sweeps the city in the form of new villains. While Robing and this new version of Batman struggle to counter the crime wave, Red Hood (former Robin Jason Todd) returns to Gotham to fight crime in his own over-the-top super-violent style. Red Hood has picked up a new vigilante sidekick, Scarlet, who is also a mutilated victim of the criminals Batman and Robin are hunting.
My Review
Batman Reborn is a victim of a couple gigantic missed opportunities.
Missed opportunity number one: an in-depth look at why Nightwing is taking over as Batman rather than just being Nightwing. If nothing else, it's a chance to restate the symbolic importance Batman has in Gotham.
Missed opportunity number two (and the bigger one by far): There are scenes with three Robins and a Robin stand-in. They are all interacting and somehow failing to talk about what they all have in common - being the most famous sidekick in comic history.
Red Hood's outfit was pretty nifty, with the exception of his helmet / face mask. I seriously thought that he was a new character (this graphic novel is full of them) called Red Pill when I saw him. Then I looked up the publication date and realized that "red pilled" was too new of a term to be used in this book. To be fair to me, Red Hood is pretty danged red pilled.
Anyway, Red Hood's helmet / face mask looks like the top half of a cold capsule. It makes no sense if you imagine someone's head actually fitting inside of this long narrow tube - unless Red Hood has the widest shoulders in the world and the helmet / mask just looks tiny in comparison (I'm talking Bane level of shoulders.)
The worst thing for me was that the graphic novel revels in being grotesque. Rather than having a mystery for Batman to solve, it deals in grime, grit, gruesome acts, with displays gratuitous and graphic violence. Rather than make a cohesive story line, the plan seems to be to have yet another unique character come to Gotham and commit more insane violence.
Plus, the horrific act of violence committed by Professor Pyg is literally the same thing done by Joker in the first Michael Keaton Batman movie. No spoliers, but re-watch the movie and read the graphic novel and you will see it. Just me, but if you are going to have someone commit a series of grotesque atrocities, at least make them original grotesque atrocities.
Note: I liked Damian Wayne in this one. Usually, I don't.
I rate this graphic novel a generous 2 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Batman and Robin: Batman Reborn.
Batman is dead. Nightwing (Dick Grayson) has returned to take over the role of Batman and mentoring the latest Robin, Damian Wayne. With the help of Alfred, Grayson is getting into the mindset of Batman and they are trying to gel into a team.
But, a crime wave sweeps the city in the form of new villains. While Robing and this new version of Batman struggle to counter the crime wave, Red Hood (former Robin Jason Todd) returns to Gotham to fight crime in his own over-the-top super-violent style. Red Hood has picked up a new vigilante sidekick, Scarlet, who is also a mutilated victim of the criminals Batman and Robin are hunting.
My Review
Batman Reborn is a victim of a couple gigantic missed opportunities.
Missed opportunity number one: an in-depth look at why Nightwing is taking over as Batman rather than just being Nightwing. If nothing else, it's a chance to restate the symbolic importance Batman has in Gotham.
Missed opportunity number two (and the bigger one by far): There are scenes with three Robins and a Robin stand-in. They are all interacting and somehow failing to talk about what they all have in common - being the most famous sidekick in comic history.
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| Red Hood's new outfit. |
Anyway, Red Hood's helmet / face mask looks like the top half of a cold capsule. It makes no sense if you imagine someone's head actually fitting inside of this long narrow tube - unless Red Hood has the widest shoulders in the world and the helmet / mask just looks tiny in comparison (I'm talking Bane level of shoulders.)
 |
| What Red Hood's headgear reminds me of. |
Plus, the horrific act of violence committed by Professor Pyg is literally the same thing done by Joker in the first Michael Keaton Batman movie. No spoliers, but re-watch the movie and read the graphic novel and you will see it. Just me, but if you are going to have someone commit a series of grotesque atrocities, at least make them original grotesque atrocities.
Note: I liked Damian Wayne in this one. Usually, I don't.
I rate this graphic novel a generous 2 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Batman and Robin: Batman Reborn.
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