OK, gimme my crow to eat.

I, along with several others, expressed our displeasure with both the art and writing on “Return of Bruce Wayne” #2. I thought the art was bad – really bad. Couldn’t tell the characters apart, people were out of proportion, weird heads… Not my thing.

So it was with much apprehension I picked up “Batman and Robin” #13 with art by Frazer Irving. And loved it. I kept looking at the art thinking, “Is this really the same guy?” Maybe he just took more time with this issue, maybe the source material offered more, but this was pretty damn good. The first two pages sucked me in – the layout of the opening splash page, the coloring, the photo-realistic style – this hit on all cylanders. And for the most part, the rest of the issue was just as good. Irving sometimes draws oddly-shaped heads, or ones that seem out of proportion, but there were only a couple of those in this issue. I wasn’t as bowled over with his Joker as others I’ve read comments from, but I’ve seen much worse.

I also thought the writing was really good. Morrison can be hit or miss with me, but this issue was well done. There were several “Holy shit!” moments in this issue, which had me thinking “What will Grant do next?”

I really, really tried not to like it. But I just couldn’t. 5/5

My appologies, gents. See you next month!