Bat-Quest Part Six: "Batman Reborn"

Jeez louise Grant Morrison. I knew your Batman and Robin series was supposed to be darker than usual, but did it have to be this downright scary? This installment chronicles the first adventures of Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne as Batman and Robin,  but also shows the devastating effect modern drug cartels have on cities. This book is not for reading at night. From gruesome scenes of peoples' faces getting eaten, to frightening monologues given by insane villains, there are a lot of scenes in this book that will give more scare-prone readers the willies.

Not that that's always a bad thing, but when I started reading this book, I expected a rousing adventure, not a story about face eating, cartels, and hard drugs. It was entertaining, though, and the Damian/Dick dynamic was funny, the two of them trading one liners (Damian: "It's Robin and Batman from now on". Dick: "That'll catch on".), but besides its scariness, my only real issue with the the book is the return of that human diatribe machine, Jason Todd. He continues shouting long winded tirades, and Batman actually calls him on it, but since he has a sidekick in this story, there is two times the Manichean invective. Other than that, Frank Quitely's weird, puffy, creepy art is used for the first plot, while Phillip Tan's is used for the rest of it, and both are good. This isn't for the faint of heart, though.

Grade: A-