Batman and Robin #25 – Phillip Kennedy Johnson, Writer; Fico Ossio, Artist; Marcelo Maiolo, Colorist
Ray – 9.5/10
Ray: After a full year of the Memento storyline, Phillip Kennedy Johnson is dialing things back for the first issue of this new arc. If by dialing things back, you mean delivering some of the most chaotic action scenes of the run so far. There’s an ongoing mob war between Penguin and Tiger Shark, with the latter having his plans foiled by the titular heroic duty. As Penguin celebrates his new territory and promotes an underboss, Batman and Robin take some time to enjoy the sunset – and Bruce recommits to trying to give Damian a normal life outside of costume. I really like how Johnson is working through the complexities of these two’s relationship, and it shows how hard Bruce is trying this issue. But that involves taking some time off to see a movie – something that doesn’t come naturally to either of them, and Bruce assumes that this is a good time to take a break given that the gang war has just ended. He’s wrong.
The title of this arc is “The Quiet Man”, and it has one of the most intriguing new villains to appear on the scene in Gotham for some time. We meet him being released from an upstate prison in the prelude, and he’s a normal-looking older man who seems to be beloved by the guards but deeply alone. He visits his son’s grave, then proceeds to head on one last trip – right to the Iceberg Lounge, where he politely asks to be allowed in to talk to Cobblepot. When he’s denied – violently – he unleashes total hell and proceeds to shoot his way in before blowing up a large part of the iconic building. This character is so intriguing because he feels like he walked in from another genre. He feels like an old-school Coen brothers character – haunted, ruthless, and deeply human, but also totally implacable in a way that Batman has never really dealt with. The presence of this new antagonist is through the roof.
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