The Gotham Chronicles v2.41

Last issue of Batman and Robin I voiced a lot of discontent for Damian as Robin and how his attitude and parallels to Batman and their deep pit of hatred, and difficulty with positive emotion.  Number 2 is one of those “After School Special” issues with limited action and a strong focus on character struggles, for a guy like myself who studied psychology in college it is interesting to see the writers dig into more than the surface of the subjects.

Alfred, always the fatherly figure is working as hard on Bruce as Bruce is trying to develop Damian.  It is interesting to see how far Bruce still has to go before he could actually begin to make strides in his own life before he can begin to, as he puts it, “heal” Damian.  The ending sort of reminds me of Twin Peaks with its odd and put of place setting that just happens out of nowhere.

The Gotham Chronicles Update v1.0

Detective #1
While in the whole of it all I consider Detective Comics the greatest comic book conceptualized to date, past and current, this particular issue also set forth to reach a benchmark quality by which comics are judged perfect in my opinion. As a writer and artist for the debut Tony Daniel was able to not only write a great story, but also visualize for us the image he envisioned for his dialogue and storyboard.

While I did not find the art exceptional, I found the story and the ability for the author to relay his mind’s eye more than overcompensated for a slight lack in artistry. I would take a strong story with marginal art any day over the inverse of great art and poor writing. This is not to say the art is poor, it is a mid-to-high 7 on a scale of 1 to 10.  Daniel has a great artistry for background, structure and tones, but I found his faces, particularly the mouths rather flat.

Enough with the creative talk and onto the meat of the issue.