Batman & Robin by Joshua Williamson and Simone Di Meo

[Frontier]

Talia for mother of the year .

[Frontier]

spoilers:

Ha! Robin has his own "R" grapple. And still cares a lot about animals. A female version of Hush called "Shush" feels so ridiculous yet I'm willing to give it a chance. I wonder if she's related to Tommy at all. I love how Croc is smart enough to bail because he knows they're screwed the moment Batman got involved. Also so he can show up in Poison Ivy's book. Damian in public school! You can't be a proper anime/manga teen without high school, though it goes about as well as you'd expect...at least now he has the restraint to only think of beating people up. I get why he prefers his time with the kids in the Lazarus Tournament, but I wonder if high school will grow on him. I keep feeling like the teachers are going to turn out to be secret supervillains or more important than they look at first glance. I love how both Bruce and Damian ditched their "off hours" to get back on the case. Shouldn't White Rabbit have been changed into a prison uniform by now? Though I guess it gives them an excuse to show off more of her new costume.

end of spoilers

[Arctic Cyclist]

Talia for mother of the year .

Sure, giving your child a bat as a pet is a horrible thing, but it doesn’t necessarily make Talia a bad mother. And the woman is one of Damian’s teachers, Mistress Harsh. He literally calls her that. She like Master Dusk: part of his past that isn’t happy being part of his past.

I wonder how young Damian is here, because he doesn’t seem to fully recognize that she’s his school principal.

[Frontier]

Sure, giving your child a bat as a pet is a horrible thing, but it doesn’t necessarily make Talia a bad mother. And the woman is one of Damian’s teachers, Mistress Harsh. He literally calls her that. She like Master Dusk: part of his past that isn’t happy being part of his past.

I wonder how young Damian is here, because he doesn’t seem to fully recognize that she’s his school principal.

I mean, she's done plenty on top of that to earn the award...

[Arctic Cyclist]

I mean, she's done plenty on top of that to earn the award...

True, but that also true for Bruce winning father of the year in a field that includes Ra’s Al Ghul, Vandal Savage, and Slade Wilson. The point remains that it’s not Talia in this issue but a former governess/handler.

It’s entertaining, though, that villains don’t understand that Batman is terrified of bats and that’s why he chooses to dress up as one. It’s even better as they are assuming that Damian got his love of bats from his dad when Talia, as an ecologist, is the one who loves bats. I just hope that bat was an endangered species. If it was it explains all of our villain’s’ motivations: they got kicked out of the League, barely escaping with their lives, after Ra’s had an epic meltdown over the death of a dayak fruit bat (aka the kinkiest species of bat…well at least that we know about).

[Mantis-Ray]

Once again its sweet seeing the positive interactions between Bruce and Damian here.

Especially Damian sewing up his father's wounds and them needling each other over where they are supposed to be.

[Godlike13]

Im really struggling with the art. I can't follow the story. Its aesthetically pleasing, but its like a bunch of close up photos pasted into a book. I wish i could have gone to Gotham High though, i mean those teachers . BTW are they the villains? Look like they could be.

[Frontier]

Im really struggling with the art. I can't follow the story. Its aesthetically pleasing, but its like a bunch of close up photos pasted into a book. I wish i could have gone to Gotham High though, i mean those teachers . BTW are they the villains? Look like they could be.

I think the first one was the same lady who was training Damian in the LoA.

[dietrich]

I like how Damian's ethnicity was presented in B&R.
Facing racism and bullying because even though he's 'white', the other students could sense his 'otherness' from his accent and probably some other distinct ethnic about his features.

Racism isn't all about skin colour and not all minorities are visibly ethnic.
Groups who aren't part of the default group are 'othered' in many overt and covert ways. Including inquiring where an accent is or asking non-whites.

I hope we get more of this sort of stories. It's more realistic to the type of casual racism that mixed and white passing individual like Damian would face.

Unlike the subconscious racism of changing the skin tone of a character that has no reason to be brown brown because of course Chinese and Arabian peninsula are known for there brown skin.

Also the classism. Damian is now the son of a scrub because Bruce Wayne is now just a Millionaire. Poor thing.

[failo.legendkiller]

Im really struggling with the art. I can't follow the story. Its aesthetically pleasing, but its like a bunch of close up photos pasted into a book. I wish i could have gone to Gotham High though, i mean those teachers . BTW are they the villains? Look like they could be.

I have the same issues with the art, it's at threshold of my limits.
The best moment in the issue is Damian imagining what he would do to his new classmate.
I'm not interested at all in this new villain Shush so far. Some Bruce-Damian good interaction, nothing special though.

[chachi]

Really enjoying this 2 issues in, even with the art being "different". Only DC book I am pulling now.

[Frontier]

I like how Damian's ethnicity was presented in B&R.
Facing racism and bullying because even though he's 'white', the other students could sense his 'otherness' from his accent and probably some other distinct ethnic about his features.

Racism isn't all about skin colour and not all minorities are visibly ethnic.
Groups who aren't part of the default group are 'othered' in many overt and covert ways. Including inquiring where an accent is or asking non-whites.

I hope we get more of this sort of stories. It's more realistic to the type of casual racism that mixed and white passing individual like Damian would face.

Unlike the subconscious racism of changing the skin tone of a character that has no reason to be brown brown because of course Chinese and Arabian peninsula are known for there brown skin.

Also the classism. Damian is now the son of a scrub because Bruce Wayne is now just a Millionaire. Poor thing.

I was thinking it's because he talks like he walked out of Downton Abbey.

[TheKryptonMan]

Im really struggling with the art. I can't follow the story. Its aesthetically pleasing, but its like a bunch of close up photos pasted into a book. I wish i could have gone to Gotham High though, i mean those teachers . BTW are they the villains? Look like they could be.

Hey , you're not the only one struggling with the art . It is "different " and it does look like close up photos at times .
Williamson is doing good with Bruce & Damian though .
But eventually the art will change , it always does .
Yeah , I wish I had teachers like that when I was in High School , lol .

[SixSpeedSamurai]

I have the same issues with the art, it's at threshold of my limits.
The best moment in the issue is Damian imagining what he would do to his new classmate.
I'm not interested at all in this new villain Shush so far. Some Bruce-Damian good interaction, nothing special though.

Same, especially splash pages, I can't tell what the hell is going on sometimes. Have never been a big fan of Di Meo's style.

[Dark_Tzitzimine]

Is this ending already?

BATMAN AND ROBIN #5

Written by JOSHUA WILLIAMSON

Art and cover by SIMONE DI MEO

Variant cover by JORGE MOLINA

Variant cover by KAEL NGU

1:25 variant cover by PETE WOODS

1:50 variant cover by KAEL NGU

$4.99 US | 32 pages | Variant $5.99 US (card stock)

ON SALE 1/9/24

Batman and Robin have been separated! Batman works with White Rabbit to track down the new femme fatale Shush while his son, Damian, hunts down the criminal mastermind who is targeting his father! But Damian won’t like who he finds! Don’t miss out on the shocking ending!