Batman and Robin #10

I have to hand it to Grant Morrison. In the interest of full disclosure there is very little that Grant does that I don't like, in fact his run on the JLA I consider one of my favorite iterations of my favorite team. (The other being the BWAH-HA-HA League) But with his creation of Damian, son of Bruce Wayne and Talia Al-Ghul, is such a stroke of genius it's made this book one of the few I really look forward to. I wish they would tell us how old he's supposed to be because it would make some of the situations he's put in even more surreal.

Take, for instance, the opening scene of this book. He's in a Wayne Enterprises board meeting talking about financial irregularities in one of the firm's charity accounts. Can you imagine going to work and getting dressed down by a twelve year old while he explains financial dealings you had to go to school for years to learn about? Although, all this talk about someone bleeding money out of the Wayne accounts reminded me that Hush is still out there posing as Bruce, spending all his money. Did that plotline ever resolve? Wouldn't that be the first place to look for financial drains? Maybe Batman and co. forgot about him.

One of the coolest things about this issue is we gota peek behind Damian's rough exterior and saw that he really cares about being Robin and honoring his father's legacy. As he and Dick are serching for clus to find Bruce, who has apparently been "lost in time" ala Captain America, he realizes that once Bruce returns there's really not a need for him to be Robin anymore and it worries him. Add to that the fact that apparently his mother as brainwashed him and can force him to kill Dick at anytime and he is understandably concerned.

This issue also kicks off the big "Hunt for Bruce Wayne" story line that will run through the summer with Alfred finding clues hidden in paintings in the mansion. The search finds a second "batcave" hidden from the main cave that has the word "Barbatos" scrawled on the wall in big letters and the word "Thomas" written smaller all over the wall. Not sure what's going on here but it looks like the search for Bruce has started in earnest and with Grant Morrison at the helm it's going to be a fun ride.

Written by GRANT MORRISON

Art by ANDY CLARKE and SCOTT HANNA

Cover by FRANK QUITELY

Variant Cover by ANDY CLARKE

Batman: The Widening Gyre #5

I am all for letting us see well-established characters like Batman in new or unusal situations but thic comic had crossed the line from interesting to a little uncomfortable. I was fine with seeing Batman as a love-sick puppy falling head over heals for Silver St. Cloud, he's a hard working man and he should get a pretty lady to go home to. Where it got strange is the fact that he is cheating on her with Catwoman! I mean the guy has gone how many years without a lady in his life now he needs two? I've heard of making up for lost time but this is ridiculous!

The artwork for Catwoman is a little sketchy also. The first shot we see of her it looks like her legs are entirely too long for her body and her backside is oddly shaped. Also it looks like she went to the back of the closet and got a costume from the 60's. In fact it reminds me of the costume worn on the Adam West TV show. I know this mini-series is set in the past but I thought it was the recent past. Catwoman knows Batman is Bruce, that happened in the Hush arc, right?

That brings us to the new addition to the Batman family introduced in this story, Baphomet. An interesting character in that it appears he shows us what happens when crime kills someone important to an ordinary guy instead of the heir to a vast fortune. Baphomet doesn't have all the money and resources that Bruce had starting out but is just as driven and focused. I think it will be interesting to watch a guy fight crime then go home to the wife and kids. I wonder if they know what he's doing with his nights. Of course I've read enough comics to know that this will eventually end in disaster. The Joker or someone will track him back to his home and kill his family in front of him or something equally as horrible.

Regardless of what happens I have enjoyed the series so far and look forward to the last issue next month. It 's always fun to see Bruce lighten up and get the girl (or two) and see him rely on his "family" to hold down the fort while he is off getting some badly needed R&R.

Written by Kevin Smith

Art by Walter Flanagan and Art Thibert

Cover by Bill Sienkiewicz

Variant cover by Gene Ha