Batman and Robin #24 main cover by Javier Fernández (DC Comics)
BATMAN AND ROBIN #24
Written by PHILLIP KENNEDY JOHNSON
Art by MIGUEL MENDONÇA
Main Cover: JAVI FERNÁNDEZ
Variant Covers: DARICK ROBERTSON, JORGE FORNÉS, PABLO M. COLLAR
Page Counut: 32 pages
Release Date: 8/13/25
Summary
Picking up where the story left off last time, Batman and Robin #24 opens with Robin helping the Gotham Irregulars back to the abandoned underground train station they started from. He directs them to a clinic to be treated, no questions asked, no cops. After agreeing to teach the kids how to do his ‘dope flippy-kick’, Robin returns to help Batman and Lautrec. On his way, he knows he still has to fight off the effects of Gravedigger’s Poppy, but he still sees a light in the red haze with a voice telling him to save Gotham’s royal family.
Deeper in the old city, Batman, tied up against a lamppost with an unconscious Lautrec, is surrounded by lifelike echoes of his parents’ murder in one of Memento’s vestiges. Katherine wakes up and Batman lets her know Robin will come for them, but that this is what Memento wants. The demon speaks to them, implying that the three of them knew each other in the past. Batman reveals that Memento isn’t Atticus Blye at all, but Officer Daniels of Scotland Yard. He had access to the Memento crime scene evidence and used it to frame professor Blye – and then disappeared off the face of the earth.
Daniels reveals that Memento really wanted to take Young Jack, Bruce, as Blye’s start pupil, but instead settled for Daniels when he stayed behind after Blye got the drop on Memento at the Power Station (in issue #14). Daniels drugged Blye until he lost his mind, then set him up with the stolen evidence. Daniels also reveals that Memento’s only motivation for torturing humans is his hate for them.
Credit: DC Comics
As Robin gets closer to the vestige, he realizes that all of the illusions he sees there are about the Wayne Murders and understands that Memento wants him to witness Batman and Lautrec being killed. Batman sees Robin fly in before the demon does, and manages to break free of his bonds by dislocating his thumb. He is able to stop Memento from shooting him in the head and Robin flies in kicking the possessed man down a gorge. Both fall but manage to get out, and before Memento can attack Batman, the plaster mask is shot off his face…by Blye surrounded by the souls of Memento’s victims. They have come for him. Blye apologizes to Daniels for failing him before shooting him as the souls rush in on him, taking the villain down the gorge to be consumed in the pits of hell (which looks like a tentacle monster).
Credit: DC Comics
Two nights later Batman and Lautrec debrief on a rooftop. Daniels’s body was found in Park Row, his death attributed to a fall from a great height. Batman suspects that the vestiges may be physically connected and if Blye and Daniels were able to access them, they could probably transport to anywhere the vestiges appeared. Batman further suggests that if Daniels was just a human using hallucinogens to torture and kill- then he’s dead now and the case is closed. If Memento was really a demon controlling Daniels, then the host is dead now and Memento has no one to possess – and the case is still closed.
Batman thanks Lautrec for helping him save Robin. She in turn also apologizes for being angry at him and tries to compliment the duo- but she finds herself alone on the roof top.
Batman and Robin #24 ends with Damian continuing his comic book of Robin and Batman. He is determined to be both a Wayne of Gotham, a position and inheritance he has chosen, and Robin son of Batman.
Credit: DC Comics
Review
So, PKJ’s first arc is over. I will say it got better over time. I was so frustrated and upset at first, but the story did grow on me over time. The issues where artist Juni Ba’s contributes, including this one, definitely help my enjoyment. I liked the introduction of the Gotham Irregulars, and I do hope they stick around for a while. I like Lautrec and her admiration for Robin and protectiveness of him, but also her ability to change her mind about Batman when she sees how much he loves his son.
Blye working behind the scenes to take down Memento was a nice touch, redeeming his character as someone who works for the good of people even when him mind is so addled. I appreciated the twist reveal of Daniels being the possessed victim. I appreciated that it took both a physical weapon and a spiritual army to take down a demon possessing a human. Too often spiritual foes are taken down with physical weapons (which doesn’t make sense) or magic words (which in my opinion has no real spiritual power).
There was a great yet subtle scene when Damian was falling down the gorge and a Baterang attached to a chord catches him and stops him from falling. It was a great moment of Batman and Robin always having each other’s backs.
The Juni Ba comic at the end really ended the book on a high note for me. The way Damian portrays himself volunteering at the hospital was interesting: wearing a human mask and hiding his Robin costume underneath his lab coat. I loved that Robin has parts of Gotham that are just his, that Batman doesn’t know about. And the touch of Robin leaving a paper boat out for Batman to find, something he and Damian can do and bond over together, something Thomas and Bruce never could.
I am still not a fan of the way Batman was portrayed in this story, and honestly, he didn’t get much better in this issue. He is very passive, his only action being saving Robin from falling. He stopped being a dummy, though at the end he was still hesitant to believe Daniels was possessed by a demon. It’s very confusing since he went to Etrigan, a demon, to get info on Memento. Batman works with the supernatural all the time, and his hesitance the ENTIRE arc was baffling.
All in all, I like this, but I really hope PKJ does better with Batman going forward.
