In Batman and Robin: Year One #2, the Caped Crusaders take on opposition on both ends of their dual identities: One in the form of a new crime boss and the other Child Protection Services!
Batman and Robin: Year One #2 main cover by Chris Samnee & Mat Lopes. Image: DC Comics
Batman and Robin: Year One #2
Writer: Mark Waid
Artist: Chris Samnee
Colorist: Giovanna Niro
Letterer: Clayton Cowles
Main Cover: Chris Samnee & Mat Lopes
Variant Covers: Kevin Nowlan, Dave Johnson & Tom Reilly
Release Date: November 20, 2024
This comic book review contains spoilers.
Synopsis: Head of Gotham City Child Protection Services Laura Lyn decides to make the Bruce Wayne adoption of Dick Grayson her top priority. As Wayne enjoys a notorious reputation of a dilletante and womanizer, Lyn is less than encouraged by his sudden interest in the circus orphan. Arriving at Wayne Manor, she is schmoozed by both Bruce and Alfred, before finding Dick swinging from chandelier to chandelier, emotional healthy but somewhat at-risk in his new environment. Lyn leaves, curious and determined to make future unannounced visits, as Bruce and Dick grimace at each other.
In the bowels of Gotham’s underworld, General Grimaldi is greeted by Two-Face, who offers his services with a secret stolen police file, wanting to be second-in-command of Grimaldi’s operations. Grimaldi dismisses Dent, saying he’ll take his offer under consideration.
Meanwhile, Batman and Robin take a tour of Batman’s various batcaves throughout Gotham City, all connected through various caverns that stretch across the city, enabling Batman to arrive out of the dark at a moment’s notice. At the end of the tour, they go off to follow-up on a tip that the Maroni mobs plans to hit one of Falcone’s meth labs with arson. Just as they make their way into the larger part of the city, they witness the truck that happened to carry the oncoming Maroni mob go up in smoke, crashing into a highly flammable neighborhood. The Dynamic Duo jump into action, rescuing civilians, with Robin saving to kids trapped in a burning building, much to their parents – and Batman’s – anxiety. Questioning one of the dying men inside the truck, they learn that the one responsible for setting the car on fire was a Maroni loyalist who’s face appeared to be melting just before everything burst into flames.
Batman and Robin: Year One #2 variant cover by Kevin Nowlan. Image: DC Comics
After a solid start in Batman and Robin: Year One #1, Mark Waid continues to both entertain and assuage my fears in bringing about a modern-day take on the classic Batman and Robin team. Dare I say I like Batman and Robin: Year One #2 even better than the previous chapter?
What I’m always interested in when it comes to Batman and Robin is the interiority of their lives. There’s a line of dialogue between Catwoman and Nightwing in the animated adaptation of Hush where Selina Kyle asks Dick while driving around in the Batmobile “So you and he did this every night?” to which Nightwing responds in the affirmative. Just imagine that for a moment, being Batman or Robin, suiting up and driving out to fight crime every single night. How excited, or scared, or tired, or driven do you have to be to commit to that for years on end? While not strictly a scene answered back in this issue, we get a slice of realistic inevitability with the CPS subplot. This isn’t the first time that has been thrown at Batman continuity, but it’s a rare detail nonetheless. The best story to ever introduce this was not during any fresh time of adoption with the Robins, but in fact a legal follow-through years after the death of Jason Todd in the pages of Batman: Gotham Knights. That story had investigators look into the circumstances of Jason’s death in Ethiopia years after the fact, when Tim Drake was Robin. It’s a brilliant concept for a story, and one that I feel should often be attended to, and not handwaved away because “It’s Gotham and Gotham is corrupt.”
Batman and Robin: Year One #2 Balances Realism With Bat-Fantasy
To the contrary, the opening scene at CPS with the various workers taking bets on how long it would be until Bruce gave Dick up and found a new distraction reminded me of the unvarnished tone of one of DC’s best-ever series, Gotham Central. Long story short, it’s an incredibly shady thing that Bruce is objectively doing adopting Dick, even if it’s meant to be for his benefit. I like the idea of a real-world threat to their lives as Batman and Robin continuing in the early days of Dick’s time at the manor and what it means for following through to the commitment of the Dynamic Duo concept.
We get more training of Robin in this issue, with an early scene of him dodging gunfire (rubber bullets) in a showoff-y and flamboyant way. Dick’s still written as very immature, which by now is definitely being set up for his ego to take a big and humbling fall. But he’s still depicted as being very physically adept. Bruce’s consternation with him is in his unserious attitude, but Dick’s dominating these physical tests, which once again justify him being Robin, somewhat. He’s not just any little boy being shot at, he’s a world-class acrobat, something that had been established in the very first issue of Detective Comics #38 in 1940. The scene later in the story where Batman sweats at the threat of Robin burning to death, only to see him not only alive but having saved two kids recalls his single-handed defeat of Blockbuster in Robin Year One – which went to show how good Robin was at being a crimefighter who thought on his feet…before being humbled by Two-Face. But I liked Batman smiling at Robin’s success, showing that Robin’s braggadocious behavior is growing on him because he can back it up. Again, this is clearly meant to lead the two towards disaster, and Dick’s probably gonna get his ass kicked hard in the next issue or two, but right now it’s still fine characterization.
The scene I liked the most, however, was Batman showing Robin all the various entrances and exits from the Batcave throughout all of Gotham, with Robin wondering exactly how rich Bruce really is. In the newspaper at the start of the issue, he’s said to be a millionaire. While that’s the classic old-school header for Bruce Wayne, having long since ceded to being a billionaire for decades now, I like the implication that Wayne is far wealthier than Gotham actually understands, using his fortune for various Batman causes underneath the town’s notice. It’s another grounded and believable detail that expands the imagination of the Batman concept, and seeing it through Robin’s eyes is a great storytelling technique.
The last thing I’ll mention is on the villains. Not much to say about Grimaldi so far, but in the Batcave we see references to Joker, Penguin, and Riddler. Two-Face is in this book, and the ending implies Clayface – whether it be the Matt Hagen version, who was the first to physically change his appearance, or the original Clayface murderer Basil Karlo. Another pet peeve I have (which stems from Jeph Loeb’s Long Halloween and Dark Victory books) is the idea that Batman had met and fought with most of his classic rogues gallery well before Robin came along. It’s a concept not new to the Bat-Books, and no one cares that The Joker and Catwoman both appeared after Robin, but I think it works to undermine Robin’s importance in the mythos by having Batman’s most dangerous enemies already having been beaten solo. Some of the villains I think work better before Robin comes along, like Joker, Catwoman or Two-Face. But if we’re getting into Silver Age enemies like the mud-monster version of Clayface, I worry we’ll be having scenes like Batman introducing other character established later on, like Scarface or Bane. That kind of think really irks me, but for this issue it’s less of a problem and more of a personal irritant.
