Batman & Robin: Year One - Dynamic Duos #3 Review

In this review of Batman & Robin: Year One – Dynamic Duos #3, while Batman is battling the Mad Hatter, Dick is undercover being forced to kill the Catwoman for the mysterious Crime Master!

Batman & Robin: Year One – Dynamic Duos #3 main cover by Chris Samnee (DC Comics)

BATMAN & ROBIN: YEAR ONE – DYNAMIC DUOS #3
Written by MARK WAID and CHRIS SAMNEE
Art and Main Cover: CHRIS SAMNEE
Variant Covers: JIM CHEUNG, GORAN PARLOV, DIEGO OLORTEGUI, BRIAN BOLLAND
Page Count: 32 Pages
Release Date: 10/14/26

This review contains spoilers

Midnight in Gotham City, The Batman battles his way through costumed henchmen and apprehends The Mad Hatter, but not before contending with a monstrous creature called Gryphon. Batman takes Gryphon down and strong-arms The Hatter, who comments that he’s being meaner than usual without Robin at his side. The GCPD arrive on the scene and Gordon agrees, as both he and Batman discuss the changing nature of Gotham City and what keeps giving them hope.

Elsewhere, Dick is undercover as “Big Top”, with a gun in his hand and a command to execute Catwoman by the Crime Master. Dick hesitates, remembering Batman’s strict rules against firearms, and lets just enough time pass for the young girl Mehitabel to push over a pillar, causing a brief collapse around the area for Catwoman to escape. Crime Master furiously kicks Dick out of the Wolf Pack, and shows concern for Mehitabel, whom he calls “Kitten”.

In the Batcave, Alfred opens a letter and appears distressed. Batman pulls up in the Batmobile, informing his butler that he’s merely changing costumes and is responding to Dick’s message that he’s ready to be picked up. Alfred tries to inform Bruce about the contents of the letter, but Batman is eager to bring Dick back home as soon as possible. As he finds Dick and is informed by the evening’s events, the Dynamic Duo are unwittingly being followed by The Catwoman.

Analysis

Three issues into this series, and I’m thoroughly enjoying it. Like I said last time, the growing pains of reading yet another “Year One” book kept me from fully appreciating what Waid and Samnee were putting down. Now that we’re in a true ongoing flashback series a’la Legends of The Dark Knight, it’s been a ton of fun. Samnee’s art is as great as ever, and Waid’s mastery of the characters and scripting make this possibly my favorite monthly book. There’s not too much to say beyond praising its qualities from issue to issue.

I will admit to being slightly confused at the start with the Mad Hatter scene. We’ve not been given any reference to Jervis Tetch in this series before, and this adventure is presented to us at its end, and while there doesn’t seem to be anything deep happening, Tetch references that he’s used to seeing Batman with Robin, which we’ve never seen previously in this book. Time is being played pretty fast and loose in this series, but its fine. I like The Mad Hatter as a villain, and too often he’s presented as a kind of throwaway B-lister who is rarely given much time in the spotlight. A Hatter plot in this book would be neat to see sometime in the future. At the same time, I enjoyed how Waid wrote him, with Hatter insisting that he hates his own name. I was also slightly confused by how Batman described the Gryphon as a general hallucination, but then what exactly is he fighting? We don’t see the creature turn into anything else once the fight is finished.

I think the last thing that comes to mind is maybe getting a bit more into Bruce and Dick’s personal lives. We know Dick was attending public school (he got kicked out on his first day), but Waid excels at superheroes’ civilian personas. There’s plenty of time to explore that in the future, but since this is the Batman and Robin book going forward, it’d be nice to have that grounding on how they live early on.

But really, this is a solid series that continues to delight. Very fun issue for a fun title.