Batman & Robin #12

I appreciate that after all that buildup, all those plans, and underlings, and complicated plots, Terminus just walks out in a suit of armor and fights Batman. I mean, re-branding the Bat and scaring the city, trying to psyche out the cops, that’s all well and good. But when it comes down to it, someone got to punch Batman in the face, and Terminus is willing to do the dirty work himself.

The big selling point on this issue is the bat-armor. I love the whole sequence where Batman decides it’s time to armor-up. He slides into some crazy chute under the Batmobile, and pops out the other side wearing a nice update of his Predator-fighting armor. (I know Batman wears armor for lots of things, but to me, I always go back to that sweet battle against the Predators in the 90’s.) It’s just a street fight after that.

The Damian vs. the Robins sub-plot gets wrapped up sort of quickly. Nightwing opts out, and just tosses Damian one of his battle staves, so there is no need for Damian to go get a trophy. It doesn’t seem like that should work on a psycho like Damian, but maybe it will. It’s also weird seeing Red Hood, Red Robin, Damian, and Nightwing all teaming up again. They reference it on-page, too, but these guys just teamed up a month ago to take on the Talons. I mean, they’re practically Gotham’s super-team at this point!

Patrick Gleason does a great job on that armor. I love the glowing effects, and the actual punching with Terminus looks wonderful. The backgrounds are routinely full of Robins beating up Peter Tomasi’s new rogues’ gallery, so there is a lot to look at. I did have a hard time discerning what was happening when the whole crowd got tased (I thought it was foam or something), but that’s a small complaint. In fact, the panel where Bats pops all the armor off is almost as good as the sequence where he puts it on.

Good