"Batman: Rebirth" #1 Gives Duke Thomas a New Role, Revamps Classic Foe

[Lhynn]

I thought the yellow ranger was suposed to be an asian girl.

[bat_girl_cc]

This issue was meh, and thats me being nice.

[Lhynn]

This issue was meh, and thats me being nice.

I give it the benefit of the doubt. Not everything has to be bombastic or super deep, i just hope its more like giving us breathing room to take in the characters than it is setting the pace.
Theres been too many huge events lately, things slowing down and some character development is a good thing.

[Lady Nightwing]

I quite liked the issue, it was pleasant. Not really exciting admittedly. I grew to like Duke over the course of WAR, I'm iffy on his new costume. It reminds me of Dick's earth 2 society costume. Has his codename been confirmed as Lark? Because a bird themed name is illsuited to a boy wearing not one but two Bat symbols. I'm vetoing Batface though :P

[oasis1313]

I like Duke just fine, as a character. I just don't see where he has a purpose, other than to be a "person of color" sidekick for Batman. Bat-Wing, on the other hand, had some thought put behind him.

[VirgilCole]

This issue was lackluster at best. Just not what I expected from a title called "Rebirth" , but about what I expected from DC. Superman Rebirth was about the only one released this week that was any good. Green Arrow was especially bad.

[Scott Taylor]

Batface would be an awe inspiring name

Batty McBatface!

[Matt Murdock's Swagger]

If they want to keep the bird theme, they should call Duke "Thrasher".... sounds better then Lark imo.

[oasis1313]

Yellow birds, yellow birds--let's see . . . "Yellowjacket is already copyrighted" . . . Canary . . . oops, got one of those. Parakeet?

[rpi]

WTF was up with Alfred's hand? The Joker recently chopped it off. Did Wally West showing up magically make it regrow, or is this just another instance of Snyder forgetting stories that have happened longer than a year ago?

[Unfinishedsentenc]

WTF was up with Alfred's hand? The Joker recently chopped it off. Did Wally West showing up magically make it regrow, or is this just another instance of Snyder forgetting stories that have happened longer than a year ago?

Another instance? I'm intrigued. What was the first one?

[Pohzee]

WTF was up with Alfred's hand? The Joker recently chopped it off. Did Wally West showing up magically make it regrow, or is this just another instance of Snyder forgetting stories that have happened longer than a year ago?

There was something in #51 about using stitches from Crazy Quilt or something to sew his hand back on. I didn't read Superheavy, just #51, so I don't know if this is was just a throwaway line to explain the change or if it happened in a previous issue.

[rpi]

Another instance? I'm intrigued. What was the first one?

A lot of his run hit exactly the same beats that Morrison did on his run. Frazzled Batman in a maze. Thomas Wayne Barbatos vs Thomas Wayne Lincoln Marche. Snyder used the Oroboros theme in Zero Year less than a year after after Morrison's Spyder storyline in Batman Inc. Morrison had an entire story about the old bat that broke through Bruce's window and inspired him, except Snyder goes goes through that all over again to have an owl catch it. I've got no problem with reusing concepts in different contexts, but give it some breathing room (the two titles were running at the same time!), especially since Morrison did such a better job of it. Beyond Morrison, Joker had his face chopped off and then shows up with it right back on. (oh, I'm sorry, he had jellyfish regeneration cells in his spinal column.) I know the Joker is resilient, but Snyder didn't even try. Hell, he killed Batman and Joker at the end of one of his stories, literally crushed the under rocks, and they're both back without any explanation. Bruce Wayne has a large part of is fortune taken by Cluemaster and Thomas Wayne part deux, and then proceeds to write the comic as though nothing had happened (minus a pat, useless "Oh, we got it all back for you" in this Rebirth issue). Hell, a Talon stabbed Batman entirely through, and Snyder forgot it even happened by the next issue. And it also felt like a lot of the Zero Year beats felt very liberally borrowed from Batman Begins.

I know a lot of that can be written off as just different preferences in storytelling, and that they had the New 52 to buffer them, or that it's stuff that some readers simply don't care about as long as they are entertained. To me it just felt sloppy. I'm fine with retellings of stories or concepts after some breathing room.

And what was up with Alfred's hand?

[rpi]

There was something in #51 about using stitches from Crazy Quilt or something to sew his hand back on. I didn't read Superheavy, just #51, so I don't know if this is was just a throwaway line to explain the change or if it happened in a previous issue.

If that's the case, good thing they kept it on ice or whatever the whole time Bruce was out of it...yeesh.

[JoeWithoutFear]

I like Duke's gear a lot actually. And I think the yellow looks good. Plus, that's an unused color. Damian has green, Tim and Jason have red, Dick has blue, and now Duke gets yellow. I dig it.