Batman And Robin #2

So, miraculously, it's two issues in and still on time, and thank god for that.  I don't think I could wait more than 4 weeks for each issue of this book.  There's fifteen reviews already on the site and it's the POTW, yet it's so good I still feel the need to chime in somewhere.  I opened that first page and just wanted to drink it in.  We've already seen that image, but put in context it's even better.  Quitely, we need more of you in our lives.  The details, the fact that it is the perfect marriage of image to story.  This book just rattles along with a sense that these characters seem to fit Morrison like a glove.

First off, the exchange with Jim Gordon is just as it should be.  If anyone would know this isn't the usual dynamic duo it has to be him, and this moment pays due respect to the commissioner's character.  At the same time, that comment about Bats being different yet familiar plays to both the fact that he knew Dick as Robin, but also the fact that the legacy is still in safe hands.  Grayson goes on to prove that when later we see him in combat.  From the moment he says, "Robin, step aside," this is him at the top of his game.  Things do go wrong and this is no dynamic duo, but I felt that in many ways Dick no longer has to prove himself worthy of the cowl at least, although there are plenty of other things for him to work on.  That whole fight scene is one of the most economical and beautifully choreographed sequences I've seen since, well since the chase at the start of issue 1 I guess!

On another note Morrison may have succeeded in that rarest of things: creating new villains that are worth reading about.  These guys creep me out, especially Big Top.  So scary in both the right and the wrong ways.

Continuing from issue 1 the dialogue here is as tightly constructed as you'd hope.  The two key exchanges (the first with Dick and Damian, the second with Alfred) are text book stuff.  Historically there have been times when Alfred comes off as just a sounding board or, well, nothing more than the butler.  Not so here.  He has genuine advice to give, and he and Dick are trying to deal with Damian as a team.  The talk they have comes off as fresh and rich with emotion. 

A joy to read from cover to cover, and over far too soon.