I’ll get right to the point: I loved Batman and Robin: Year One.
A standalone miniseries, written by Mark Waid, with cool, retro artwork by Chris Samnee, it’s not quite an origin story (luckily we don’t have to see the same scenes of Dick and Bruce’s first meeting play out yet again), but it does take place early in their partnership, with Robin no longer an untrained novice but yet to become an experienced superhero, and both of them still uncertain about what working together will entail.
The story leans hard on their relationship, and does it very well. Despite various conflicts arising between them, we don’t have to endure a lot of interpersonal drama, which would have been tedious, given that we know they’ll ultimately stay together and become the Dynamic Duo. Robin’s impetuousness colliding with Batman’s seriousness to cause some sort of falling out would have been the obvious angle to take, but Waid avoids it, instead having them make an effort to resolve their issues, and the story is all the better for it.
When Batman and Robin: Year One begins, a new crime lord called the General has showed up in Gotham and causes chaos by provoking its crime families into fighting one another, in order to take over their territory. To make matters even murkier, Two-Face is in the mix with his own agenda. In terms of plot, it’s comparable to the “crime saga” kind of story that Batman comics can do so well, but it’s considerably lighter than, say, The Long Halloween, thanks to the presence of the Boy Wonder, whose sense of humor, penchant for showmanship, and sheer enthusiasm for crimefighting provides an amusing foil to old Mr. “I Am Vengeance.” It also has a great use of Clayface, never one of Batman’s most famous villains, but one who wreaks some proper havoc here. The plot has plenty of twists and turns to keep things exciting; I had only one real quibble, which I won’t mention due to spoilers, but the rest of the story is so good it didn’t detract from my enjoyment overall.
Waid has expressed his desire to write a sequel, and I, for one, hope we get to see that very soon. The bottom line is, this comic is just plain fun, the kind of story where Batman can shout “To the Batmobile!” and pull it off.
A worthy addition to the Dark Knight canon, Batman and Robin: Year One reminds us once again that there’s nothing quite like a good Batman story. (Or, I should say, a good Batman and Robin story.)
