Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Grant Morrison
Artist: Andy Clarke
Cover: Frank Quitely
Minor spoilers ahead!
“The Haunting of Wayne Manor pt 1”: Well as the cover boldly states, “The return of Bruce Wayne begins here!”, and so far it’s a pretty interesting beginning filled with what seems like one of the more elaborate mysteries to show up in a recent Batman title. Since the “death” of Bruce Wayne in DC’s Final Crisis storyline, there has been speculation, false hope, and even glimpses of a man that may or may not be the Caped Crusader.
Oberon Sexton is on the trail of a series of murders and feels that the next victim may be Bruce Wayne (he’s been “reclusive” as of late as far as the general public is concerned, and not all heroes know that Batman and Bruce Wayne are one and the same), so he has notified the current Batman (Dick Grayson) since Gotham is his territory. This investigation is interrupted by Alfred, who has discovered some information regarding the Wayne family line which suggests that Bruce may still be alive. It is during this part of the investigation that we get to see a flash back conversation between Damian (Robin and son of Bruce Wayne) and his mother Talia, which suggests that she has plans for his future that conflict with what Damian has chosen to do in his current role. As the search continues, Dick falls into a trap just when it seems as if Damian is…well just look at the cover!
After all of the false hope and hints I’m not ready to get too excited about Bruce’s return, even if Morrison is writing the story. This issue is a good one, so don’t get me wrong, but I’m a little annoyed at a certain plot point that’s way too similar to a certain Marvel character that just recently came back from the “dead.” I do like how Morrison is developing Damian here, and I think this is the first time I’ve seen him stand up and defend Dick to anyone instead of putting him down. He’s not just this bratty pain in the butt kid, and maybe under Morrison’s talented hand he’ll end up being a much deeper character than what he started out as.
Andy Clarke will be handling the art in this arc of Batman and Robin, and is one of the better choices during the series’s run so far. Having not been too happy with Tan’s work during his arc, I found that Clarke was pretty consistent from panel to panel in this one. Not that I expected any less with his track record, and I think that his style fits the part of the Batman and Robin story perfectly.
Fans have seen the return of a “dead” character so many times it’s no longer “shocking” as it is par for the course. However, if anyone is going to helm the return of Batman, you can’t go wrong with Morrison to set this thing up to make it an actual worthwhile story for the fans.
Infinite Speech
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Great review IS! So you’re not a fan of Tan’s artwork? I thought his New Avengers and Thor were awesome.
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Are we speaking of the same Tan Billy? I liked his GL work a lot better than his arc for Batman and Robin and do you know which issues of New Avengers he did? I’ve been collecting those for a while and didn’t notice he worked on that title
Well put.
I can’t wait to read Morrisson’s run on Batman (from Batman and Son on) in one collected edition a la the New X-Men Omnibus. I’ve come to learn that when read as a whole as opposed to individual/fractured issues, Morrisson’s work is awe inspiring!
Hi (first time commenting)
Different folks, different strokes and all that, but I liked Tan’s run. Can’t say that I’ve read anything that had his previous work, but considering I can’t particularly stand Frank Quitely’s art I enjoyed Philip’s run. And I thought Cameron Stewart covered the last arc, Blackest Knight?
@Andy: Grant Morrison is definitely a grand scale writer. I mean, not even considering Batman and Robin, Morrison’s run on Batman as a whole (from Batman and Son to R.I.P.) is just awesome stuff.
Thanks for coming by and commenting Arnab it’s always cool to have a new voice on the board!
And you are correct and that’s my mistake about the sequence of the arcs I’ll actually make that correction ASAP.
I had several issues with Quitely’s art a while back and I figured it would be a deterent with me even starting this series when I found out he would be doing the interiors as well as the covers. It still annoys me at some points but I don’t find his style as horrible as I used to if that makes any sense lol
again, thanks for comin’ through