There seems to be a good chunk of Bat fans who refuse to read this new volume of ‘Batman and Robin’ because of Damien going back to ‘default mode’. Yes, because of the relaunch Damien is back to being his old bitchy self. While I was ready to groan at that prospect, Peter Tomasi has done a brilliant job with the Father and Son dynamic of this series for me to bother. The last three issues of this new run has been up there as one of the best titles DC has to offer right now. When you have Patrick Gleason providing the art then it’s pretty much game over on arguments. Or is it?…

While I am not going to say this issue was bad in any ways, I will say this is the first time I can sort of sympathize with the ‘nay-sayers’ of this series. I feel like we didn’t need to have Bruce and Damien arguing towards the end to drive the point even further that they are on two opposite wavelengths. We just had them arguing last issue, and the last, and the first to be honest; so after such a kick ass first half with literal explosions seeing another Father/Son argument was a bit disappointing. It wasn’t bad mind you, I think Tomasi still writes these segments as a believable tiff between family members. (Or as normal as you can get when you Dad dresses as a Bat) Most the enjoyment for me in this issue came at the opening with Nobody torturing Bruce and Damien and then Alfred coming in to save the day. It’s fun, exciting, and feels like your watching a movie rather then another comic book. It’s this balance of fun, action moments and dramatic family moments that make me love this series to death.

Gleason’s art sure is pretty….That’s as much as I can say because continuing praise of some very gorgeous artwork can get tough. Basically if you aren’t impressed by the cover alone for this issue then I don’t know what to think of you. Every page, every single panel has a ton of detail in them and you can really see where Gleason gets his influences. His take on Joker or Two-Face is a bit weird; but it’s hard to complain when you then see a full page panel of Batman (with his cape tattered and floating everywhere) and Damien flying away from an explosion.

So while the 4th straight issue of Batman and Damien arguing is a bit dull; it didn’t bother me too much to hate the issue. Quite frankly it’s more of a nitpick because I love this issue almost as much as the previous three. Peter Tomasi mixes action packed, movie moments with family drama so well it’s a breath of fresh air. Then you have some of the best artwork by Patrick Gleason on each page and considering this is a man who had troubles doing a monthly book before and killing it now is really impressive. Maybe this isn’t the best issue of the run so far, but it’s so damn good ranking it with the others is pretty much pointless.