In this review of Batman and Robin: Year One – Dynamic Duos #4, when Batman approaches The Catwoman for aid in pursuing the Crime Master, will Robin keep his cool? Or is three a crowd?!
Batman and Robin: Year One – Dynamic Duos #4 main cover by Chris Samnee (DC Comics)
BATMAN & ROBIN: YEAR ONE – DYNAMIC DUOS #4
Written by MARK WAID and CHRIS SAMNEE
Art and Main Cover: CHRIS SAMNEE
Variant Covers: BRAD WALKER, CHRIS BURNHAM, ROSSI GIFFORD
Page Count: 32 Pages
Release Date: 11/11/26
This review contains spoilers
Upstairs in Wayne Manor, Alfred somberly recalls the trust and vows he’s taken over the years in service to the Wayne Family and Batman as he writes a note.
Downstairs below, Batman and Robin return from Robin’s reconnaissance mission as they work to figure out the identity of The Crime Master. Using facial recognition in the Batcave, the Dynamic Duo figure Adam Lamb – former curator for the Gotham Museum of Natural History – as a suspect. Batman informs his protege on Lamb’s background, and we see a flashback of an undervalued Lamb harbor resentment towards his boss A.G. Huges. In an attempt to murder his employer, Lamb fell down a staircase and ended up in a coma, eventually awakening with a renewed sense of evil purpose.
Before going after Lamb, Batman wants to discuss the events of the previous issue with The Catwoman, who he finds saving a woman from a would-be mugging. Just then, she’s approached by a costumed eccentric calling himself The King of Cats. Although he intends for Catwoman to be his partner, a sexist insult results in Catwoman delivering a severe beating, requiring Batman to come to his aid.
Batman is interested in Catwoman’s protection of the unhoused children from The Crime Master, and seeks her cooperation despite Robin’s protestations. As Catwoman walks away from a pursuing Batman, the latter is suddenly gunned down by Mehitabel, who mistook him for an attacker. The two women flee the scene while a panicking Robin carries Batman to the Batmobile and clumsily races back to Wayne Manor, only to find the house abandoned as Alfred has resigned his post as butler.
Analysis
One month of this series, and it’s official: Waid and Samnee are cooking with Dynamic Duos. This has become my favorite monthly comic.
An aspect I love with this series is the quiet, jazzy mood of each issue. The pacing is pitch perfect, with nothing feeling too quick or slow. Much of the effect is from Samnee’s eye for darkness. Scenes like the Batmobile driving towards the Batcave (twice in this issue), lighting up the trees and bushes surrounding it, sell both the wonder and danger of Gotham City, and the world outside the walls of stately Wayne Manor. Much credit is also due to Mat Lopes, who makes Samnees’ linework pop with plenty of color while also having the book looking almost sepia-toned to establish a “Years ago” mood. This series is effectively what Legends of the Dark Knight was back in the 1990s, a flashback comic. We’re reestablishing early interactions, and the costumed characters are all dressed like they were in the 1940s and 1950s, but it avoids looking for feeling stale or out of place. It looks cool. Catwoman in her purple dress costume looks like a woman catching on with the “costumed character” trend and manages to look flamboyant without appearing ridiculous. An observation – Samnee’s details on her look hew closer to to 1970s and 1980s costume, whereas the original purple suit was very much a dress. She’s got the thigh-high boots Alan Davis gave her during Mike W. Barr’s Detective Comics run, as well as gloves that only wear up to her wrists, which look better for punching. It’s a great marriage of glamour mixed with the rougher and more pugilistic version of Selina that most people would be familiar with, and it suits her better in all honesty.
Sticking with Catwoman, Waid and Samnee have been doing a great job incorporating this early days version that’s very much not on the side of the angels, but shows that she’s still got a moral center. I don’t know if we’re ever going back to the era in her history where she had cat-themed henchmen, but the level of violence she expressed towards “King of Cats” was a fun character bit. She may like kids, but she’s still deadly. The fact that she and Batman have met before and he’s still learning more about her is fun. First appearances are always tricky to do and redo, so I’m much more in favor of filling in the blanks with these interspersed adventures.
More praise to Samnee and Lopes on the Adam Lamb flashback scene, minimally colored save for black, white and red. Lamb’s design looks a lot like one Otto “Doc Ock” Octavius from Marvel Comics, and the name Crime Master was also a Silver Age Marvel villain created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko. Invoking old school comic visuals in this way help make Dynamic Duos feel classic, without breaking out the Dick Sprang giant props. It straddles between the film noirish Golden Age and the dawn of the Silver Age, in a way that recalls the best of Darwyn Cooke.
Finally, we’ve seen Robin bring home a dying Batman before, as recently as The Last Halloween by Jeph Loeb. But having that convention occur at the same time as Alfred is leaving Wayne Manor? Great stuff! Robin’s sense of panic was well rendered, with Samnee having his gaping mouth shown very little teeth, keeping in mind the image of a little boy in a cape as the adult in the car is bleeding out next to him.
If I had any gripes or critiques, it’s that maybe Dick was written to be a bit too loud and exuberant in this issue. It recalls the growing pains I had with him in the Year One miniseries, but I wasn’t too bothered by it. I like his excitement in going after Crime Master once he thinks they’ve figured out his identity. Additionally, his groaning at Batman and Catwoman’s interaction is simply classic stuff; a trope that hearkens all the way back to the end of Batman #1 from 1940. Truly, Waid and Samnee know exactly what they’re doing.
As I said, Dynamic Duos has become my go-to book of the month, each month. It’s such fun comfort reading, and I look forward to the printed collection to have issues like these to return to whenever I want to put on some jazz on a cool Autumn evening. This is my kind of comic book.
Batman & Robin: Year One - Dynamic Duos #4
DC Comics Reviewed by DM GrantFinal Thoughts
Dynamic Duos has become my go-to book of the month, each month. It's such fun comfort reading, and I look forward to the printed collection to have issues like these to return to whenever I want to put on some jazz on a cool Autumn evening. This is my kind of comic book.
