Needed this book like a hole in the head
While Action Comics continues to be one of my favorites month after month, Paul Cornell's brief run on Batman and Robin cements him as a writer who is 'hit and miss.' While Subject Zero, the worst of the 3 BOOM! Stan Lee books is average, Batman and Robin is the first Cornell book I can call bad.
The Good
This is Cornell's last issue before Peter Tomasi takes over the book. Scott McDaniel's art is consitently good, and this is no exception. All his pencils are effective and are a bright spot in this book. As much as Absence fails to impress me, I do like that she's not your 'traditional psychopath.' It was quite nice seeing a villain with mercy who was still a villain and not a anti-hero with good still inside her (as the cliche goes). As awful as Cornell's handing of Dick Grayson is (more on that in the next section), his handling of Damian Wayne is spot on. Special mention goes for when Damian points out that Dick never sacrificed him when he had that chance. Those little, begrudging instances of love and respect are things that make Damian such a great character.
The Bad
Maybe I picked up the wrong book. I thought I picked up Batman and Robin, but apparently it was 'mediocre villain spotlight' issue. People have complained that Dick Grayson has been made more and more ineffectual since Bruce returned, and this series is the prime example of it. What we get is a Batman who instantly falls for the villain's trap. A Batman who completely fails to get out of the death machine, completely fails to figure out or stop the villains plan, and completely fails to even stop the villain. This isn't the character I want to read about it, and it's almost insulting to fans of Dick Grayson to see him portrayed this way. It isn't 'non-consensual sex' bad, but reading an issue where Batman fails to accomplish anything at all makes the reader feel cheated. Una Nemo, while an interesting villain, isn't a very good one. There's nothing wrong with moral ambiguity, but Una is just trite and her constant philosophical complaining about Bruce Wayne gets very tiring very quickly. Also, I don't know what they were going for with that giant hole in her head, but it just looks silly. It's too goofy for me to ever take her seriously.
Overall 2/5
I'm ready to see Batman and Robin in action again, not watch them fail at every turn. I'm hopeful Tomasi will bring much needed improvement to this book after Cornell's marring of it.
