It is more Robin's story and it should be. Retelling the early days of Batman and Robin (Dick Grayson). So it's good, but as with most recent Lemire comics, the real strength of the volume is Dusting Nguyen's artwork, just wonderful (though Robin reminds me too much of Tim, the boy bot from Ascender/Descender.Īn awesome miniseries.

There's a hug that happens later, with Bat telling Robin he's a good boy (not just good superhero-in-training). There are sweet moments: A surprise birthday party featuring Superman and Wonder Woman, though what Alfred sees Dick needs is a more intimate gift, a closer relationship. Enter the guy that raised Bruce Wayne, Alfred, who plays a kind of mother to Wayne's father, angrily confronting him along the way. So this is what Lemire does, father-son stories, where the father needs to learn how to be a father.īut Bruce Wayne's parents were killed, and he doesn't really know how to be a father what he knows is his work, and how to develop Dick into Robin, which is a somewhat different thing. This is NOT titled Batman & Robin, as in the the sixties TV show song, but Robin & Batman, having as its focus Robin/Dick Grayson developing his relationship to Batman/Bruce Wayne. At the end of the day, Robin & Batman is one of the finest takes on Robin’s origin story in any medium.I am cutting back on my comics reading, especially DC/Marvel stuff, but I try to read all the Lemire work I can, and try to minimally keep reading Batman stuff. It would be nice to see a bit more of the resolution to Alfred’s resentment towards Bruce and the path upon which he’s set the young Grayson, but this is ultimately Dick Grayson’s story. And the last moments of his confrontation with his reptilian stalker are an exhilarating release of all of his anger, focused into a single triumphant point.Ī few characters and plot threads feel slightly shortchanged here at the end. A harrowing sequence underwater sees the young hero’s color drained away from him as he comes perilously close to giving up. The circus grounds look appropriately like a graveyard, with only a few brightly-colored segments standing as ominous monuments to the life Dick had taken away from him. Nguyen pulls out all the stops for the big showdown. With this finale, Lemire and Nguyen show us a Dick Grayson who makes a strong case for becoming the Dark Knight - but finds reasons to become something better.īefore then, though, Dick is in for the fight of his life. He’s so close to becoming stunted like Bruce or hateful like Croc. He’s letting his innocence slip away, no longer taking any joy in anything. What he doesn’t realize - and what Nguyen brilliantly communicates by showing us a blank-faced Grayson who stands in stark contrast to his smiling and exuberant classmates - is that he’s losing more than his pain.

In the early goings, Robin finds comfort in his vengeance he’s able to slip away and lose himself in the fight.

Robin & batman lemire