The epilog toBattle for the Cowl , the big Batman issue that completely reshuffled the state of amour in Gotham City , came out this calendar week , completing the saga . But was it any good ? spoiler ahead …
The retiring eighteen months have not been the kindest toDC Comicson the creative front . With the major exception of Sinestro Corps War , DC has ( in my judgement ) fumbled most of its major events . Though Final Crisis and particularly Batman : RIP have improve in my estimation since I first read them , neither really cohere into a single trance tale , and the execrable Countdown almost made give me up on comic all ( which I suppose one could argue would n’t be such a bad matter , but such an literary argument would be amiss ) .
But now , DC seem to be eschew these massive crossover heroic poem in favor of slightly smaller , more carry events like Superman ’s “ New Krypton ” arc , the just complete weekly series Trinity ( more on that tomorrow ) , and the coming Blackest Night . The resultant thus far have been largely promising but , deplorably , the big black eye in DC ’s quiet originative rehabilitation has been Battle for the Cowl , the Batman effect that was supposed to reveal what Bruce Wayne ’s fade will intend for Gotham City going forrader but has spend most its run explore seemingly unrelated , far less interesting territory . Let ’s take a look at the various parts of this effect one at a clock time .
The Main Story
The main three - part Battle for the Cowl miniseries , written and draw by Tony Daniel , start with a lot of potency . fructify up a massive warfare for control condition of Gotham , it pit a jumble web of heroes against not only the two find criminal factions ( led by the Penguin and Two - Face respectively ) but also a newly take back Black Mask , who has captured the rest of the Gotham City rogue ’s gallery and forced them to do his helter-skelter summons .
Meanwhile , Dick Grayson and Tim Drake assay to sort out who will take on the drape of Batman , with Dick not even exclusively sure there needs to be a Modern Batman . Their decisions are complicated by the emergence of a mysterious young Batman , who is clearly well - trained , has connexion to Bruce Wayne , and favors a bestial panache of justness . I ’ll give you one hypothesis as to who that might be . ( It ’s Jason Todd . )
The miniseries render to pack far too much account into just three issue , particularly when the last chapter is mostly just the big showdown between Dick Grayson and Jason Todd . Although the Black Mask ’s absurdly convoluted architectural plan to remove his vicious rivals just about makes signified – though I ’ll accommodate I had to reread it to empathize completely what was going on – it does n’t in the end seem to have much to do with the titulary conflict for the cowl . This is , I presuppose , one of the narrative problem of this integral consequence , as it ’s not so much evidence its own compelling news report as congeal up a new status quo for the Batman book , and plainly the Black Mask is a big part of that .
Of naturally , based on that premise , I would have gestate more time devoted to those who really lay claim a part of Bruce Wayne ’s legacy . Tim Drake in exceptional is given short shrift , as his primary routine in the write up is to dress as Batman for reasons that are n’t quite explained ( does he desire to be Batman or this imply as some kind of psychological boost for the people of Gotham ? ) and get the horseshit beaten out of him by Jason Todd . Damian Wayne becomes the fresh Robin because they happened to have a spare suit handy , I guess . Only Dick Grayson is really developed by rights , although his internal conflict is a second dull – he ’s altogether fine with becoming Batman , but is n’t doing it because Bruce apparently feel there would n’t be any need for a new Batman after he was hold out .
Jason Todd is the biggest disappointment here . I would have been whole fine with declaring his character radioactive and quietly retire him after the stack that was Countdown ( a snatch like what bechance to Hawkman in the 1890s ) , and I ’m still unclear what the point of his character is . There might once have been likely in casting him as a dingy ( well … darker ) mirror to Batman , but he ’s long since deteriorate into a rabbit on psychopath . It seems distinctly unjust to make the battle for the cowl fall down to a fight between Dick Grayson and a raving lunatic .
Much as the flimsy pretext for a showdown between Dick and Tim Drake would have been inescapably throw , at least it would have been a more licit exploration of the varying rendition of what Batman is all about . That ’s this series ’s problem in a nutshell – it never really seems to be about Batman , and all the exploding chaos never seems to get you any closer to what the story really ought to be .
Grade : C
Azrael : expiry ’s Dark Knight
One of two tie - in miniseries meant to gear up up new ongoing titles , Azrael : expiry ’s Dark Knight is by far the better of the two . Writer Fabian Nicieza make wonder with the lately canceled Nightwing and Robin volume , and he ’s talented enough to work make Azrael decipherable despite its flaws .
The story is needlessly complicated , involve two war faction of an ancient order fighting over the Suit of Sorrows , which gives its wearer capital power and the toll of his saneness . The more peaceful sect gives the suit to Michael Washington Lane , one of the “ Ghosts of Batman ” from Grant Morrison ’s late ravel on Batman . Talia al Ghul tries to regain the suit of clothes so that her son Damian can use it to better claim his legacy as Bruce Wayne ’s Logos , and then Nightwing gets involved because the old wearer of the suit killed a pig . Oh , and someone is campaign around who look like Batman , but I ’m not really sure what was going on there .
It ’s a convoluted story , and not a frightfully involving one at that , but Fabian Nicieza adds some little touch sensation that do much to ameliorate the lineament of the story . For a starting time , Michael Washington Lane is actually a pretty interesting quality , who despite his sorrow and brooding still gets some interesting lines and make some surprising choices . He ’s not a complete recap of the somewhat unhinged vigilance man archetype , and that ’s a good thing .
Nightwing and Talia also make interesting supporting characters , both align to the immensely altered landscape painting of Gotham City in unexpected path . Their nervous truce in issue 3 sets up an intriguing status quo for the forthcoming Azrael serial . Nightwing is willing to give Lane a shot at salvation , although it ’s hard to know how long that leeway will last when the new Azrael goes around chopping citizenry ’s legs off , as he does on the last page .
My large problem with the miniseries is Frazer Irving ’s art . As a cosmopolitan rule , I think the received comic record drawing off panache is the standard for a reason , and I do n’t ordinarily like look at nontextual matter that wildly deviates from the norm ( I still have mixed feelings about Frank Quitely ’s way , for example ) . His vogue lends itself comparatively well to the historical brushstrokes of the character reference , but regular theatrical role like Nightwing , Detective Bullock , and Ra ’s al Ghul look moderately funky when drawn by Irving .
Azreal : dying ’s Dark Knight is a profoundly flawed series with a drawing style I really do n’t worry for , but if you had to read one affair from Battle for the Cowl , you could do a lot worse . If that sounds like anathemise with faint praise , that ’s in all likelihood because it is , but his previous work pull up stakes me inclined to cut Fabian Nicieza quite a bit of slack .
tier : B-
Oracle : The Cure
This was , hands down , the most dissatisfactory of the various affiliation - inch , if only because of its grossly waste potential . There are some promising elements here – Barbara Gordon is a groovy character , the Calculator is a suitable opposer for her , and a miniseries about a paraplegic grapheme with the subtitle The Cure imply some pretty major developments lie ahead . Indeed , look at how long she has been away from Gotham City , her return should have had challenging implication for not only her father the Commissioner but also the larger Batman family .
Instead , the whole affair is one big idiotic riff on Second Life that is less interested in the Batman world than it is in purposeless globetrotting , pick up on pocket-size plot threads from Final Crisis and Teen Titans , and mass ’s brain exploding . I really like I was making any of that up . It always bewilder me that any taradiddle set in a world like that of DC Comics would trouble oneself with virtual reality when there are real , honest to good superheroes in the substantial man . And , unsurprisingly , the depiction of the internet in Oracle : The Cure is roughly as absurd and unrealistic as it in every other story about the net ever made .
Writer Kevin Vanhook , who just about pulled off the mindless sport of Superman and Batman vs. Vampires and wolfman ( the title pretty much sound out it all ) , grapple a couple nice touches as he explores how Barbara deal with her paralysis and the dreadful memories of the Joker ’s tone-beginning all those years ago , but that ’s pretty much the only thing he suffer right ( and even then the narration is presented from a rather annoy third somebody omniscient linear perspective ) . The different graphics styles of Julian Lopez and Fernando Pasarin are both workmanlike but do n’t mousse together particularly well . And Guillem March ’s screening go a bit overboard in appealing to the prurient pastime , even by the standard of comic books .
But perhaps my biggest trouble with the miniseries is what it does n’t do . It ’s an exorbitant darnel to call the miniseries The Cure , drop so much fourth dimension on Barbara ’s condition , introduce an constituent that could as if by magic fix any ill , and then never even acknowledge the obvious conclusion – that this serial publication is all about Barbara catch out of the wheelchair . This possibility is n’t even hinted at , as the story lurches to an conclusion that is adequate parts disconnected , cruel , and uninteresting .
frankly , I still have no idea what this serial publication was meant to say about the character . Considering it pester the new monthly Batgirl serial , you ’d think this series would have had more to do with , well , Batgirl , but neither Barbara ’s older personal identity nor the current Cassandra Cain avatar figure of speech in the write up . rather , Barbara Gordon is in pretty much on the dot the same post at the oddment of the story as she was at the head start ( other than a pretty critical triumph over the Calculator , but honestly , who cares ? ) , and for a miniseries that flies the Battle for the Cowl banner , you ’d really think this would have had something to do with what ’s fit on in Gotham City .
Grade : D-
Gotham Gazette
The bookends to the whole outcome introduce and resolve a whole cluster of challenging storylines – too bad most of them are brush aside during the rest of Battle for the Cowl . The four stories follow reporter Vicki Vale as she returns to Gotham and tries to tag down the suddenly elusive Bruce Wayne , Stephanie Brown as she resolves to be the Spoiler again , Leslie Thompkins as she tries to reconstruct the old life in Crime Alley that she had abandoned , and Harvey Bullock as he team up up with Modern partner Jamie Harper ( late of the Robin monthly series ) to investigate a deep slaying .
Of these , only the Bullock secret plan really carries over into any of the other stories , specifically the Azrael : expiry ’s Dark Knight miniseries . This is a ignominy , as I ’d say these four story come the closest to striking the tones of hard change and renewal that I would have associated with the emersion of a novel Batman . I hypothesise I ’m being somewhat unrealistic in what I want from comedian – after all , atmosphere alone ca n’t expect an natural action - packed event on its own , and aura is the main strength of Gotham Gazette .
finally , these are more vignette than stories , but they ’re damn good ones . Although it is a bit odd that the epilog end with Vicki Vale arranging picture and paper clippings on a wall ( while sexily baffle in underwear for some intellect – OK , I cognize the reasonableness , but Battle for the Cowl is aboveboard just gratuitous and a spot off - putt in its voyeurism ) that try out to her that Bruce Wayne is Batman . Surely the point of this whole damn Battle for the Cowl is that that ’s yesterday ’s news ?
degree : B+
The One - snap
The five one - shots represent , somewhat surprisingly , the most consistently successful ribbon of Battle for the Cowl . Commissioner Gordon watch the pass of GCPD as he descend to terms with Batman ’s death , with quite a bit of help from Mr. Freeze . The connection looks at the team Nightwing and Oracle have cobbled together to keep a semblance of order in Gotham , while Man - Bat follows Dr. Kirk Langstrom as he explore for his wife and realizes , for all his upright intentions , none of the wedge want any part of him .
Arkham Asylum features Dr. Jerimiah Arkham as he follow the wreckage of the mental mental home in the wake of the events of Batman : RIP , and The Underground features the Riddler and Catwoman as they deal with the deplorable underbelly of Gotham of which they were once a part .
The only real frail connection here is Arkham Asylum , which is predictably fantastic and does n’t seem to do much beyond introduce a threesome of deeply worrying characters . Man - Bat is astonishingly in force in capturing the profoundly conflicted nature of Dr. Langstrom , as he tries to do goodness while wriggle with the freak within . ( Sure , that history was safe the first sentence around when it was call The Incredible Hulk , but author Joe Harris does a in force job with the stuff . )
Perhaps the real reason why the other three one - shots study as well as they do is that they actually deal with eccentric I deal about . Instead of introducing a raw Azrael or sending Oracle to Hong Kong to fight the internet ( or whatever ) , the other three are all about Gotham City and characters whose story are twine with it , including Commissioner Gordon , Mr. Freeze , the Riddler , Catwoman , Batgirl , and Huntress . None of them are in particular groundbreaking or rotatory , but they do the good problem of showing what Batman ’s disappearing think to those left behind , and they ’re pretty entertaining write up to boot .
Grade : type B
The Tie - In
There was only one Battle for the Cowl tie - in from a veritable serial , but Secret Six # 9 is easily the best matter to come out of this whole mess . Considering the team of amoral and mistily regenerate supervillains have two member with major Batman connector – Bane , who infamously break the Caped Crusader ’s back in the early nineties , and Catman , who rather apparently found his look and name on the Batman – it ’s only nature they would find some way to figure into the madness in Gotham City .
Half of the Secret Six pass a feverish night baffle a massive kidnapping plot out of what they say is respect for Batman ’s bequest . Bane and Catman debate which of the two has more of a right field to assume the mantle , something neither is quite uncoerced to allow they desire . Meanwhile , Ragdoll has rather disturbing put on a Robin costumes ( but then , everything Ragdoll enunciate and does is inherently worrisome , which Catman amusingly betoken out ) .
One of the most consistently satisfying aspects of Gail Simone ’s Secret Six run is her ability to counterpoint the morals of her squad and those of traditional superheroes . A tense standoff between the three villains and Nightwing lead it open to interpretation whether their brutal substance make them no honorable than the abductor they shoot down or if Nightwing is just a sanctimonious little authoritarian who has only taken the right field to dictate what ’s proper and what ’s wrong , as Catman argues . frankly , I ’m tempted to agree with Catman , but then it is his book .
Either way , this is a superior geographic expedition of the fragile dividing line that these darker vigilantes take the air in the name of doing the veracious thing . Who ’d have thought the man who break in the cricket bat and the guy in the feeble cat costume would offer the good meditation on what it means to be Batman ?
Grade : A
Overall Grade for Battle for the Cowl : C+
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