Batman: Battle for the Cowl #3 (of 3)

So, do I really have to say “SPOILER ALERT”?!  Okay, I will.  SPOILER ALERT!  Read no further if you don’t want to know, as if you couldn’t figure it out on your own, who the “new” Batman and winner of the “ Battle for the Cowl” is.

Of course Dick Grayson was going to take over as Batman, and as predictable as this was, as was the fact that Damien Wayne would be the new Robin (and I still believe Tim Drake will become Red Robin) there are a few little surprises or maybe we should say, twists in this issue, which are, maybe ,not for the best from a storytelling point.

It seems that Dick Grayson, former Robin and current Nightwing hasn’t taken up the mantle of Batman because of “my (Grayson’s) fear of failure…or because I felt it was wrong to try to replace Batman…I refused to take on the role of my mentor…because it’s what he asked me to do.”  That’s noble of Dick and all, but is he saying that he really could have just waltzed into the cave and put on Bruce’s cowl, without a second thought except for the fact that Bruce asked him not to?  What about the “with my whole heart NO!” Maximus type refusing to take over the Roman Empire from Marcus Aurelius being the very reason he is the ONE to do it?  I guess we can say that there is still some of this type of sentiment concerning Dick's actions, but maybe not as much as I thought.  Anyway, Dick is the only one who can adequately fill the role. SInce this is the case, he should have done it already, as Gotham is crashing and burning all around him, and has been since Batman disappeared. 

In other news, and more potential SPOILERS, so read no further if you don’t want to know….

…might we be seeing poor Jason Todd, I say poor because he should have stayed dead, wearing a Black Lantern Ring in a few months?  Silly as it would be, since they could have left him dead, and he still could’ve gotten a Black Ring, it doesn’t seem like it’s out of the realm of the possible.  Also, the identity of the new Black Mask isn’t solved and we don’t get to see Tim Drake’s (the current Robin, now replaced by Damien) reaction to all this, although something has to be saved for the upcoming Red Robin series, eh?

coming soon...

Daniel’s pencils finish up the mini-series just like they started, very solidly.  The well choreographed battle between Dick and Jason is well drawn also.  The final page spread of Dick in the Bat-suit is disappointing though, since we really don’t see much, but again something has to be saved for the upcoming new Batman and Robin series, eh?

coming soon...

Overall, now that this “ Battle” silliness is over, what is the state of the Batman-Family books?  Time will have to tell, but putting Batwoman, a character that really hasn’t caught on much with widespread readers, and her partner The Question in Dectective Comics as the leads in a ploy to recapture some of the magic of 52, is a very risky move for one of DC’s longstanding flagship titles.  We have to assume Dick, as the new Batman, will be the lead in Batman.  As mentioned, Red Robin, most likely starring Tim, perhaps the most interesting of all the Bat-characters besides the “deceased” Bruce Wayne, as the title character, holds promise and will be worth checking out.  The Outsiders will most assuredly limp along with their new cast, and Alfred at the helm.  Finally, Batman and Robin will start in June.  There’s a good bit of interesting storytelling ahead of us but honestly, the Superman-Family titles have the Bat-Titles beat right now.  They didn’t have to resort to killing Superman…alright, at least not again…to create top notch tales.  Again, time will have to tell how the Bat-Titles fare and if they can measure up to the greatness currently going on over in the Superman books.  We’ll just have to wait and see…

Rating: 7/10
Last Updated: Jan 7, 2012 - 7:41
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I'm going to be good money that there going to do to tim what they did to dick all those years back. His character is far beyond sidekick now it's time for him to be fired as robin so he can become nightwing, i mean red robin (not sure why there not making a whole knew superhero character for him like they did for dick.

#1 - Chris - 05/22/2009 - 06:00

From RIP to Battle..it's been lacklustre.

I'll start off by saying Tony Daniel's art is mostly very good throughout RIP and Battle for the Cowl (he certainly likes Jim Lee's take on the Bat Universe). However, "killing" Batman I believe was wrong to start with. Heck..we'd already had the reboot " One Year Later " where he was gone for a year and Gotham somehow survived, now Gotham's lost him again? How many times do we go to the "Gotham's lost Batman" well? Batman is my favourite comic character but he's been ill served lately (and considering what a hit Dark Knight was with theatre audiences, DC should be on a roll with the character). Damien as Robin strikes me as another Jason Todd in the making but with the Al Ghul lineage behind him and the inevitable interfence by his mother or grandfather. The character is too unstable to be a serious consideration as a "sidekick" but it appears he'll be the new Robin just the same. Detective Comics will be headlined by Batwoman, a character that's not resonating with the Bat audience (Rucka may close some gaps and the artwork looks very good..but it may be too little, too late). So you've got two tepid characters taking prominent roles in the Bat Universe. Personally, I'm writing Detective off my buy list until the status quo is restored. It'll take a miracle by Rucka to draw me in. Then we'll have Morrison and Quitely doing Batman and Robin who may do what they did for All Star Superman, or we may get more RIP-esque musings by Morrison..we'll see. The "Battle" has given us a wannabe Azrael (another tepidly received character) who doesn't have the emotional investment in the Batman that Jean Paul Valley did. So why another Azrael? Robin/Tim Drake to become Red Robin may be the most interesting of the bunch but they've had to darken him up to do it where he used to be a counter to Bruce's brooding personality (admittedly, he's lost alot of loved ones since donning the red and yellow suit so his being more hardened is reasonable to expect). Now...you've got Thomas Elliot with Bruce Wayne's face floating around the Bat universe (my money is on him being the new Black Mask..even though Grayson has supposedly secured him away). And possibly Bruce Wayne's father?/Black Hand in the mix also. It's just getting messy. I actually would have enjoyed seeing Cassandra Cain takeover Detective Comics and function as a rogue "Batman" (perhaps with Barbara Gordon involved), to Grayson's "official" Batman. She's brooding, has little to say, she's very tough and she's got some serious issues going on. This is a character that could have stepped up to become quite a foil to the upcoming "Batman and Robin" of Morrison. But..we're being given the red haired, lipsticked Batwoman (I believe in an attempt to give her character one last try) and her former/still something there- girlfriend who's now The Question. By the way, did Montoya ever indicate she played for the other team before they shoe-horned her with Kate Kane's heiress character? I don't recall her character "leaning" that way. I'll give Morrison a go with his book, I'll give Tim Drake a go as Red Robin..the rest of the batbooks are on hiatus as far as I'm concerned.

#2 - Tel... - 05/28/2009 - 13:57