Battle for the Cowl #3 Review

Creative Team
Writer & Artist: Tony Daniel
Inker: Sandu Florea
Colorist: Ian Hannin & JD Smith

Story - Last Man Standing

Review
Finally the new official Batman has arrived and unlike how Didio and others in DC want to think that it was a surprised to the readers which character ended up taking the Batman mantle (read here) it was not. In the end Tony Daniel's Battle for the Cowl is just one predictable roller coaster ride that had absolutely no surprises for the reader. The truth about Battle for the Cowl is that it was everything that I was expecting it to be: a summer popcorn for the brain blockbuster movie that is nothing but stalling on DC's part to set up the new status quo of some of the Bat-family characters. And really there wasn't much more than that for Batman fans to expect as in this new Event-era that comics are in now most of, if not all, these event mini-series have been a big let down one way or another. It is really just to bad that Daniel's writing could be half as good as his art as his art was phenomenal during this series.

The one thing I will credit DC and Daniel for is making Battle for the Cowl very accessible to new readers in order for them to get into the Batman books. Even though I am still a new reader to the DC Universe in general I will say that other than Spider-Man I have been reading Batman comic books the longest and as a long time Batman fan, relatively, I do sometimes forget that comics need to be new reader friendly as at times many stories will get convoluted with the history of the characters that it is hard for new readers to get into. But something like Battle for the Cowl is actually a good jumping on point for someone like my little cousins or some of my friends to read and get these characters and why they are taken the roles they are taking next month. So in the end while I would recommend new readers to get Morrison's Batman and Son, The Black Glove, and R.I.P stories on trade paperback as well as maybe Tomasi's run on Nightwing those stories aren't completely necessary to read this one and I think in that way Daniel was a success in his writing of Battle for the Cowl.

Unfortunately for Daniel I am a long time Batman fan and started reading comics right before another story that is very very familiar to Battle for the Cowl and that is Knightfall. Yep that's right no matter what Daniel or DC will say this is the same exact story that I read 15 years ago as a little. The only difference is that Battle for the Cowl last three issues while Knightfall was split into three seperate stories (Knightfall, Knightquest, and Knightend) that was over 30 issues long and lasted a year and a half. The story basically has Jason plays the psycho Batman role that Azrael played during Knightfall, Tim play the same role that Dick played in Knightfall by being the Batman who distracts the psycho Batman long enough for the "real" one to show up and take down the psycho Batman, and then finally Dick plays Bruce's role and is the one who takes down Jason with relative ease as he dominated most of the fight with Jason.

Now speaking of Jason playing the psycho Batman role in this series I just hated the explanation Daniel gave for the reasoning behind Jason becoming the gun-totting Batman. It would have been a much better explanation if Daniel said that because of how Jason was already a hot head during his time as Robin that when he used the Lazarus Pit to make a full recovery, back in Batman Annual #25, that slowly over the past few years since his return he has been losing his sanity due to the after affect the Lazarus Pit has on who ever uses it. It would have at least been a much more reasonable answer to Jason's portrayal during this mini-series than him flipping out because Bruce message to him saying that Jason is his biggest failure, which Jason already knew and stated during Under the Hood. In the end this just made Jason into a little crying kid that had his toys taken away by his father and at this point it would have been much better idea if Jason never came back from the dead as all the potential he had upon his return has been wasted and I could care less if I never see Jason again since he was already non-existent in the Bat-books even before Battle for the Cowl for the past two years.

The fight between Dick and Jason I found to be very anticlimactic and cliche. While I liked that Daniel showed Dick to be the superior fighter as he dominated most of the fight with Jason getting only a few hits in the ending really killed a fight that was actually pretty cool. The whole Dick reaching out to Jason telling him to grab his hand only for Jason to let go of the railing and fall into the water below is about as cliche as a writer can get. At no point was I worried about Jason's fate as I know he will be back and that lack of suspense shows the difference in quality between something like Morrison's suspenseful Batman: RIP and Daniel's bad cliche ridden Battle for the Cowl.

Another thing Daniel failed in is making me care about the gang war in Gotham. In truth this is were I kind of wish DC would have given this series to someone like Tomasi, who has not written a big crossover yet in the company. It is just hard to believe that the US army would just go in and take down Penguin and Two-Face gang war in such a stupid manner as it would be much more realistic if it was the National Guard or another organization set-up to handle this stuff in a much better manner. Also by having the army come in and quickly take down the Penguin and Two-Face it makes the Network who are a group made of some of the best fighters in the DCU and some powerhouses into being really incompetent and useless.

Also I still don't get why Daniel used Black Mask in this story as he was just used as an excuse for Daniel to draw some cool explosions and a burning city. With how little Black Mask appeared in this series it would have been a better move to make it Two-Face as the one who was behind everything in order to build him up into the Joker to Dick's Batman as they were already shown to have a Batman/Joker relationship in the last arc of Nightwing. Also I am guessing that the new Black Mask is Hush as he is probably going to be involved in one of the first story arcs of one of the Bat-books were he will be shown to try and destroy the Bruce Wayne name by posing as him and then using Black Mask to destroy everything Batman worked to make better.

Finally, the biggest problem I had with this issue in particular was how many inconsistencies Daniel had with the writing and the art for Tim and Damian. In the last issue Damien was shown to be bleeding out from his chest but then in this issue Daniel writes off all of that injury by saying Damien only had minor injuries due to the suits protection. And then Tim had a batarang the size of a football stuck in his chest that clearly pierced through the suit into his sternum at the end of the issue only for in Daniel to say that it barely pierced the suit and caused a few cuts. This is were probably Daniel should have just cut back on the dramatic splashpages/panels as it really hurt his writing in this issue and is a perfect example of why these type of endings to scenes don't work since they will be written off by the writer later in the issue or series.

Issue Rating
Story: 2.7/10 - Daniel's writing on this series was very unimpressive and showed that it had been a while since he has written a comic as a lot of the dialogue came off as bit amateurish.
Art: 8/10 - Daniel and Florea combine for some excellent artwork that shows why Daniel's artwork is hundreds of times better than his writing. Though the inconsistencies between this issue and the last two issue hurt how effective the art should have been.
Overall: 5.35/10 - Battle for the Cowl is as predictable as a story can get and this was nothing but filler to get the characters to the point for the relaunch of some of the Bat-titles. And as of now this story failed to get me interested in the current direction of the Bat-books.

Battle for the Cowl #2 Review

Creative Team
Writer & Artist: Tony Daniel
Inker: Sandu Florea
Colorist: Ian Hannin

Story - Army of One

Review
Battle for the Cowl #2 was just what I was expecting it to be: Great artwork combined with one of those mindless summer blockbuster movies storytelling. Tony Daniel continues to be a much better storyteller with his artwork than his actual dialogue. In truth his artwork as has never looked better as his work in this mini-series is better than his previous Batman artwork. Though there were some odd moments in the art such as when in one second we see Nightwing confront the two-gunned Batman and in the next second we see Nightwing get hit by three batarangs with no sign of them going to be thrown in the previous panels. Also I cannot see how Tim is not dead since the way Daniel drew the batarang that is on his chest was the size of a football.

The problem Daniel has is that his story is completely predictable. At no point in this story was I surprised about what was happening. All of the dialogue was fine for showing Dick, Tim, Alfred, and the two-gunned Batman's personalities but also felt so generic that the dialogue was dull.

The only actual conversation I enjoyed, even for its predictability, was the Dick and Alfred scene in the Batcave. Even though it is a scene that we have all read before it was still a conversation that felt natural and actually does belong in this event in order to give Dick that final push to take his rightful place and become the one true Batman as Bruce would have wanted all along. It is to bad that we aren't treated with any other scenes like this as the rest of the issue was just a pure waste of characters from Daniel's part.

Just like with the first issue this issue felt that Daniel was just setting up characters for there tie-in mini-series to Battle for the Cowl. For example we get a quick one of appearance of Birds of Prey members Black Canary and Huntress and instead of making them play an important part to the story by having them follow the rogue Batman they are stopped by Nightwing in order to take care of Damien and then we don't see those characters again the whole issue. While I understand that the main Battle for the Cowl series is only for Dick, Tim and Jason it just does not seem that Dick would just stop Black Canary and Huntress from giving chase to the rogue Batman but on the contrary he would have them chase him as he could have easily taken care of Damien.

Also, this may just be me but I did not like the fact that Catwoman was so easily taken out by the rogue Batman so easily. Even though I am not a big Catwoman fan I would think that she would have fought back and that it would take more than one kick to knock her out. And also I just can't see how the rogue Batman could actually seek up on Catwoman as she has always been able to tell when Bruce or any of the other character was behind her.

Another poor interpretation of a character was Damien. I just don't get how someone who was able to beat Tim in a fight was shown to be such a chump in this, and the last, issue. Throughout these two issues Damien has really come across as a novice with very little training before hand and only does so in order to conveniently transform him into a rookie Robin for Dick to train.

But even though these are all cases of poor character work the worst case of just poor character development is the gun-totting Batman who is clearly Jason Todd. Throughout this issue Jason was treated as nothing more than DC's version of the Punisher. Daniel has done his absolute best to give Jason no redeeming qualities as in this version he is willing to shot anyone even little kids in order to get what he wants. But I guess I should not be surprised as Jason has been poorly used since Under the Hood storyline. Jason just like with Bucky over in Marvel had a lot of potential when he returned from the dead. But unlike Bucky who has actually been developed well enough that he has actually taken over for his mentor and become the new Captain America that is just as, if not more, interesting as his predecessor Jason has been so underdeveloped that all that potential the character did have has gone away and has only just become another typical Batman villain. At this point Jason cannot play another role than just Red Hood as even before Battle for the Cowl he was rarely used in any of the Bat-titles that any involvement he does get after this event will feel forced and not a natural progression of his character like Dick becoming the new Batman, Damien becoming the new Robin, and Tim becoming Red Robin.

And again just like the last issue were Daniel overused Tim's inner monologue we yet again get some more overused inner monologue but this time by Jason. While the opening inner monologue when Jason was escaping from Nightwing and Damien was interesting enough the rest of the inner monologue became very tedious to read as it was similar to Tim's inner monologue from the last issue. Also when the hell did Jason or anyone ever call Bruce "Brucie" in any comic. That whole "Brucie" line by Jason was so lame that made me wonder if this was actually a professional writers words or the words from some sort of fanfiction.

Finally I will say that after reading Batman comics for as long as I have this whole gang war going as the back drop to this mini-series is nothing new and very uninteresting. The problem I have is that again it is a gang war with Black Mask as the main villain behind it as I have been getting annoyed by the character over the past few years. The only thing I may find interesting about the character is that if it is Hush disguised as Black Mask, as Kirk Warren points out in his review for this issue (read here), since it could be interesting to see why Hush choose to become Black Mask and not just continue to masquerade as Bruce Wayne. Though I will admit though that Daniel doesn't write a half bad Two Face.

Issue Rating
Story: 3.3/10 - Daniel's writing was very generic that lacks any creativity.
Art: 8.6/10 - Again Daniel's artwork shines over his writing as he is a much better storyteller with his artwork than his writing though there were a few odd moments with the artwork.
Overall: 5.95/10 - While I'll admit that Battle for the Cowl is a nice jumping on point for new readers this series does not help long time Batman readers be excited about this "new" direction for the Batman franchise. So if your expecting a great read with good character work than you may be disappointed as Battle for the Cowl reads more like a summer blockbuster movie that looks great in the trailer but when you actually see the movie you are disappointed by the story and the characters.

Legen--wait for it---dary Comic Book Highlight for 3/11/09

I thought I would start this weeks Legen-wait for it-dary Comic Book Highlights of the Week with a funny little clip from last nights The Big Bang Theory. Here is the clip of what happens when you try coffee for the first time:


Alright here are the Highlights for this past week.

Cover of the Week: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz #4

My friend just let me read his copies of the past four issues and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a very fun story to read. I really like this cover of the Wizard's emarald colored projection of his head as Dorthy watches him with fear.

Battle for the Cowl #1 Highlights

Knight and Squire would be awesome addition for the Red Robin title once Tim picks takes on the Red Robin costume.

Though I would rather see Two-Face play the role of leader to Batman's Rogues Gallery I loved how we see Arkham Asylum burning in the background is just an awesome visual.

Though I wasn't to impressed with the writing I still have to say Daniel provide plenty of gorgeous artwork for this issue. And this image of one of the Batman standing over Gotham City was one of my favorites of the issue.

As hard as he hits them Dick should know that those dummies wont hit back.

Hm, Tim fits into one of Bruce's Batsuits? He must have borrowed some steroids from Alex Rodriguez. (Alright I am sorry for the lame joke.)

We were this close getting rid of the annoying Damien Wayne. RATS!!!

Batman presents Jason Todd in Shot 'Em Up.

Green Lantern Corps #34 Highlights

Sodam takes out his bitch stick on his mom as he makes here apologize for killing his alien friend way back before he became a Green Lantern.

Do not mess with Mongul or else he will rip out your tongue!

The Rage of the Red Lanterns evades Green Lantern Corps.

Guardian of the Galaxy #11 Highlights

Even though this issue was the only issue of GOTG I have found to be boring though this image by Wes Craig was impressive.

I just love it when a dragon appears in comics, especially a dark dragon.

Invincible Iron Man #11 Highlights

I wish Fraction was allowed to call Pepper Iron Maiden like he wanted to instead of Iron Woman. (Damn copyrights!)

So why is Rhodey able to wear an Extremis-like War Machine suit while Fraction takes away Tony's Extremis powers? I don't get it.

Why is that I have a feeling we will only get a bunch of words being thrown by Tony and Namor instead of punches in the next issue?

Superman/Batman #56 Highlights

Batman: "I have the poweerrr!"

WrestleMania 25 Main Event: A superpowered Batman vs the JLA.

I kind of wish we got to see more of this fight since it would have been cool to see a superpowered Batman fight each member of the JLA before having the powers taken away.

And so ends the story of a superpowered Batman.

Battle for the Cowl #1 Review

Creative Team
Writer and Artist: Tony Daniel
Inker: Sandu Florea
Colorist: Ian Hannin

Story - A Hostile Takeover

Review
After Batman RIP and Final Crisis as well as the Batman and Detective issues that followed those two major storylines my expectations for Battle for the Cowl has cooled especially when I heard that Tony Daniel was going to be both writing and drawing the series. It is nothing against Daniel but I never have read any of his writing before this series. Now even though I was not blown away from Battle for the Cowl #1 I was impressed that Daniel was able to make me buy into the idea that there is much potential to the next two issues. Also it seems that with the few months he has had off since RIP really help his artwork as it has never looked better.

Now anytime I read a new mini-series I try to see if it is something that a new reader can get into since I know a lot of people who want to get into comics but they don't know were to start. So one of the things that surprised me about this issue was that Daniel made this issue as new reader friendly as possible. There really isn't much for a new reader to know about other than that Bruce Wayne is dead or at least missing. As long as a new reader knows that and that Nightwing is the grown up first Robin and that Tim Drake is Robin the basic idea of all of Batman's allies coming together to defend Gotham City as the the city has gone to hell without Batman around. And if a new reader wants to be able to know what lead to Bruce Wayne's disappearance there 3 stories all in trade paperback form that you can read:

Batman: Batman and Son
Batman: The Black Glove
Batman: R.I.P

All three should already be in local comic shops and book stores since if there is one character DC has done a great job in collecting and distributing their story it is Batman. Now even though those stories aren't necessary to read BFTC if anyone is interested that would be the reading order before reading this issue.

Something else that Daniel was able to do well with his writing is how he wrote Dick, Tim, and Alfred's personality shifts with Bruce's not being around. It was interesting seeing Dick and Tim argue about Gotham needing Batman. Dick as the bigger brother in the family feels that as Nightwing along with the Network they can protect Gotham and that Batman is not a mantle and should die along with Batman, similar to how many fans feel about Batman. It continues what Tomasi was doing over in Nightwing as Dick as a character continues to move more towards being more like Bruce without realizing it. During that one page training sequence were Dick was breaking every one of the training dummies gives off some sort of deep anger Dick has as he has never been a fighter to use brute force but is more about finesse because of his acrobatic background. I will be interested to see when the real fight happens between Dick and Jason in BFTC #3 if Dick will employ more of the brute force he showed here or if he will keep his more acrobatic type fighting style.

I also thought it was cool seeing Alfred pick up more of a father role to Dick as he agrees with like Tim think it is only Dick's self-doubt that is holding him back from becoming Batman. It will be interesting to see if with this new Batman Alfred will be able to give Dick that push he needs to pick up the mantle as he tells him that he should realize now with a gun-totting Batman needs to be stop by the true heir to Bruce's legacy.

For Tim it has been interesting to see Daniel continue what Dixon and Nicieza have been doing with Tim continueing his evolution into a solo hero. With him taking up Squire as his "sidekick" it seems with this move along with him dressing up as Batman it is the final push to show he is ready to move on and pick up a new role as Red Robin. Tim's evolution from the Robin character is very similar with what happened with Dick once he quit being Robin and became Nightwing. Even though he did not have a fight with Bruce he has grown into being the leader of his generation of heroes by leading the Young Justice and Teen Titans, he has left the Titans to protect Gotham and to see were he should go with his career. While not completely similar the situation seems to be calling for him to be the new Red Robin we have been hearing about. And I think it would be cool if in the Red Robin series that Squire would become a supporting character at least as Tim and Squire share a fun chemistry as partners.

Now even though I thought Daniel nailed those three characters down I was disappointed to see that Daniel did not pick up on the video wills Bruce left behind for Alfred, Dick, Tim, and Jason. Through The Outsiders Special and Robin #183 we know that Bruce left different messages for each member of the Batfamily and so far we have only seen the message Bruce left for Alfred thus far. I was hoping that we would see one of the other video messages Bruce left behind for each of the Robins since they may play a role as to why each Dick, Tim, and Jason are acting the way they are in this issue.

One of my biggest problems with this issue is that this issue was to predictable. After reading the first few pages I felt that I could tell what was going to happen in this issue and the mini-series in general. The whole issue felt like it was going from point A to point B without doing anything to add a little mystery to various plotlines going on the story like the identity of who is the gun wielding Batman, more on him in a second.

The inner monologue of Tim started to get annoying towards the end as Daniel used it to much of a crutch to tell the story throughout the issue. It kind of felt like I was reading Bendis's New Avengers with the amount of inner monologue Daniel used in this issue. Hopefully he is able to tone it down in the next two issues.

Also I did not like that it was Black Mask who has turned up as the leader of most of Gotham's supervillains. Even though it is within his character we just have not seen enough of the character the past few years, especially within the last two years were he has been almost non-existent in the Bat-titles like Jason Todd. I would have much rather had preferred if it was Two-Face or Penguin who have both hinted at starting a gang through the various Bat-titles over the past year. I think the most logical choice would have been Two-Face since in the last story arc in Nightwing Two-Face seemed to have planned on being at Arkham and that he had some sort of plan for Gotham now that Batman is not around.

Outside of Dick, Tim, and Alfred Daniel does not do anything to develop the rest of the characters involved with the Network. Outside of a few panels none of the Network had a big moment in this issue which is something that peeves me off to see that in order to see what Oracle, Batgirl and other major Batman allies don't get any time to react to what is going on since the narrative of this story looks to be told from the perspective of one of the Robins each issue with this issue having Tim do the monologue and next issue will probably be Jason. Seeing what Oracle and Catwoman were thinking could have added some more weight to the story and a different perspective than just Nightwing and Robin arguing of who should be Batman.

I especially hated how Daniel portrayed Damien in this issue. I have always found him to be an annoying character but in this issue Damien did not act in any way like Morrison portrayed him. For character that has kicked Tim's ass and also shown to have no fear to anyone but his dad I thought Damien was a little chicken as he was shaking in his boots when confronted by Killer Croc. I just can't see Damien be scared of Killer Croc as he should have been more than happy to take on one of his father's rogues to show he is the heir to Bruce's thrown.

But my biggest problem with the issue was Jason all of a sudden becoming a gun wielding Batman. Even though Jason appeared for about a total of two issues in the last Robin story arc Jason last major story involvement in the Batuniverse was the One Year Later storyline over in Nightwing that involve him impersonating Nightwing. So because of that Jason as a character feels like he has become irrelevant within the Batuniverse compared to all the other characters, both hero and villain, in BFTC. It is not really Daniel's fault since one of the DC editors should have pointed this out sooner and had Jason more involved in one of the Batman titles storylines, maybe RIP for example. But because Jason has not been involved in any of the Batman storylines his involvement in BFTC just doesn't feel as natural.

Issue Rating
Story: 7.7/10 - Daniel was able to impress with his writing ability but the dialogue felt predictable and Tim's inner monologue throughout the issue got annoying at times.
Art: 9/10 - Outside of a few panels Daniels artwork was even better than his art in RIP. The team of Daniel, Florea, and Hanin gave the story a big budget movie feel to this issue.
Overall: 8.35/10 - Though I was hesistent about Daniel handeling both the writing and art duties he showed that Battle for the Cowl has plenty of potential and I look forward to the next issue.

Legen--wait for it---dary Comic Book Highlight for 2/11/09

Cover of the Week: Thor #600 (Marko Djurdjevic variant)

Djurdjevic is one of the best cover artist in the business and this Thor #600 cover is epic and plain beautiful.

Amazing Spider-Man #585 Highlights

Harry's girlfriend/fiance gives one mean bitch slap.

Low blow! Going after your boyfriends old drug problems is one serious kick to the mid-section.

Well it looks like Harry is done being pushed around by his girlfriend and show her what a real Goblin can do.

Batman #686 Highlights

Who wants a Batmobile when you can have your own personal Catmobile.

Well, what else did you expect Two-Face to drive!

Is this a mix of the pre-Crisis Jason Todd's appearance and his post-Crisis Jason Todd origin of a car jacker telling Joker not to kill him?

The golden age Catwoman's version of Batman's death was an interesting tale of one of the many deaths of Batman(s) we will see in this story.

Having Alfred be the Joker in his story of how the Dark Knight dies was an interesting twist to the close of Adam West's Batman universe.

Green Lantern Corps #33 Highlights

Well this should be interesting especially with the new law forbidding romances between Green Lanterns.

Mongul vs Arkillo! Should be one epic fight on Daxam.

With the clash of the titans happening on his home planet Sodam is bound to have one memorable homecoming.

Nightwing #153 Highlights

Saying goodbye to yet another home and job. Maybe once Battle for the Cowl is over Dick (as Batman?) can finally hold down one job for longer than a year.

The Batcave is not complete without old Abe.

Well at least someone finally figures out in comics that death in a comic never last. But still I hope that Daniel or other future Batman writers deal with Tim's denial over Bruce's death since it could lead to some interesting dialogue between Tim, Dick, and Alfred.

As much as they may not know or want to admit it, both Bruce and Dick's life really does parallel one another.

This was just a cool moment of Dick taking the same oath he took at the start of his superhero career.

The Origins and Omens back up we got in Nightwing was the best one I have read. Dick and Barbara share some nice banter as Dick gives Barbara her late birthday present.

Are these things to come for Dick during Battle for the Cowl and beyond?

Nightwing #153 Review

Creative Team
Writer: Peter Tomasi
Artist: Don Kramer (main story) & Joe Bennett (Origins and Omens back up)
Inkers: Jay Leisten, Sandu Florea, Rodney Ramos
Colorist: Hi-Fi

Story - Black Dawn; Origins and Omens: Nightwing

Review
After more than a decade worth of issues Nightwing is one of the books to fall in the wake of Batman RIP. And even after Battle for the Cowl is over Nightwing will not be part of the 8 "new" Batman titles that was announced in the Batman panel at NYYC (read here). So for me, as big Nightwing and Dick Grayson fan, this issue was bittersweet.

As someone that has been reading this series since the mini-series that preceded this ongoing series I couldn't ask for a better way to end this series. I think I can speak for many Nightwing fans when I say that this series was probably at its peak when Chuck Dixon started the series and since Dixon's run Nightwing has suffered from being average to just plain horrible, especially Devin Grayson's and Bruce Jones runs on this title. Even though I enjoyed most of Marv Wolfman's run on this title Wolfman's run was cut a few issues to short so the enjoyment of that run lost some steam at the end. So because this series has been average for so long it has made this run by Tomasi even more special. Since Tomasi started his run on this title he has treated us with what may be the definitive version of Nightwing and the Dick Grayson character as a whole. But as always DC sticks it to Nightwing that as soon as we have a great run going this title is canceled as I said before.

Still even though this was a bittersweet issue for this was still a fantastic way to end an ongoing series. This issue was probably the best final issue of an ongoing series.

I have noticed around on other comic blogs and websites that one of the things some people have not liked about Tomasi's run is that he has had guest stars, outside the Batfamily, appear in almost every issue. I have actually really liked this aspect of Tomasi's run. For a long time most writers of Nightwing have always tended to ignore the fact that other than Superman the one character with the most connections in the DC Universe is Nightwing. It is one of the things that has annoyed me about the portrayal of Dick Grayson and thought him interacting with the JSA, Wally, Roy, and other DCU characters was a great touch. And even having the short interaction between Dick and Wally that reminds the reader that for as much as these two characters may not interact much, which is shocking to me, that they are best friend.

It was a good thing that Tomasi addressed the fact that now with Bruce gone it is important for Tim that both Dick and Alfred are around. Without Dick or Alfred around Tim would probably end up turning into another Bruce maybe even darker. The poor kid has had his dad, his two best friend, old girlfriends, various teamates, and now his adopted father all die in the span of a few years that it would make anyone go over the edge. So for Tim not to go over the deep end, especially with his current state of denial over Bruce's "death," that Dick act like the big brother Tim needs right now.

I have to give also give Tomasi a lot of credit for remembering that Crime Alley is not actually alley but a nickname to the street Bruce's parents were murdered at Park Way. It is a good call back to Batman: Year One. Though this will probably a one-shot deal since all the other Batman writers will continue to be an alley called Crime Alley instead of a street Park Way. Still it was cool thing to see that Tomasi recognize this fact even though it will revert to the way it was.

Also the last scene were we see Dick, as Nightwing, go back to Park Way to renew the oath he took back when he first became Robin with the same candle he Bruce used for the original oath was a powerful scene. Don Kramer just knocked it out of the park with that scene with his art. It makes the reader remember that Dick started his career in the same manner that Bruce did with the death of his parents at a very young age. It helps to restate the fact that Dick is the successor to the mantle of the Batman even though he and Bruce have many difference between them it is only right that Dick take over his father's place as Gotham's protector.

Overall I have not liked the Origins and Omens backup story since I think it is just a cheap plug to promote Blackest Night, when that big event does not need any promotion to begin with. Though I'll say the story of Dick giving Barbara her birthday present was a nice sweet moment between both characters and will probably excite many Dick/Barbara shippers. Also the last page had a lot of ominous things for Dick's future in Battle for the Cowl and after which should be interesting which ones are just preview of something that may happen and which one of them will actually happen.

Issue Rating
Story: 10/10 - Tomasi couldn't have capped off his run on this title in any other fashion. His take on the Nightwing and Dick Grayson character will be hard to match for other writers since he gave us the definitive version of the character.
Art: 9.6/10 - Don Kramer provided some excellent art and he did a great job conveying the various emotions of Dick, Tim, and Alfred. The only problem with the art is that we had an inker by committee in this issue though it did not have any major inconsistencies there were a couple panels were it was noticeable.
Overall: 9.8/10 - Nightwing #153 was a great read and a great way to end the series. It also does a good job setting up the Batfamily for BFTC and has me actually excited to see what happens in the event. Kudos Tomasi and Kramer for ending this series the way it should.

Legen--wait for it---dary Comic Book Highlight for 1/14/09

Cover of the Week: Amazing Spider-Man #583 (Variant Cover)

With the inauguration yesterday is there even a doubt that the Amazing Spider-Man #583 featuring President Barack Obama wouldn't be the cover of the week. If there is one thing Marvel does better than DC is their marketing campaign for their major releases and Obama appearance in Amazing Spider-Man was marketed all of last week.

Final Crisis #6 Highlights

And here ladies and gentlemen is the ultimate deus ex machina: The Miracle Machine. There is no doubt we have not seen the last of the Miracle Machine. It will probably be used to move everyone to the new Earth and "fix" some problems DC has wanted to "fix" a long time ago.

Was an enjoyable chick fight. And I am glad we got finally got rid of this slutty Mary Marvel since she has been an annoying character for the past two years. Now let see how DC is going to rehabilitate Mary and the rest of the Marvel Family (I smell mini-series).

Yet again Wonder Woman is giving nothing to do while Superman and Batman are both given their time to shine. If DC really wants to make me believe that Wonder Woman really is part of the Trinity than they need to give her, her own moment to shine and save the universe like Superman and Batman have in almost every major DC event.

Lord Eye is a cool concept and I like that it is named after Maxwell Lord and Brother Eye. Though I question presenting this weapon this late in the game and giving all this power to Renee Montoya of all the characters in the DCU.

For all the build up of Libra being this great supervillain he went out like a little punk to Lex Luthor. Though we will probably see him appear somewhere in the next issue.

For characters that are named the Flash this plotline involving Barry and Wally has been one of the slowest moving plots in this series. And all we get here is two pages of them showing up.

Just like Libra, Darkseid went out like a little bitch. For being the ultimate bad guy all Darkseid has done/did for the six issues of Final Crisis is sit on his butt and do nothing but give the thumbs down.

This should have been more impact on the reader but Batman only other appearance on Final Crisis was in the first issue and a very short scene in issue two being placed in the machine he was hooked up to in Batman #682-683. Personally Morrison did a better job in Batman RIP showing Bruce Wayne's demise, even though he didn't die in that story but in here.

With only one issue left we are told that there is someone even worse than Darkseid. Great work Morrison (NOT!!).

The image everyone, well DCU fans anyways, are talking about.

Green Lantern Corps #32 Highlights

At least his/her parents can say that their kid had an exciting birth.

Typical, while the Green Lanterns are fighting for their lives the Guardians set in place a new law affective immediately.

Awkward! Hopefully Soranik isn't another one of Kyle's love interest that is killed by one of his villains and this plotline is given time to develop.

Predictably hundreds, if not thousands, of Green Lanterns give up their position rather than continue to follow the Guardians new law. With seven laws yet to be revealed I wonder how many more people will give up being Green Lanterns once the other laws are revealed.

"Mongul leader of the Sinestro Corps." That is sure to go over well with all the other members.

Nightwing #152 Highlights

It was nice to see the original Batman costume along with all the other costume Bruce has worn in his career as Batman.

Nightwing kicked some serious League of Assassins ass in this issue. And also it was cool seeing Nightwing drive the origina Batcar.
No Ra's Al Ghul appearance is complete without him having to talk to someone from the Batfamily around the Lazarus Pit.

Nightwing and Ra's had one serious sword fight similar to the ones Bruce and Ra's have had in the past. And it is great seeing Nightwing being able to go toe to toe with all of Batman's villains and actually winning.

It seems more and more that Nightwing will become the new Batman. Ra's has already given his approval to his "new" arch enemy.

X-Men/Spider-Man #3 Highlights

Sinestro and Carnage. This is certainly one team-up that I didn't ever see happening, or think of.

Mario Alberth artwork continues to be one of the highlights of this mini-series and I hope we see more of his artwork in one of Marvel's ongoing books.

Carnage has one weird appetite.

See not even Mr. Sinester can handle the train wreck that was the Clone Saga.