Brandon Borzelli's Geek Goggle Reviews
Battle for the Cowl #3 of 3
DC Comics
Daniel & Florea
This issue wraps up the event to determine which character would become Batman. It became obvious while reading this issue that this series was really focusing on the previous Robins and all of the other plots were merely sitting out there to occupy the other characters and to be used in future stories. There was way too much going on to deal with all of the Robins, plus the three-headed villain war and any other loose thread out there. This is a good comic with the interaction between two of the characters in it. However, as an event or even the final chapter of a highly publicized story arc, it’s a little disappointing.
The issue is really very simple. Dick deals with Jason. The majority of the issue Dick fights Jason, he argues with him, he tries to reason with him, he tries to help him all while Jason tries to anger Dick. The dialogue and the execution are done quite well but the connection between this entire interaction and Dick deciding to become Batman is not very clear. Oh wait, is Dick Batman?
The ending of the comic is the reveal of the new Batman but it is left ambiguous. We don’t clearly know which character is in the cave putting on the cowl. It’s a fair assumption that it’s Dick, but it could easily be Tim. In the end, it doesn’t matter who is wearing the mask because a) we know it’s temporary and b) we’ve already seen Dick as Batman in Prodigal more than a decade ago.
The issue succeeds in Dick taking responsibility for Jason losing his mind. In this regard, Dick takes up Bruce’s legacy. With Bruce gone someone has to take up the bat family mantle as the patriarch. Could it be Alfred? Sure, but it makes more sense that Dick deal with it as he is the one who actually grew up from a boy to a man under Bruce’s guidance. With Dick acting compassionately and genuinely trying to help Jason no matter how crazy he acts shows how much Dick has grown.
The other aspect that I liked was the advancement of Damian. This series managed to pull off the impossible and that is to make him a likable character. He has great dialogue and shows a measure of restraint from going over the top as being too obnoxious. He’s a viable Robin now.
The artwork wants to be grand and pulls it off in this issue because of the high number of punches and explosions. The comic’s best image is one where Damian supports the weight of Tim in a high flying rescue. It’s a symbolic image and it helps to make Tim a humanized character and to make Damian as a potential hero.
The comic is good. It’s exciting, it has a lot of fighting and it has some great dialogue. The main problem is it’s supposed to crown the new Batman with some sort of a story and this really just boils down to Dick versus Jason. Tim is barely in this issue. The villains don’t play any role in here and Alfred doesn’t give any sort of a pep talk or even a baptism. I recommend the story for the Batman completists, but if you pick up an issue of Batman in June and are wondering how “X” became Batman I can’t say you’ll find too many answers in here.
3.5 out of 5 geek goggles
