With only three issues into its run, it’s safe to say this is one hell of a Batman run by Peter Tomasi and Patrick Gleason. First you have a writer, who just gets the father/son dynamic of this team, and then an artist who is seriously one of the best out there right now in the industry. Considering I lumped this issue with the previous two, my personal pick of the week’s you can guess how I thought about this one.

The opening pages alone are what makes this one of the best books at DC. Again Tomasi just ‘gets’ these characters in a way more then just a team. These guys are a family whether it be a father, a son, or in Alfred’s case a grandfather as well. Damien might be back to his early form as a character, but it’s clear that Tomasi is going the slow burn of bringing him back to where he was before the reboot. I particularly loved the sequence of Alfred trying to bug Damien because it shows Alfred cares for the kid (even with all of the grief) and that he’s just as slick as Bruce when he wants to be. The pages involving ‘Nobody’ are pretty good though, although maybe not as revealing as the previous issue. Still I always find it impressive on a writer making a good case for the villain and being a perfect opposite to Batman. It’s been done so many times that when it works, you can tell it really works.

The art by Patrick Gleason is really hard to describe at this point. It’s gorgeous, that’s really all there is to it. It also doesn’t hurt that Gleason clearly mimics one of my favorite artists, Kelley Jones, in the opening pages. (The panel where Bruce is brooding on top of a gargoyle) That is just pure Kelley Jones and it also is a testament to how well designed the Batsuit is. The incredibly long flowing cape, the pointy nose, and the lack of eyes really make for a scary depiction of the character. (To be fair though, if it was a 100% Jones homage the ears would have been about 10ft tall) The rest of the issue is just as brilliant as that single sequence I mentioned. You can get the emotion from the characters perfectly on each page, and Gleason does not hold back on the violence.

For my money, this is THE Batman book for DC right now. That is in no way lowering the quality of Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s Batman book. That is in its own level of high quality on its own. But for the purpose of this title, it delivers on everyone at 100%. Tomasi just gets the family dynamic on this team and it continues with this issue. Then you have Gleason’s art, which is just downright flawless at this point. Considering this is ONLY the 6th issue the pair has ever worked on for these characters; it’s astonishing that it feels like they’ve been working on this for years. You wanna talk about the best creators to ever write and draw the Dark Knight? You better add some room to these two guys right now.