Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Batman #688


This was a much stronger effort from Judd Winick than last issue. Maybe is is the new penciller, but the story picks right up and has a lot more good characterization and action than what we saw last month. Dick Grayson is his own Batman, appearing on camera, smiling, leaving evidence for the cops. Bats' villains recognize there is someone else behind the cowl, which is a nice statement on just how well Penguin and Two Face know their nemesis. Grayson goes into a hissy fit about his costume too, but I didn't mind since it led to a nice scene about Alfred having to handle a different set of neruoses with Grayson than he did with Bruce Wayne. I totally don't see where the Commissioner Gordon thing is going. It seems he's flipping the bat-signal on and off and bringing a new cop up on the roof regularly. I am not getting any sense of what that story is about, but I assume it will be revealed. I don't know if I like Penguin as a villain who beats his underlings, but I did enjoy Two Face taking one of his hechmen under his wing as more of a trusted aide, it's a side we don't see often.

Mark Bagley's pencils pack a lot of punch. The story seems to just move more quickly now, and the fight scenes are nice and dynamic.

Fair

2 comments:

Mayor McCheeseSteak said...

I was really disappointed in this issue. Loved the last one, but I'm starting to get the bad feeling that we're going to have far too much "woe is me, being Batman is so hard" for my tastes. It just makes it feel like the transition from Nightwing to Batman isn't legitimate, and that it will ultimately be ephemeral.

Timbotron said...

That's funny, as I was the opposite! I hated last issue and thought this was decent!