With a healthy dose of supercriminals (the faces, Two- and Clay-) and an ongoing organized crime conflict, Batman & Robin: Year One has been filled with the sort of shadowy drama we’ve come to expect from a retro-nostalgic Batman tale; it is, however, more interested in fatherhood than any of that.
This shouldn’t be a surprise: it is a book about the opening months of Bruce Wayne’s adoption of Dick Grayson. It is, under several layers of costuming and crime-fighting, the story of a man unready to be a father and a boy not quite looking for a new one.
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Conversely, the book’s primary villain, Anthony Grimaldi, is also carrying around an uneasy relationship between a father and son: everywhere he goes, he is accompanied by his mute, paralyzed father. Where Bruce and Dick can’t quite figure out what relationship they have, the Grimaldi’s have long established a relationship of hatred and abuse. Anthony berates his father, rolls his wheelchair to the edges of buildings and lets the old man sweat. In issue #8 of the series, he simply orders his father’s favorite meal and refuses to help him eat it.
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In the whole book, only Jim Gordon’s relationship with his daughter, Barbara, approaches anything like a healthy parental role (though fans might know that Jim’s workaholic nature has historically distanced him from Barbara). In a charming moment, Batman hints that he might need a bit of fathering advice from Jim. He even sticks around – however briefly – to take that advice in.
This issue’s highlight is a scene between Clayface and Dick; Clayface, posing as Bruce, acts the way that any jocular adoptive father might act and this is the clue to Dick that things aren’t what they seem. “I could tell he wasn’t you,” Dick tells Batman, “He was friendlier.” It’s a revealing bit of truth: Batman is more concerned with the deadly business of his role than he is the niceties of making a teenager feel welcome.
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For all of its familial concerns, Batman & Robin: Year One never neglects its moody noir, narratively or visually. Chris Samnee’s artwork is consistently flawless, and his characters feel bold and iconic. Clayface is both horrifying and reminiscent of his beloved, yellow-toothed appearance in Batman: The Animated Series.
Mat Lopes and Giovanna Niro’s colors set a gloomy, midnight tone for the book: this is the perpetual night of Gotham City; these spaces are lit by street lamps, headlights, and desk lamps. Everything is muted or spotlit.
Issue #8 is a highlight for the series, which is already one of the best Bat-Books on the stands right now. It’s touching and thrilling in equal measure.
