"The End" Week: Batman #713!

Oh, I see what they're trying to do here, and I hate it. From 2011, Batman #713, "Storybook Endings" Written by Fabian Nicieza, pencils by Steve Scott, Daniel Sampere, Andrei Bressan; inks by Walden Wong, Rich Perrotta, Andrei Bressan, and Rodney Ramos.

Even though the previous issue ended with the Riddler finding "the tools of my restoration," he's jobbed out here in flashback; as an unseen narrator gives us the history of Batman and Robin. He has a particularly trenchant insight as to the purpose of Robin, namely clowning henchmen with the shame of getting beat up by a kid. Robin checks one's ID, so we know he's important to the story: years later, as Nightwing he busts the guy's kid. Years after that--just how many years exactly? Ten? A rolling ten? Anyway, as Dick/Batman and Damien/Robin bust up a hostage situation, the kid is there again, but as the victim: once he had been paroled, Dick got him a job through the Wayne Foundation; where Damien is telling this story to three kids, Bob, Jerry, and Bill. Those names sound familiar, like maybe one of them does all the work.

The message doesn't really land for me: this might've worked for me sometimes, but just feels like it was thrown out there to fill time before the new number one. Also, while this makes Dick look compassionate, it makes it look like Bruce was burnt out years ago...well, maybe.