SYNOPSIS: As the Dynamic Duo attempts to solve the mysteries of Memento’s recent attacks, Batman begins to fear that his bond with his son and partner is beginning to fracture. Is this simply teenage angst, or is Damian truly pulling away from his father? Meanwhile, Memento emerges from the shadows, and the stone-faced specter of atrocities past makes himself known in the Gotham underworld.
The horror elements kick in and before too long the setting shifts forward a few hours and it is now a crime scene investigated by Batman & Robin. It’s hard not to hear music cues in your head from The Batman as the Dynamic Duo examines the grisly tableau. If it wasn’t before, it is now immediately apparent that PKJ is joined by a new artist, Miguel Mendonca, a recent contributor to Batman: The Brave & The Bold.
Mendonca really caught my attention in how he depicted Damian. While he still looks every bit a youthful teen, he comes off as taller and slightly more mature than Fernandez’s diminutive rendering of him in the prior installments.
The crime scene leads to a flashback in London years earlier, when Bruce was going by the alias of “Jack” as he continued his criminology tutelage. It’s here we get introduced to fellow student Katherine Lautrec, who is about to feature in the present day in a major way.
I really enjoyed seeing Carmine Di Giandomenico return once again to add visual continuity to Batman: The Knight. While his artistic cameo is small, amounting only to two pages, I feel it’s a vital one, entrenching the reader in a particular era. As usual, he favors narrow, cinematic panels that flow toward a grisly, final image before returning to the present.
Currently, Batman is featuring a mystery where The Dark Knight’s relationship with Gordon, now a private investigator, is…strained, shall we say, so it was interesting to see Gordon join the crime scene with Katherine Lautrec, who now holds the rank of lieutenant in the Police Nationale of Paris.
I love the tension Johnson creates between Batman and Lautrec. Will she suspect who is under the cowl? Is this a new love interest? One thing is for sure — they have a tremendous back-and-forth with each other.
There are so many wonderful scenes in this issue, but perhaps my favorite is when Batman and Robin are training on the rooftops. Not only have they donned weight vests for strength training, which makes it feel realistic somehow, Batman also has them speak in several dialects, switching as they go, exercising both body and mind.
Finally, all that gives way for Damian to make some admissions to his father. Johnson builds on all the past continuity to present a Damian who is at a bit of a crossroads. The art only adds to the maturity Damian possesses in the scene and also shows how he is haunted by recent events. The last panel of Batman alone is a perfect symbiosis of script, art, and color.
The issue reaches a crescendo at Arkham Tower, where The Dark Knight and Lt. Lautrec interrogate a well-known resident for a lead. Things go sideways and the James Bond fan in me appreciated it when the former 007 writer threw in an homage to the pre-title sequence of Goldfinger. My hat is off to you, sir!
Let me say, I have really enjoyed Javi Fernandez’s work on the title so far. While I am usually not a fan of switching artists within a story, I was blown out of the water by Mendonca here. His Batman is magnificent, whether jumping across rooftops or prowling the hallways of Arkham Tower. I also appreciated how he varied his panel compositions and picked some very impactful angles. Whatever is going on with Memento is spooky as hell, too. This issue was a visual treat.
PKJ is just nailing this book as writer. This is exactly what I want from it-plenty of action and mystery balanced with characterizations that ring true and a focus on the father/son dynamic. I hope he is just getting started on a long run because this could be an all-timer. Johnson makes Batman & Robin just work. – Javier E. Trujillo
GRADE: A+