BATMAN AND ROBIN #5

Review by: TheNextChampion

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I'm going to try and put this as delicately as possible.

Batman and Robin has been a terrific series for the past four months. It was the start of rejuvenating the Batman comics and Grant Morrison has been on a tear with writing the character. It's been wacky, innovative, and has had some of the coolest moments to come out of comics in 2009. Even with a different artist with last issue, this series has still been one of the best comics to come out in any company. Now with this issue, I have to say sadly is very different. No it's not because of Philip Tan as artist; it's shockingly coming from Grant Morrison....

This felt by the numbers and plain lazy for a man like Morrison. The last four issues have been a wonderful and adventurous Batman title. For the fifth issue however it feels like someone else is writing this. It really does pain me to say this but this might be the worst issue by Grant Morrison I have read this year. Nothing about this story scream of originality or coolness. It was just bland, and every moment was very easily predictable. Seeing this Red Hood was interesting and Morrison seems to be playing him up as 'today's hip crime fighter'. Sorta like how Kingdom Come was parodying the 90's superhero; Morrison seems to be channeling what an original villain in this decade is like. But then you get the reveal and my god was I disappointed. In fact two of my biggest problems with this issue was:

A) The reveal that Jason Todd is Red Hood. Now I'm not upset that Todd is the new Red Hood; just the execution of it. This should be a big deal and Morrison just plays it up as: 'Yeah he's the new villain, anyways hear's a grizzly scene in an Airplane'. There's no dramatic moment of Todd being Hood or just a cool realization it's Todd. It was just like we knew who it was ahead and we had to move on. Rushed is a pretty good word to describe the reveal in full. Why is Todd the new Hood though? What's different about this disguise then just being plain old Jason Todd? It makes no sense for him to be in this outfit and Morrison just decides 'hey who cares, lets just throw in this random assassin at the end'.

2) Speaking of which, who the hell is this El Flamingo and why should I care? Morrison laid it out in small chunks about the man in these two issues; but to him to be the ultimate threat comes out of left field. Here I thought this was going to be about Red Hood (now Jason Todd) coming back to kill Batman and now this scary motherfucker comes riding in. To be fair, the idea of him skinning and eating faces is pretty wicked; but Morrison never plays him up either. He just.....shows up and that's it. In fact in the previous issue all we know is little references by his informant and a quick panel shot of the plane. So his appearance does come out of left field. Poor pacing by Morrison here.

What saves this issue from being a total trainwreck is the artwork. We can agree to disagree but I think Philip Tan is really showing how good he can be here. Everything flows really well and there is fighting in this it's really good. He lays out the scenes pretty well and even though this Flamingo guy comes in out of no where; it is a cool design. Plus I do like the new design for Todd, at least to make him stand out more with the two other characters with black hair. There is two minor problems I had with this though. One thing, Scarlett (Todd's sidekick) mask was bugging me as if Tan had no idea how to draw it. Several times this mask is drawn to be her real face and other times there are weird sweat marks flowing. Considering she is somewhat the focus here it does hurt the issue abit. Then there is some coloring mishaps in here, but that's more Jonathan Glapion's fault then Tan's. Other then those minor things this is still a pretty good looking comic.

I'm really disappointed in this issue. Morrison has written four really outstanding issues with this new series. Then it just lays with a thud and it's like a writer who has no talent did this issue instead of Morrison. I'm a huge fan of his and I feel he's done incredible work for the last two years. So seeing this issue really was like hitting a brick wall. Philip Tan is the surprise for me because he's done an excellent job filling in for Quitely. Haters be damned because you can chalk me up as loving the art he's provided here. I hope the next issue is miles better then what Morrison delivered here today. Cause I would rather die then see this series suddenly turn into a bad comic book.

Story: 2 - Average
Art: 4 - Very Good

Comments

flapjaxx says:

October 7, 2009 at 6:51 pm

"Speaking of which, who the hell is this El Flamingo and why should I care?"

Reread Batman #666. Flamingo was mentioned there. He’s connected to the Black Glove.

The themes of "eating people’s faces/false faces/cutting off faces and using them as masks" have been all over Morrison’s run. In the Club of Heroes arc Mayhew apparently wore a false face of himself, Dr Hurt said he sliced off the actor Mangrove Pierce’s face and wore it, Professor Pyg puts similarly skin-like masks over his victims to give them new personalities. And now El Flamingo is revealed as a face-eater.

Admittedly, none of that stuff is THAT important, but the point is that certain touchstones of Morrison’s run continue to reflect, refract and reverberate through every issue. And look at the cover to the next issue–Dick trapped and tied up by Jason–it echoes the situation (and cover) of Batman #674, in which Bruce was trapped by the Third Man. If you want to go even further, Sasha’s constant harping at Damian, blaming him when he was actually trying to save her, kinda recalls how the Joker (in #663 and RIP) kept badgering Bruce because of the incident in Batman #655, when Bruce was actually trying to save the Joker.

I agree that this was the worse issue of B&R yet (though I liked the art more than last time), but for the reader who’s really constantly cognizant of Morrison’s run, there’s still TONS of interesting stuff going on underneath the surface. The surface story was indeed a bit predictable in this ish, tho.

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gobo says:

October 7, 2009 at 7:10 pm

"@gobo Let me put it this way: For a comic that’s suppose to be about Red Hood/Scarlett; Flamingo showing up is unnessicary and pointless."

We’re getting into an awful lot of spoilers so…

They’re setting up Flamingo to be a villain against Red Hood/Scarlett so it makes total sense for him to show up at the end. It ties things in with #666 and sets up what’s going to happen next issue.

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stuclach says:

October 7, 2009 at 7:15 pm

I don’t mean to keep harping on Tan vs. Quitely, but how cool would that airplane scene have looked if Quitely had drawn it (or the motorcycle scene, for that matter). Tan’s style (which I understand some people like) is just too sketchy to make out the kinds of details I like to see in my books.

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TheNextChampion says:

October 7, 2009 at 7:15 pm

@gobo Well know I remember it’s a callback to #666. (Thanks to @flapjaxx for reminding me). But this arc is about Red Hood and Scarlett. Plus isn’t Flamingo suppose to be a villain for Damien? Cause in #666 he becomes the new Batman and I believe he fights him at some point. Him fighting Red Hood/Scarlett doesn’t seem to matter in the grand scheme of things.

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gobo says:

October 7, 2009 at 7:20 pm

You’re throwing around too many "Suppposed"s 🙂

The arc is definitely about Scarlett and Red Hood, but they’re not strictly speaking villains, they’re like the Punisher only attacking bad guys. Flamingo is a bad guy that’s coming to town because of RH/SC, he’ll deal with them but obviously Dick and Damian are going to end up involved too, ultimately leading to Damian and Flamingo encountering each other.

Him fighting RH/Scarlett is just how he comes to town and I’m sure them having their first "nemesis" will alter their course somehow in new and interesting ways as well.

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TheNextChampion says:

October 7, 2009 at 7:24 pm

@gobo: Well your seeing something I didn’t really see. In fact the Flamingo guy coming in wasn’t my biggest problem anyways.

Just the reveal of Red Hood was very boring. Then the whole issue is just bland and feels like any other comic book. There was nothing ‘wow’ or ‘wonderful’ about it. It was as bland as a Morrison issue your gonna get.

@stuclach: I’m sure Quitely would’ve made this looking gorgeous in his own style. But we’d probably be waiting still for this issue to come out. Tan did an exceptional job, once again, with this comic. It’s not like Quitely but then again comparing it to Quitely wouldnt make any sense on critiquing it.

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stuclach says:

October 7, 2009 at 7:40 pm

@TNC – I am willing to wait a bit longer to see the book as Morrison envisioned it. Morrison and Quitely work so well together that I imagine Mr. Morrison sees Quitely’s art when he visualizes these pages (I know I do).

Again, I know that many people prefer Mr. Tan’s art, and I respect that, but I’m not in that camp.

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TheNextChampion says:

October 7, 2009 at 7:47 pm

@stuclach: I didnt say I prefer Tan’s art. I would love for Quitely to be on this full time. But that realisticly cant happen because this book would be late so often. But out of all the choices DC/Morrison made to be replacement artists they were all good except for this choice. Now it seems like a right choice because Tan is doing a great job in my eyes.

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comicBOOKchris says:

October 7, 2009 at 8:28 pm

The big mystery reveal of Jason Todd was already done in Battle For The Cowl, so I’m glad they didnt do it here, it would have been retredding old ground.

Besides, Flamingo wasnt that much out of left field, he was teased the entire issue!

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coltrane68 says:

October 7, 2009 at 9:11 pm

I actually found Tan’s art to be quite good this issue, which surprised me, as I really did not like it last issue.

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edward says:

October 7, 2009 at 10:38 pm

" It’s been wacky, innovative, and has had some of the coolest moments to come out of comics in 2009"

"It really does pain me to say this but this might be the worst issue by Grant Morrison I have read this year."

" Cause I would rather die then see this series suddenly turn into a bad comic book."

HYPERBOLE is a terribel thing. it water’s down meaning and arguement

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WadeWilson says:

October 9, 2009 at 6:07 am

@TNC – Jason Todd has been the Red Hood before, so maybe that’s why it wasn’t such a huge deal of a reveal (?).

And as a Morrison Apologist you are not allowed to question Flamingo coming out of the blue or any other odd story-telling choices, you are meant to blindly claim it as genius & ahead of it’s time. Please play your role correctly.

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TheNextChampion says:

October 9, 2009 at 12:23 pm

@Wade: That wasnt brilliance by lazily hinting at this guy and then him showing up out of the blue to kill everyone. He was only mentioned through bizarre dialogue last issue and this time all we get is really a grisy plane sequence (which was cool to be honest). Morrison wrote this to be a Red Hood story and then the last two pages turn this into a completely different story.

If this was another writer we’d probably be yelling to the masses on how bad pacing that is.

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WadeWilson says:

October 9, 2009 at 12:28 pm

When I was complaining about this type thing in past stories of G-Mo’s (we know what I mean), you claimed it all as genius writing, now he’s doing what he always does (bizarre dialogue, things being all over the place & vague) & you don’t like it?

I’m glad to see your review is unbiased & judging the issue on it’s own merits, though.

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WadeWilson says:

October 9, 2009 at 12:31 pm

But, having said that, if I know you, by the end of this arc, you will be back-tracking & saying it was genius all along, begging on your knees before the Alter of Morrison begging for forgivness! 😛

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drakedangerz says:

October 9, 2009 at 12:58 pm

Its a bunch of 3 issue arcs, so Morrison can’t draw out the introduction of characters like you might like.

I had no problem with Flamingo showing up becase A) he was talked about in #666 which plays heavily into everything that Morrison has done since (Prof. Pyg, Flamingo, Black Glove as the devil, 3 Batman demons, etc.) and B) he didn’t ride in balls blazing and killing everyone in those last two pages like you said.

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TheNextChampion says:

October 9, 2009 at 11:34 pm

@Wade: What Morrison did in the course of RIP and before that is totally different then this current run. I see what your saying but I dont find myself contradicting myself about the guy. I’m sure when I re-read this arc, even if #6 blows me away, I’ll score it lower then say the first three issues.

I just think Morrison didn’t handle introducing this Flamingo guy very well. I totally forgot about the #666 issue so that aspect was lost with me. Then he just randomly shows up and takes out Red Hood/Scarlett with no problem. He could’ve handled this better, that’s all I’m saying.

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WadeWilson says:

October 10, 2009 at 12:24 pm

@TNC- I’m only taking the piss, mate 🙂 I think it’s awesome that you can be unbiased & judge a book on it’s own merit no matter who wrote it.

The funny thing is, I have no problem with this issue, the way Flamingo was introduced etc. Have we … switched roles here???

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BATMAN AND ROBIN #5

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