In this review of Batman & Robin: Year One #9, as the battle for Gotham intensifies between the crime families, Grimaldi and Clayface, a major player is taken off the board!
Batman & Robin: Year One #9 main cover by Chris Samnee (DC Comics)
BATMAN & ROBIN: YEAR ONE #9
Written by MARK WAID and CHRIS SAMNEE
Art and Main Cover: CHRIS SAMNEE
Variant Covers: JUNI BA, FRANK QUITELY, REBEKAH ISAACS
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: July 16, 2025
This review contains spoilers
Batman & Robin: Year One #9 begins as the various Gotham crime families have all recognized that General Grimaldi is using the villain Clayface to upend their operations. Together, the Falcone, Giacomo and Thorne families have pooled their resources in order to bring in the best assassins in town and take Grimaldi out. Unfortunately, the General has one-upped them, turning his men in a crude imitation of Monster Men infused with Clayface DNA. Batman and Robin arrive on the scene and a fight breaks out, but before long one of the assassins triggers an explosion, of which the Dynamic Duo barely escape.
On the ride home, Batman notices Robin is unusually quiet, and asks Alfred to check on him while he attends a business function later that evening. Alfred inquires, telling Dick he’s found out that that day is the late Mary Grayson’s birthday. Dick tries not to cry at first, but then releases all of his emotions into Alfred’s arms.
Grimaldi’s men inform him that they’ve gone through the stolen police file on the suspects of Batman’s identity. Unsatisfied, Grimaldi suddenly recalls a slang term Robin threw out when he was in their capture – “slall”. Quickly, Grimaldi searches online and learns of Dick Grayson’s parents’ murder and his adoption by Bruce Wayne. Just as he starts to put two and two together, he’s impaled from behind by his father, whose hands have morphed into giant knives. This is of course Clayface, who’s also dispatched of Grimaldi’s father as well. With the two men dead, the Grimaldi crime family is now secretly under the control of Clayface and Two-Face.
Analysis
Another issue, another small moment of character introspection and missed opportunity when it comes to examining Dick Grayson’s emotional interior. The whole issue of his silence as Robin and the reason behind it could’ve been a lot more effective had we been made privy to it before Batman and Alfred were. As it was, Robin was perfectly quippy during the battle with the Monster Men, and we don’t know anything’s wrong until Batman brings up that he usually says more. Then, at home, he runs off and the focus turns to Alfred talking to him. It’s all not bad writing, but again – I feel that Robin’s mental and emotional development should be far more centered than it is. His mother’s birthday could’ve been something to hint at or lead up to, bringing out the fact that Dick’s slowly getting used to the fact of his parents’ deaths.
It’s a development that could’ve been better, but Batman & Robin: Year One #9 did surprise me with its surprise death at the very end. Grimaldi was circling the drain in terms of dimension, and there was only so many times Waid could give us a scene of him bragging about his intelligence to his paraplegic father. That he was not only killed (the moment he found out Batman and Robin’s secret identities, which is a classic trope), but killed by the image of his abused father was great irony, and truly surprising.
The story has been intimating that Grimaldi’s out of his depth when dealing with a city like Gotham that inhabits freaks and psychopaths, and the “Face” duo have been conspiring in the background. But this wasn’t telegraphed at all, yet it hits at just the right time. Now that Grimaldi’s gone, Batman and Robin will have to really put their detective skills to the test to figure out who’s behind the new crime wave, even though they’ve already encountered Two-Face and Clayface in this series before.
Batman & Robin: Year One #9 was a B&R Year One issue by numbers until the end with Grimaldi’s death. That bumped it up for me. Excited to see what happens next.
*One final note: Carmine Falcone is still alive in this history, meaning that The Long Halloween is not out of continuity? Questions for later.
