Writer: Frank Miller
Artist: Jim Lee
Publisher: DC Comics
Review by: Ben Crofts

Way back in September 2005 this series kicked off with a Batman that was more than a tad edgy, but it wasn’t until the second issue, some two months later, that the title acquired a name it has yet to shake off: Gather round, for these are the tales of the Goddamn Batman!

The question of what Miller was up to led to much discussion online and off, but the answers have been a long time coming. With the latest issue, Miller has provided the first of those answers, and it irrevocably alters the perception of the series.

Up until this issue the Batman presented by Miller was a fixated, obsessive lunatic, hell-bent on smashing up criminals and corrupt cops alike with abandon and often laughing in the process. He relished delivering as much violence as possible upon a perpetrator, short of killing them, and we got a running commentary on exactly what was being served to who and why. The fun of the title works in the fantasy of it: Batman has perfect knowledge of these people and they are all 100% guilty, but the law is corrupt, which means they won’t get their due punishment so what’s left? The Goddamn Batman.

The earlier issues also introduced various players into the tale: Captain Gordon, Black Canary, Batgirl, plus the heroes: Superman, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman. Miller was the recipient of much criticism for his portrayal of the latter, but if you assume that the character hails from an island of fervent believers in militant feminism, it isn’t that much of a jump. For the most part these introductions exist to lay the seeds of future stories, only Black Canary and Green Lantern have a prominent role in these issues.

The focus of these initial issues is Batman’s acquisition of Robin, the young, recently bereaved Dick Grayson, and his total inability to deal with it. Miller’s portrait of Batman is that of a man with an obsessive degree of control, who plans for everything and succeeds. All of this is blown to pieces by the arrival of Robin. Batman’s response to this is to drive the boy as hard as possible, not giving him time to think or feel. He intends to train him and shape him into a soldier for his war on crime. Everything he does is a test, including throwing the killer of Grayson’s parents in front of him and allowing him to kill the criminal if he wants to. The question being: Is he an avenger or a detective? It’s no surprise what the answer is, but the intelligence divulged is, the trail leads to the Joker.

Given how successful it appears to be, how does Batman’s plan for Grayson go so badly wrong? It all comes down to this master planner miscalculating badly. The Justice League despatch Green Lantern to Gotham, Batman sets up a meeting between them at a safehouse and it all explodes from there. Matters are not helped by the fact that the house is painted yellow and Batman’s suit is of the same colour which renders Green Lantern unable to use his ring against him. The discussion becomes fraught, punches are thrown, a power ring is stolen and a chase starts that turns deadly serious after Robin smashes Green Lantern’s throat in!

After some very quick action on the part of Batman to prevent Green Lantern dying, he finds his entire outlook shattered, that he was in error to take the path he did with Robin, that he rushed the kid’s education and failed to teach anything beyond violence and how to kill. Equally necessary to that knowledge is the context of how and when to use it, and to what degree. The cost of his failure was very nearly a man’s life. For Robin, it was sobering, for Green Lantern ended up becoming the target of his rage over the loss of his parents. Batman concludes that it began with grief for him, so too is it for Robin, but unlike Batman, he’s had no opportunity to do so, which is why he’s taken to his parent’s grave, to say goodbye.

I’ll emphasise this isn’t really a concluding issue, there’s still the Joker to deal with and whatever murderous mischief he’s planning, the heroes won’t be forgetting about Batman, nor will Gordon, but it is significant for how the central story of Batman and Robin develops. It shows that the grinning lunatic Batman we’ve seen so far won’t necessarily be the Batman we get all the time, that Robin has, and will continue to influence changes in him. One notable sequence in the earlier issues is Albert beating a punching bag in frustration at what his charge has become, it may well be that Robin will steer Batman away from the lunatic he’s in danger of becoming. Finally, it shows us a Batman who is capable of acknowledging error, who’s human and fallible, one who realises he was building a mask he could never or should never have kept on for dealing with Robin. A new approach is needed.

There is a long-running schism in superhero comics over the role of superheroes: Do they change or uphold the status quo? Miller’s view would appear to be that they change the world, making it better by whatever means necessary. Consequently the heroes that oppose Batman wish to maintain the status quo, Batman’s contemptuous monologue on this position makes for entertaining reading as he and Green Lantern engage, both verbally and physically. What this latest issue has shown though is that Batman is willing to alter his own modus operandi, which may well be contrasted with the heroes’ inflexibility later.

Is this series now without its flaws? Not at all, but with issue nine, it has, for the first time stepped out of the shadow of the Goddamn Batman and may well venture into some far more interesting territory without him!