Batman #648

Hey everybody. Happy New Year's! Unless you don't follow the Christian Calender, in which case, happy day like any other.

Hope you guys's break has been lotsa lotsa fun. Mine's been busy, I tell you what. Sitting around doing nothing, lying around doing nothing, and standing around doing nothing are three activities that take a lot more out of you than you'd think.

Actually, wait. No, I've definitely been busy this break to some extent. Though there has been a lot of DVD watching. Oh, and comic book reading. Which reminds me...

BATMAN #648

Of all the Batman series out there right now (last time I checked, it was Batman, Detective Comics, and Gotham Knights), this is the only one with any overall significance. Actually, I guess that's not entirely true. Gotham Knights was doing something lame where Alfred was killing people or something lame like that, but I think he's being mind controlled or something (I'm only sort of following that one along) so it's nothing really drastic. I don't think.

But here, in the pages of Batman, DC has gone and brought Jason Todd back from the dead. And he's evil. And it's the real thing.

Jason Todd, by the way, was the second Robin- the reckless one. Batman first encountered him a lowly street urchin trying to steal the hubcaps from the batmobile and decided he needed a new ward. Anyways, they fight some crime, but eventually Joker beats Jason to death with a crowbar then blows him up but good. The end?

When I was a kid, I had a copy of Jason Todd's death courtesy of my uncle, so this was a part of Batman canon that I was quite familiar with. Bringing him back is not only big, but it's something that I can appreciate.

Only I can't.

Why, you ask? Because DC ruined it. Anyone who's read the insanely successful Batman: Hush can recall that in the pen-penultimate issue, there was a fakeout as to the identity of the antagonist Hush: He pulls back his bandages to reveal that *holy shit* he's really Jason Todd, Batman's long lost partner! Only not really, because it's really Clayface in disguise. The real Hush is Bruce Wayne's childhood friend who came to visit him (imagine that) at the beginning of the storyline. Snore.

Anyways, all that was only about 2, maybe 3 years ago, and still very fresh in the minds of the audience. I'll bet that people were so furious with the fakeout in Hush, that it wasn't Jason Todd at all, that DC decided to appease the fans and bring him back actually. The problem is, though, that the shock is ruined. It's like if someone's throwing a surprise birthday party for you. If that person comes up to you and says "I'm throwing you a surprise birthday party.... Just joking," odds are that the surprise will be pretty much ruined.

The same applies to this comic. It's a shame, really, because it's otherwise being handled pretty well. Well, maybe with the exception of this issue...

This issue has basically two parts. 1) a boring Alfred inner monologue where he shares with the audience Master Wayne's love for collecting original books as a child and how he's... losing his carefreeness? and 2) a battle between Black Mask and The Red Hood (Jason's current alias).

Now, given what we know about Jason's fighting abilities (he's VERY good) and Black Mask's (not really so much), I sort of figured that the fight scene would be brief and look a little something... a-like this:



I'll let you figure out which one is the Black Mask and which one is the Red Hood. Written and illustrated by Aaron Feldman, by the way. Yeah, putting Black Mask against the Red Hood is like putting the Spot against the Green Goblin. There's no competition at all. The fight will be quick.

Only for some reason this fight takes place over ten pages with three additional pages of scowly lead-up. AND, to top it all off, Black Mask wins. Obviously, this means that the cliffhanger- Black Mask standing over Jason's dead-looking body- is something of a fakeout. Still, unless it's a damn good fakeout, I kinda feel cheated on story.

And the Alfred monologue? Ugh. We get it. Batman now is less jolly than Bruce Wayne as a kid. I don't see how this is a surprise.

On the one hand, the overall direction of bringing Jason Todd back has had an inherent flaw. On the other hand, writer Judd Winick has still done a good job, with compelling dialogue and interesting characters. On the other hand, this particular issue was still kind of lame.

6.5 out of 10