THIS WEEK: Dive back into Waid, Samnee, and co.’s delightful take on the Dynamic Duo’s early days, in Batman and Robin: Year One – Dynamic Duos #2. Also, we’ve got Round-Up reviews of Firestorm #6, Batman: Bad Seeds – Gotham Central #1, and Emperor Aquaman #21.
Note: The reviews below may contain spoilers.
Batman and Robin: Year One – Dynamic Duos #2
Writer/Co-Plot: Mark Waid
Artist/Co-Plot: Chris Samnee
Colorist: Mat Lopes
Letterer: Clayton Cowles with Chris Samnee
Rarely do Year One series get a sequel. So what makes Batman and Robin: Year One, now going by the name Batman and Robin: Year One – Dynamic Duos, special? It’s simple: This flashback series contains a near-perfect marriage of writer, art team, and bygone era to explore. Mark Waid, Chris Samnee, Mat Lopes, and Clayton Cowles examining the early days of Batman and Robin’s partnership through a modern lens? Yes, this series can run forever, please and thank you.
That said, I’d understand if readers of Batman and Robin: Year One questioned whether Dynamic Duos would retain the original’s magic. The answer is simply: Yes. Waid’s take on Batman, Robin, and the relationship between them is still pitch-perfect. His Alfred, Catwoman, Penguin, and the rest are spot-on, too. Match that with Samnee’s clean cartooning and iconic takes on these characters (Silver Age looks updated for the modern era), Lopes’s keen coloring, and Cowles’s exuberant, expertly-placed lettering, and you’ve got another entertaining winner on your hands.
“Entertaining” is the key word in that sentence above. Batman and Robin: Year One – Dynamic Duos #2 is not going to cause you to rethink everything you thought you knew about Batman or Robin or Catwoman. It is not going to leave you pondering deep existential or moral quandaries. But it is fun and pretty and clever and engaging. It is a page-turner. It is a dang good yarn, and out of this creative team and this series, that’s all I’m looking for. Just another fantastic, A+ Bat-venture, with a healthy dash of humor, drama, and action. Me, I’m easy to please.
I kid, so more seriously: A different creative team exploring this era in a different way would not have merited a sequel. Would not have been able to suffuse that sequel with the same tone, energy, and excitement that made the original a hit. Would not have turned in another beautiful chapter that makes the whole exercise look effortless (though it surely is not). If you were one of those worried that Batman and Robin: Year One was a one-off magic trick, that a sequel could produce only diminishing returns, this issue says “shame on you.” It proves that this creative team and this premise have, fourteen issues in, still got the goods.
The Round-Up
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The Fury of Firestorm #6 is both a satisfying conclusion to the Next Level series’s opening mystery and an intriguing opening to the title’s next story. Writer Jeff Lemire, artist Rafael de LaTorre, colorist Marcelo Maiolo, and letterer Lucas Gattoni crafted a somber, emotional ending that left me wondering what could possibly be next for the Nuclear Man – a question I would not have expected to be invested in six months ago. The series’s art team especially shines here, with De LaTorre and Maiolo continuing to have fun with both the story’s “Sliver Age flashback” pages and the more modern, moody action that takes place in the present. The Fury of Firestorm is another winner from DC Next Level, and I’m happy to see it continue on past this initial arc.- Batman: Bad Seeds continues this week with the first issue of the spin-off miniseries Batman: Bad Seeds – Gotham Central. Written by Christopher Cantwell, illustrated by Jacob Phillips, and lettered by Becca Carey, Gotham Central follows a cavalcade of supporting characters, including Jim Gordon, Anarky, Annika Zeller, and Harvey Bullock, as they converge aboard the last train out of Gotham. It’s an engrossing look at what “ordinary” police and criminals are up to while their city is being devoured by giant plants, and it is certainly one of the Bad Seeds tie-ins you should pick up, as this creative team delivers on their premise’s promise.
And finally, because we’ve been so high on almost everything DC recently, I feel it’s worth noting when a title isn’t working. That’s how I feel about Emperor Aquaman, whose 21st issue is a messy, overstuffed battle sequence packed full of too many characters and cartoony illustrations that do not match the series’s “high fantasy” tone. Writer Jeremy Adams, artist John Timms, colorist Rex Lokus, and letterer Dave Sharpe are pulling in different directions, but even if this team was operating on the same wavelength, Adams’s story is too convoluted and overwrought to keep me engaged.
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