Batman and Robin Volume 2: Pearl
Collecting Batman and Robin #0, 9-14
Writer: Peter J. Tomasi
Artist: Patrick Gleason
DC Comics, $24.99, color, 176 pages
No snark or deep analysis here; I just love Bruce and Damian Wayner together, and Peter Tomasi is to thank for that.
Batman has often been written, frankly, as an a-hole. Damian is often written that way as well. And maybe both of them are completely unlikeable on some level.
But not here. Tomasi writes a Batman learning to open up to his biological son in ways we never saw him behave with the other Robins. And we see a Damian who talks tough on the outside, but is almost painfully needy for the approval of the other Robins, and especially of his father.
How many kids does Tomasi have, anyway? This is wonderful, touching material. With a lot of fighting.
Oh, yeah, there is some fighting. B&R fight some bad guys, and Talia's machinations happen in the background (and we know where that's going, unfortunately), and Damian does some absolutely stupid stuff to prove he's the best Robin, which I could have lived without. Plus, what's Tim Drake doing there? Isn't he a non-Robin in The New 52? And what's Red Hood doing there? Isn't he a wanted murderer in The New 52?
Ah, well, Tomasi saves it all with some Damian-Dick Grayson interaction. (They were good together, weren't they?)
Even if I didn't know what was going to happen in the next volume of this series (you all know, right?), this book would still bring warmth to my palsied, bitter, fanboy heart.
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