Batman #688 Review

To say that Winick’s work over the past few years has been underwhelming would be an understatement. The last time Winick actually did a good job with a story arc was his “Under the Hood” arc here on Batman that reintroduced Jason Todd. For that reason, I thought of giving him a shot with his new run on Batman. While Batman #687 was not great I still thought it was a good start for his return to this title. Hopefully Winick can carry that into Batman #688 by providing another good read.

Creative Team
Writer: Judd Winick
Artist: Mark Bagley
Inker: Rob Hunter
Colorist: Ian Hannin

Story: 7 Night Girls out of 10
Art: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Overall: 7.5 Night Girls out of 10

Synopsis: The issue starts three weeks into the future in the Batcave where Batman (Dick Grayson) is getting his ass kicked by someone in the shadows. The person in the shadows tells Dick that he is not Batman and that he can never be the true Batman. As the person rants, Dick falls to the ground right under the case that holds Bruce’s old cape and cowl.

Back in the present, Box News (nice Futurama reference) reports that Batman has returned and that they actually have footage of his return. As they air the footage of Batman taking down a gang of arms dealers the reporter discusses how the new Batman is leaving the crime scenes clean.  This has made it easier for the Police to make more arrests that lead to successful prosecutions.  The Gotham Police Department likes this new approach by Batman.

The scene switches to The Penguin’s place where he is yelling at his men for screwing up.  The Penguin asks his men who approved off the job at the dock. The guy with the moth mask says he approved the job which gets him a beating by The Penguin. The Penguin starts ranting about how he was finally getting to spread his “wings” and now he (Batman) is back and screwing everything up.

We slide over to the roof of the GPD building.  Commisioner Gordon and Detective Pike turn on the Batsignal and wait for Batman to show up. After five minutes Gordon tells Pike that they should leave. Pike is confused and asks why they are leaving with the Batsignal still on. Gordon responds by saying “To let him know we’re here.” Still confused Pike tries to get more answers out of Gordon, but Pike only gets some cryptic responses from Gordon.  They go back into the building.

The scene shifts to the Batbunker were Dick is complaining to Alfred that the cape continues to get in the way of his fighting style.  Even the adjustments they have made to the cape have failed to make any difference. Alfred talks about how Dick and Bruce’s fighting styles were different.  Dick responds by saying that he is not changing fighting styles.

Alfred starts laughing and Dick asks him what he is laughing at. Alfred says he is not still getting accustomed to the difference between Bruce and Dick’s way of being Batman yet. After a bit more discussion about adjustments they need to make to the cape Dick asks Alfred where Damian is. Alfred tells Dick that Damien is awake and awaiting today’s training.

We cut to an arena that looks like the UFC octagon where Dick starts Damian’s training. Damian tries attacking Dick but is unable to hit him as Dick blocks and dodges all of Damian’s attacks.  During the entire fight, Dick peppers Damien with non-stop witty banter.  Damian finally breaks his silence and tells Dick that he talks too much.  Damien lunges in to attack. Dick uses Damian’s momentum to grab his staff and knock him to the ground.

Dick lectures Damian about how he used to banter all of the time when he was Robin to help distract criminals. Damian says he is not Dick and that he will not be a distraction. Dick says he knows that and that they both have to learn to be a team. Damian asks Dick what he is trying to say.  Dick responds by saying “Don’t anticipate.” They then continue their training.

Elsewhere, Two-Face is discussing with one of his henchmen, Benny, the failed arms deal that the Penguin’s men got caught in and how Batman appeared on camera without disabling the cameras. Two-Face asks Benny if he has his camera working yet. Benny finally gets the camera to work and he shows Two-Face a different angle of Batman’s fight with the arms dealers. Two-Face watches the footage and tells Benny he wants him to organize a job. Two-Face tells him the job is a fact finding mission to find out everything that The Penguin is up to, big or small, and then to leak the information.

Benny asks if this is to get the Penguin arrested by the cops. Two-Face says it is not the cops. Benny catches on and says Two-Face wants to get the Batman on the Penguin’s case. Two-Face responds by saying “Yes. I want him going after Penguin. But he’s not Batman.” End of issue.

Commentary
The Good: Batman #688 was a good read.  I know that I may be in the minority on this, but Winick did a good job showing that the transition of Dick being the new Batman.  Winick also did a fine job showing that Alfred and Damian’s adjustments to the new status quo is not going to be easy.

Even though Grant Morrison is exploring this same concept over in Batman and Robin, I cannoty fault Winick for doing the same. The reason I won’t fault Winick for this is because both books come out a week apart and he cannot really have Dick as Batman going out in Gotham and beating villain after villain. The fact is that Winick needs to explore a similar concept to what Morrison is in order to make the transition of Dick going from being Nightwing to Batman feel believable.

I like that Winick shows that unlike in Prodigal Son, were Dick and everyone else knew that Bruce would eventually return to the role of Batman, that this time around everyone, except Tim, believes Bruce is gone and is never coming back. Dick does not have the safety net of Bruce’s return to fall back on in case he fails in his role of Batman.

This time around Dick believes himself as the true Dark Knight so, of course, there should be a tough transition phase. And Winick does a good job exploring the turmoil this is causing Dick and how Alfred is there to support him in his new role.

I like how Winick plays up the difference between how Bruce and Dick do things differently as Batman. When Bruce was Batman he liked playing up the urban legend part of being The Dark Knight.  Bruce would mostly stick to the shadows when fighting bad guys. Bruce liked people to know that Batman was around but that he was an unseen force protecting the streets. It was rare for people to get pictures or footage of Batman during Bruce’s time under the cowl.

On the other hand, Dick has always been a natural showman with his circus background.  Therefore, Dick would naturally want it to be public knowledge that Batman is around by being seen on camera, especially at the start of his run as Batman. As Batman, Dick wants to be the center of attention especially with a big gang war going on in Gotham after the events of Battle for the Cowl. Dick knows that by just having Batman’s name and figure out in the public that people will still think that the original Batman is still around. Even though people will later figure out that he is not the same Batman as before, this plan helps Dick in the short-term as he transitions into being Batman.

Also being more public plays up the fact Dick is trying to retain some of characteristics of Nightwing into his role as Batman. Just from the footage captured on the Box News it can be seen how Dick is using a more acrobatic fighting style to fight the bad guys than Bruce ever used. It was good to see Alfred bring up this fact to Dick that he may have to incorporate more of Bruce’s fighting style into his own in order to be successful.

It was interesting to read the reasoning to why Dick never incorporated a cape and cowl into his Nightwing suit. It was a big argument with fans of the character when he was Nightwing if he should incorporate a cape and cowl into his costume. Winick’s argument of the cape getting in the way of Dick’s fighting style was well made. It will be interesting to see how long it takes Dick to realize that it is not the suit that needs adjustments but just his fighting style that needs to incorporate the cape when he is fighting.

I enjoyed seeing some of the training between Dick and Damian in this issue. Over in Batman and Robin, the new Dynamic Duo are being portrayed as dysfunctional partners were Dick is the only working on making the partnership work. Here we see that Dick is slowly gaining Damian’s respect with some of these training sessions and is actually being a mentor to the young kid instead of only shouting out orders around trying to get his respect that way.

Maybe my favorite part of this issue is that Winick actually picked up on the plot line from the last story arc in Nightwing were Tomasi had Two-Face tell Nightwing/Batman that he had big plans in store for them both. In that last story arc, Two-Face was able to tell that Nightwing was the original Robin and it looks like he again can tell that the new Batman running around is Dick and not Bruce.

With Joker gone for the time being Two-Face can work well as Dick’s Joker during his tenure as the Batman.  Both of these characters share a long history with each other. It will be interesting to see if Two-Face is the one beating up Dick/Batman in the scene three weeks into the future, DC time, or if it is something unrelated.

Even though there were some inconsistencies with the art; Bagley provided plenty of solid artwork in this issue and showed that he is able to draw more than just Spider-Man. And there was a certain energy with the artwork as all of the scenes felt like the characters were constantly moving and not just standing still and posing for a camera. Plus, with Bagley on this arc we know that all of the issues will come out on time and will have a consistent look to it.  And that is a big plus.

The Bad: Even though I liked Batman #688 there were some obvious faults with the issue. The first thing is that some of the dialogue did feel like it was a rehash of dialogue of old dialogue from previous issues. If Winick wants to differentiate his dialogue from Morrison’s then Winick needs to use other Batman characters like Barbara, Bullock, Talia, or some other Batman character than just Alfred and Damian. 

Also, I do not really get the point of Commissioner Gordon’s scene with Detective Pike. The whole scene felt like space filler as Winick just had Gordon ramble on about him wanting Batman to know he knows that he is around. This scene was unnecessary and it did nothing to further what was going on with the issue.

My biggest problem with this issue is the involvement of the Penguin in the gang war going on in Gotham. I know that Battle for the Cowl was not a well received event but the event cannot just be ignored. The last time we saw the Penguin he was being taken away by the US Military. Not the Gotham PD. The US Military.

So, I really do not understand how The Penguin went from being detained by the US Military to being in a penthouse suite in Gotham giving orders to his men again. It only furthers the perception that there is not a lot of communication between the writers and the editors in DC since no one caught this continuity error.

At the same time, it feels uncreative that Winick choose to continue the gang war between Two-Face and Penguin when we were left off with Black Mask being in control of the gang war. Even though Black Mask is not one of my favorite Batman villains I am still interested to learn who the new Black Mask is. But, because we are just getting a rehash of the Two-Face/Penguin gang war from Battle for the Cowl my interest in the new Black Mask and what he has in store for Gotham has disappeared.

Overall: Batman #688 was a good read. While it is nothing amazing, Winick is doing a good job showing the rough transition Dick is going through from being Nightwing into being the new Batman. I am also interested to see another confrontation between Dick and Two-Face now that Dick is the new Batman.
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Kevin