I might be a little bias here but man, I really love these guys. Not Batman and Robin, well I do love them, but I was talking about Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason. Ever since they paired up in Green Lantern Corps almost every issue for that series was one of my most anticipated titles for the week. ‘What type of stories were going to be told and how would Gleason draw them?’ was my mindset each month. When we got that little, 3 issue arc, tease of their take on Batman and Robin I couldn’t wait to see more! But it was clear that we would need to wait a while to get another story going. So it is quite easy on why this was immediately a no-brainer choice for me in the new DCU.

The overall goal in this run seems to be that Bruce Wayne wants to be a better father. It was slightly hinted at in the first issue, but here Tomasi beats us over the head with this fact. Bruce has not been a very good father to Damian since he came into his life, what with being dead an all, so he obviously doesn’t want to keep distancing himself from him. I like how Tomasi writes this uncertainty in Bruce because he clearly wants to be close but he has a long way to go on this front. The conversation he has with Alfred on why ‘commendable’ isn’t the best word to use in a relationship was funny and charming at the same time. Also, Tomasi writes a pretty good Damian here even if he has to go back to square one with his personality. Sure he’s back to his egotistical ways, but he clearly is confused on what to do. Scenes like him crushing the bat (which shocked me cause it came out of no where) and seeing his empty room showcases this ideal that Damian is at essence a teenage loner. I can certainly feel where Damian is coming from, even though I am not trained in any deadly arts which would be cool…

For all of the outlandish pages Patrick Gleason gives, which he certainly has done here no doubt, he does these quiet moments very well. You can see the uncertainty in Bruce and Damian’s eyes as they have no idea how to react to each other. The way he draws Damian in the cave scene at the end pretty much epitomizes depression, and I think that’s what he’s feeling right now. But then you also have these amazing fight sequences that balances out the emotional core of the story. The page of Batman and Robin raiding the truck is one of the best pages I’ve seen in comics today. It looks like an unused cover idea for this particular issue, that’s how much care seemed to be put into it. When you have a great balance such as this in the art it really shows how much Gleason puts into each page and panel of the book.

We’re only two issues in and I’m already in love with this series. With Tomasi giving us a literal family dynamic to the Batman and Robin relationship, there is no doubt there will be a lot of great emotional beats in this run. Add in some extremely gorgeous artwork by Patrick Gleason, who is also careful in drawing the emotions throughout the book, and you got one great Batman comic. The ending is also pretty interesting for this issue because one name was uttered: Ducard. Oh I wonder where this is going to go?