Review – Batman ’89 #4: Robin and Batman

Batman ‘89 #4 – Sam Hamm, Writer; Joe Quinones, Artist; Leonardo Ito, Colorist

Ray – 9/10

Ray: What would Robin look like in the Burtonverse? That’s the question this series wants to answer, and they’ve done it with an original character. Drake Winston has some things in common with other past Robins. He’s got the streetwise vigilante background of Jason Todd, and the self-sufficient investigative nature of Tim Drake. But making him a young man from a historically Black area of Gotham changes that story in some distinct ways, as we see right from the start when he foils a GCPD crackdown on a civil rights protest in Burnside. This series goes pretty far to villainize Harvey Bullock, making him the poster boy for police brutality, but honestly he’s always been just shy of that point anyway. More interesting is the way this book fuses the history of the Winston family and the Wayne family, asking some difficult questions about exactly how the Waynes gained their fortune.

The meeting between the two heroes is very different from any other past Batman/Robin dynamic. Keaton’s Bruce is much more eccentric and acerbic than other versions, and Drake essentially barges into the Batcave with a mission. And then there’s the growing threat of Two-Face, as Harvey Dent’s twisted alter ego wins out and drives him to escape from the hospital before he can have reconstructive surgery. His race-flip also adds some very interesting dynamics to the story, giving him much more reason to be “of two minds” about his role in Gotham. Two-Face has never quite had the flair of other Gotham villains, lacking the flashy lairs and gimmicks. No more, as he gets a new home base at the end of the issue that’s one of the best visuals of the entire series. In only four issues, this version of Gotham feels fleshed out and with enough complex flashpoints that it’s hard to see it wrapping up in only two issues.

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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.