Monday, November 2, 2009

Batman #691

Writer: Judd Winick. Pencils: Mark Bagley.

What Happened: Two Face drugs and batters Dick Grayson in the Batcave all while demanding to know where the real Batman was. Before continuing his assault, Two Face sends the woman who teleported him into the Cave away as he continues to wail away on Dick. All throughout the beating, Dick continues to insist he is Batman, further infuriating the insane Two Face. During Two Face's ranting, several darts hit Dick in the side, which annoys Two Face, who figures it was his teleporter who fired the shots. Upon turning around, Two Face is shocked to find Batman holding his teleporter at gunpoint before Batman disappears into the shadows. Two Face looks back at where Dick was laying and discovers that he too has vanished. Now fully confused, Two Face begins to fire his handgun wildly around the Batcave hoping to hit Batman. Instead, the giant penny in the Cave falls towards Two Face and as he gets out of the way he is attacked by Dick, who finally manages to convince Two Face that he is indeed the Batman before he knocks Two Face unconscious. With Two Face out cold, Alfred(in a Batman mask)walks over and tells Dick that he is glad that he managed to fire the proper amount of adrenaline into Dick earlier. After that, they ship Two Face away to Blackgate prison. Unbeknownst to Dick and Alfred however is the fact that Black Mask and his gang of Arkham escapees break Two Face out of the paddy wagon transporting him to Blackgate. Black Mask offers Two Face the opportunity to either work with him or to leave town. Two Face decides to leave town as opposed to getting mixed up with Black Mask. Back in the Cave, Dick decides to completely clear it out, so that there would be no trace that Batman was ever there. Dick clears everything out except for Jason Todd's Robin outfit and Bruce's Batman costume. Dick decides to put the Jason Todd outfit in storage, while taking Bruce's costume back to his headquarters. While dismantling Jason Todd's shrine, Dick realizes the base is hollow, and he proceeds to cut it open, discovering a flashdrive. Dick loads the flashdrive into a computer and discovers that it contains a case file about the death of Dick's parents. This issue ends with Dick trying to figure out exactly what Bruce was doing and why he had a secret case file on his parents.

What I Thought: Once again, I have to admit that I really liked this comic. And yes, I definitely enjoy this series way more then Batman and Robin. Sorry. Next issue Tony Daniels takes over the writing duties, which should be heavy on the stuff he started in the Battle for the Cowl mini-series from this past summer. Getting back to this comic though, there's really not much to complain about. Judd explained away most of my complaints from last issue in this issue, which always makes me happy. It turns out Two Face wasn't wearing that garish Two Face Batman outfit, Dick only thought he was due to the drugs in his system. We also learn that the only reason Two Face was even able to get into the Cave was because Bruce's paranoid security measures weren't activated. Two Face even admits that he has tried teleporting to the Cave before, but with no luck, stating Batman was able to prevent any unauthorized teleporting into the Cave, be it by conventional or magical means. So, good story plus very good artwork(I've always been a big fan of Mark's artwork)equals a very happy Batfan.

Score: 9 out of 10.I can't even begin to express how awesome it was for Dick to try to knock the giant penny on top of Two Face.

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