THIS WEEK: Mark Waid and Chris Samnee reunite for the early days of the Dynamic Duo in Batman and Robin: Year One #1.
Note: the review below contains spoilers. If you want a quick, spoiler-free buy/pass recommendation on the comics in question, check out the bottom of the article for our final verdict.
Batman and Robin: Year One #1
Co-Plot: Mark Waid & Chris Samnee
Writer: Mark Waid
Artist: Chris Samnee
Colorist: Matheus Lopes
Letterers: Clayton Cowles with Chris Samnee
Cover Artists: Chris Samnee & Matheus Lopes
The origin of the Batman and Robin team has been explored a number of times before, from storylines like “Batman: Year Three” to standalone series like Batman: Dark Victory and Robin: Year One. This week DC presents a new take on the Dynamic Duo’s earliest days with the debut of the twelve-issue Batman and Robin: Year One. The new, definitive take on the team’s beginnings comes from the acclaimed creative duo of Mark Waid and Chris Samnee, who deliver a premiere issue that’s a classic superhero fan’s dream.
Waid is no stranger to revisiting a character or team’s beginnings, with books like JLA: Year One and Superman: Birthright among his extensive bibliography. On this series, co-plotters Waid and Samnee present a Bruce Wayne who’s facing a challenge he never expected either in life or in his war on crime: raising a child. Waid’s script combined with Samnee’s emotive characterization reveals a vulnerability to Batman that’s rarely seen in the character. There’s a softness in the way he relates to Robin, and a quiet ferocity to how hard he will defend the boy to others. Likewise, Waid and Samnee breathe exuberant life into young Dick Grayson as he learns to balance the excitement of superheroing with the seriousness of the situations in which they find themselves.
So much of that life comes from Samnee’s visuals, which are top-notch as always. Samnee is a masterful storyteller, from page composition that’s exciting and easy to follow to characters who all have their own unique personalities. His visual style, combined with highly-complimentary colors by Matheus Lopes, gives the series a Batman: The Animated Series vibe that’s hard not to be drawn in by, and the storytelling from he and Waid also straddles the line B:TAS did of being accessible to younger audiences while also being mature enough for older readers. It’s a difficult balance to strike, but one Samnee’s been doing for years going back to Thor: The Mighty Avenger, and it’s welcome to see it found in Gotham again.
It’s interesting to read Batman and Robin: Year One #1 the week following the release of this month’s other big Batman debut, Absolute Batman #1. The latter series is an overt attempt at redefining the Bat-mythos, but in a lot of ways that book reads just like any other Batman comic. The trappings may be different, but the tone of the script and of the art is largely the same as what you would find in the other mainline Batman books from DC. Batman and Robin: Year One, on the other hand, feels different. Between Waid’s script and Samnee’s artwork, these characters and this city feel vibrant and alive in a way that stands out from the rest of the line in the best way. It is at once new and different and also timeless.
I’m on-record as having wanted more classic Batman and Robin stories from DC for quite some time. Batman/Superman: World’s Finest has scratched that itch nicely, and Batman and Robin: Year One is everything this reader could have wanted it to be. It’s as action-packed and fun as it is heartfelt, and it already has the makings of an instant classic.
Final Verdict: BUY.
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English (US) · 