With Two-Face and Clayface having taken over the Gotham Mobs under the guise of Grimaldi, do the Dynamic Duo stand a chance when the entire city is against them? Check out our review of Batman and Robin: Year One #10.
Batman and Robin: Year One #10 main cover by Chris Samnee (DC Comics)
BATMAN & ROBIN: YEAR ONE #10
Written by MARK WAID and CHRIS SAMNEE
Art and Main Cover: CHRIS SAMNEE
Variant Covers: DAN MORA, DAN PANOSIAN, CULLY HAMNER
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: 8/20/25
This review contains spoilers
Batman and Robin: Year One #10 begins with General Grimaldi and his father are dead, but that’s only known by two men – Matt Hagen and Harvey Dent a.k.a. Clayface and Two-Face. With Grimaldi gone, the super criminals use his face to engineer the kidnapping of Gotham City’s major crime bosses, and accelerating the experimental Clayface program to increase the number of soldiers in disguise. Within hours, bosses such as Falcone, Thorne and others are all being masqueraded by covert Clayface frauds.
At the lighting of the Bat-Signal, Batman and Robin arrive to an ambush by a Clayface soldier posing as Commissioner Gordon. With the entire police force against them, the two speed off in the Batmobile before a police chopper fires a rocket at the car, totaling it instantly. The city and the mob now believes Batman and Robin to be dead, but the Caped Crusaders managed to eject in the nick of time. Reaching the Batcave on foot, Bruce and Dick begin to investigate a piece of a Clayface soldier’s finger before Alfred alerts them of Ms. Lyn’s arrival upstairs, accompanied by several armed men. Apparently Bruce has been found guilty of stock fraud, and is placed under arrest. Dick loudly protests, forcing his arrest as well. As Alfred promises to contact Bruce’s lawyer, he watches sadly as the two orphans are placed into separate police cars and driven off.
Analysis
Two issues in a row had me smiling, so I’m happy to announce that this series is genuinely picking up. We’re in the third act, but with the Two-Face/Clayface plot seriously catching fire and the Caped Crusaders on the backfoot, I’m totally locked in. This is my favorite issue of the series in a long while.
Batman and Robin: Year One #10 does what I think is the best example of how to tell a suspenseful Batman story – put him against odds that are unexpected to him but he thinks his way through. The internet caricature of Batman is that with time to plan, he’s utterly unbeatable. Ironic that the trope comes from Mark Waid himself, who kicked things off with Tower of Babel, the JLA story that revealed Batman had contingency plans to incapacitate the Justice League should they be taken under mind control. Waid’s since lamented how that story led to a mischaracterization of Batman, but it’s inarguably become a part of his character (although much of that is truly owed to the 1966 show).
Here, Batman and Robin are under attack by an untold amount of covert gangsters in disguise, so many that he cannot possibly account for who all is against him. He has his keen eye for detail and his safehouses, as well as a Batmobile with fully operational ejector seats, but those do just enough to save his life, not help him figure things out. Watching him and Robin worm their way through each succeeding death trap was pure comic book joy on every page. Waid knows how to balance Bruce’s reactions, with the perfect mix of surprise and calm responses to every threat. And sure, maybe an older, more experienced Batman might have a better chance against all that’s coming at him, but I never took that for granted in this issue. This is very strong Batman storytelling , so strong it makes me want Waid on the main book.
The threat of evil doppelgangers in Gotham City has been done before, but not often enough. Batman #356 has Bruce in a Hugo Strange trap where Dick and Alfred are replaced by robots and he’s nearly killed in what he thinks is his own home. Batman #415 has Batman and Jason Todd battle an android version of Commissioner Gordon in what was part of the DC crossover Millennium. And of course, the two-part episode of Batman: the Animated Series “Heart of Steel” had Gordon, Bullock, Mayor Hill and others replaced by duplicates in a rogue AI’s attempt to destroy the city.
These are all great stories, but it’s not yet a derivative concept that it doesn’t thrill to see Batman go up against a frightful version of Gotham. This is also still early days in his career, and a genuine turning point, where the gangster criminals are gradually being replaced by the crazed supervillains. That concept has never been made more literal than here, where all the hoods in Gotham are now people in disguises with super powers. All things considered, it’s a helluva time for Batman to bring on a sidekick.
Speaking of, this might be the first time in the series I enjoyed Robin’s youthful energy. His anxiety during the entire chase sequence, starting with a Clayface soldier posing as Batman and throwing him off the roof of GCPD HQ. His nervous face wonderfully detailed by Chris Samnee as he buckle up just before the Batmobile goes into overdrive is a nice comedic detail that doesn’t overplay Waid’s overall hand in illustrating his youth, but highlighting the desperation of the situation he’s in. More than anything, I liked his furious outrage when being carried away by the police at the end. Just as he and Bruce are realizing that all of Gotham is taken over by criminals, he and Batman are whisked away on a bogus charge. If there was any time for the Boy Wonder to lose his top, it would be now.
And there’s something about the arrest scene at the end of Batman and Robin: Year One #10 that recalls Batman Year One, when Gordon and his wife visited Bruce to inquire if he was secretly Batman. The detail for me is in the coloring outside Wayne Manor. Matheus Lopes assigns a yellowish, almost sickly yellow tint to the daylight, where appearances should be idyllic, but feel off and disquieting at the same time. I really enjoy that scene, as it serves for a great End-of-second-act low point for the characters and cliffhanger.
Nearing the end of this series (I believe it’s meant for twelve issues), I still don’t think this is the sharpest saga Waid’s ever crafted. I still wish Dick were characterized a little better and that the continuity were a tiny bit tighter. But Batman and Robin: Year One #10 plays to everyone’s strengths, and I was gobbling up each page. Really hoping we continue this momentum from here on out.
