I was at the library the other day, and spent several minutes weighing what books to take before my wife pointed out they didn't cost anything, just grab 'em. Which is how I read Batman: Odyssey, Batman & Robin: Reborn and Batman & Robin Must Die!. Huh, I don't think I noticed as I read the latter that I missed volume 2, Batman vs. Robin. In fact, in the backmatter for "Must Die!" I thought it was weird that it had the cover for issue #16, I thought these trades had more issues than they do.
At any rate, the Batman & Robin trades were OK for me, not great. Dick Grayson was Batman for what, a year, year and a half before Bruce Wayne returned? Reading these all at once (and missing that chunk in the middle and the other titles running concurrently...) made that seem really short. But they read quickly, unlike Odyssey, which seemed to take forever. Admittedly, most of that was on me, since I only read it intermittently, but the main takeaway I got from that one is that maybe Batman, who introduces the start of each issue with a chatty recap to an unseen listener, isn't a great storyteller himself. "So, the Riddler shot this kid, who looked totally dead but was OK, but it wasn't the Riddler, it was a terrorist dressed up as him, and Deadman was there, but sometimes he was kind of solid but still dead, and then the Bat-Caveman and Robin the Dinosaur Boy Wonder from Skartaris took me to the center of the earth, and that's why I might have to kill someday but I totally won't unless I absolutely have to but I won't because I'm Batman." That's from the top of my head but I swear it's pretty close. That said, I did think some of the art was kind of nice; and actually I don't think the story is quite as nuts as it could be: if Neal Adams wanted to draw Batman riding a pterodactyl, he makes at least some effort for it to make sense in the narrative. I think.
Anyway, three books I read from the library, which I mention here so in ten years I'm not tearing my shelves apart wondering where I put them...
I still need t read these myself. Maybe one day I'll find some of these at my local library too.
ReplyDeleteDick really didn't have much time as Batman did he? I'd like to think the impending reboot and Marvel's answer to this storyline w/Captain America probably sped things up too soon, but Dick as Batman seemed to going nicely before being ended aburbtly, right when he was finally coming into his own.
Aw well.