Batman & Robin #34 Preview/Discussion

[Sirzechs]

Tomasi is doing a better job at selling Lex on the League to me than Johns is.

Lex isn't on the league yet in Johns's Justice league thou.

[Nite-Wing]

Did anybody else think that Jason was referring to Ras as if he faced him for the first time recently? I know it was single throw-away line but it kinda confused me.

It was refering to the events of red hood and the outlaws where Jason fought Ra's

[K. Jones]

Did anybody else think that Jason was referring to Ras as if he faced him for the first time recently? I know it was single throw-away line but it kinda confused me.

It didn't feel that different from how any TV show might have a character drop a name so that a new reader/viewer hears the name spoken and gets a little exposition about "where recurring character F has been since the last episode they turned up in".

I was stoked on this issue, precisely because of things like Bruce not eating, but Alfred feeding all the rest of them ... Titus' gold reaction to the Parademon ... and that Tomasi actually dealt with Bruce's lies immediately by having Dick pop in there, prove that he's stealthy and batty enough to hide from even all of Batman's other proteges, drop a Dick & Damian era reference, a favor, and peace out.

Luthor was fun. I'm entirely not sure what his angle is, although you know, if Batman dies, the JLA will need his "rich tech guru/strategist" skills even more.

Little bits like Captain Cold being strung up made me laugh, too. Great stuff. Hell of a last page, too.

[charliehustle415]

It didn't feel that different from how any TV show might have a character drop a name so that a new reader/viewer hears the name spoken and gets a little exposition about "where recurring character F has been since the last episode they turned up in".

I was stoked on this issue, precisely because of things like Bruce not eating, but Alfred feeding all the rest of them ... Titus' gold reaction to the Parademon ... and that Tomasi actually dealt with Bruce's lies immediately by having Dick pop in there, prove that he's stealthy and batty enough to hide from even all of Batman's other proteges, drop a Dick & Damian era reference, a favor, and peace out.

Luthor was fun. I'm entirely not sure what his angle is, although you know, if Batman dies, the JLA will need his "rich tech guru/strategist" skills even more.

Little bits like Captain Cold being strung up made me laugh, too. Great stuff. Hell of a last page, too.

No I understand that.

It's just he said that he was quite a villain (can't remember what he said exactly), but everyone already knows that, except for Batgirl I think. So to me it felt as if he faced him for the first time and was commenting on how crazy he was.

But it could be me reading too much into it.

PS any Batdick and Damian reference is alright with me!

[Claude]

Loved it.

spoilers:

So glad that Dick was there, and I loved the exchange between him and Bruce.

end of spoilers

Yessss! Yesssss!

spoilers:

Loved everything about Dick being there. From the fake-out that makes you think this is going to be another Forgotten About Dick Issue, to the reveal, the recognition of the Dick and Damian relationship to the perfect justification for keeping Dick out of the firing line.... To then Dick doing Batman a favour by tricking the entire Justice League. Loved it.

end of spoilers

Some of the dialogue was clunky - "Need I remind you, Jason, that you didn't actually have your face cut off!" - but on a macro level, this was a pretty perfect issue of comics. Pure tension-building, but really helping sell the story.

And, of course, we know from the November solicits that the Bat Family haven't exited the story yet.... I'm hoping they all have to run in and pull Bruce's fat out of the fire when he fails.

[The World]

If Johns never gets around to doing that Shazam book they should let Tomasi take a crack at it. I like his Billy.

[ispacehead]

This issue was epic.

So great to see the famdam get over all the unnecessary weirdness from that other Batman book, though I was kinda hoping they might help Bruce a bit more with his current undertaking. At least in the aquisition of the suit....but obviously that wasn't necessary.

Anyway.... loved it.

The last page was breathtaking.

[Godlike13]

I still find it funny that when the goodiest of good guys get together and make a super armor. They make a frigging demon suit.

[Badou]

I do have to say that I am liking the way Lex is being written here more than in JL as well. Though I get this does take place some time after JL. So their interactions can be a bit different.

Still, aside from some of the forced and rough dialogue (I would have been fine with just forgetting about DotF entirely) this was very good. Tomasi did probably the best he could do juggling all these other plots and incorporating them with his own story. I mean I didn't expect to see Dick there. Though I know it isn't Tomasi's place to have Dick reveal he is alive I am still wondering why Dick is pretending to be dead when Spyral knows who he is and that he is alive and he knows this. Oh well.

Anyway, this issue did touch on something that we've all been wondering about. How and why Darkseid "killed" Bruce that one time causing Dick to become Batman and Bruce to travel through time if FC never happened. I am very curious if they will try and explain it during this arc or are just going to ignore the details of how it all happened.

[kidstandout]

okay i'm sold on tomassi as a writer, this was gold!

[ABH]

I still find it funny that when the goodiest of good guys get together and make a super armor. They make a frigging demon suit.

Heh, yeah, but I'm sure that was at the request of Mr. Dark Knight, himself.

"... No. More black. Little bit of red... and more black."

[Stormcrow]

I always enjoy seeing the Bat-Family together, we don't get nearly enough interaction between them in the New 52. It's a shame that this had to clear the air from the terrible Death of the Family plot, but at least that's out of the way now.

Did not expect Dick to show up, the timing was hilarious. But it seems uncharacteristic for him to have been there all along and is apparently not even a little conflicted about basically lying to their faces, specially Barbara. He had some distance when his death was faked, but this felt a little too close to home for it not to have any impact.

I did enjoy the interaction between Lex and Bruce for once, Tomasi is doing a way better job at this than Johns.

[BloodOps]

This is why this, Grayson and ASM are the only books I really look forward to each month.

Just a lot of fun, Tomasi nails the Bat-Family moments(which we need to have more of in the Nu52) and the beginning was actually touching with Bruce knowing that he might not come back and bringing the 4 closest to him back around for one final goodbye just in case. Dick's appearance was unexpected but welcomed, most of us knew there was no way Tomasi wouldn't be able to bring Dick into this but he found a good way to do it and a good reason why Bruce said no to Dick going to Apokolips with him and was helpful enough to distract the heavy hitters of the Justice League. Tomasi is really killing it nowadays.

Now I wonder where Jason, Tim and Babs will come into play later on in the arc. Thanks to November Solicits, at least the 3 of them do make it over to Apokolips. I honestly thought they'd be along for the ride for the entire arc but I guess not.

[sanderling]

Alfred should always have meals prepared. I mean even in batman the dark knight he gave Bruce Ice cream. PB&J is so grade school
Great issue I loved everything about it. Batman is still mixing the truth with lies but at least he was straight up about everything he could be. I'm glad Dick showed up so now the dishonestly is on both of them

I liked this too. Batman's not the only liar here, and he can't be the only "bad-guy" when the truth comes out. If Dick was just closeted away on his top-secret mission with no outside contact then he is only sort of passively lying to them by not correcting reports of his death. Hanging out in the batcave ceiling while they have a meeting below makes him an active participant in the lie.

Not sure how exactly this is lining up with what is happening in Grayson -- Dick doesn't seem like he's in a position in the organization in that book for either slipping away for secret meetings with Batman or for calling in favors... He's not even supposed to spend more than a couple of minutes with Batman on the radio.

And on a completely random note, Shazam's one-sided competition with Wonder Woman was pretty funny.

[Dzetoun]

I liked this too. Batman's not the only liar here, and he can't be the only "bad-guy" when the truth comes out. If Dick was just closeted away on his top-secret mission with no outside contact then he is only sort of passively lying to them by not correcting reports of his death. Hanging out in the batcave ceiling while they have a meeting below makes him an active participant in the lie.

Not sure how exactly this is lining up with what is happening in Grayson -- Dick doesn't seem like he's in a position in the organization in that book for either slipping away for secret meetings with Batman or for calling in favors... He's not even supposed to spend more than a couple of minutes with Batman on the radio.

Chuckle. Judging by Tim Seeley's Twitter feed, he and King don't know how it's lining up with Grayson either. They evidently didn't have any idea about it until this morning.