Batman: Long Shadows #1

Dick Grayson tries to maintain some form of order in Gotham after accepting the responsibility of wearing the cape and cowl.  

This is the first story arc of Dick Grayson as Batman and the title for it is a very fitting one. Bruce Wayne no doubt casted long shadows in his time as Batman. Dick Grayson attempts to step out of that shadow but learns very quickly that this job is a lot harder then he thought it would be. 

One of the first things Dick does after becoming Batman is create a new base of operations. Personally I wished he would have stayed in the Batcave but he wants to be his own man and step out of Bruce's shadow, which is what this story is all about. So I guess it's fitting and appropriate that he made the change he felt was necessary. 

The on-going turf war in Gotham continues between Two-Face and Penguin which ends up swallowing Grayson. Two-Face sort offices together that this Batman is not the original one. He begins to lay his own trap to catch this Batman by putting the heat on Penguin. What I liked was how Two-Face managed to gain access to the Batcave via a teleporter with a gift of being able to teleport to an objects origins, the object being a batarang. Dick finds out early that the job isn't easy as he let his guard down and within the first few days as Batman, the Batcave was infiltrated. I look forward to seeing him learn from his mistakes and see what type of Batman he will become in comparison to Bruce Wayne. 

I like how Black Mask is lurking in the shadows and staying under the radar as he attempts to regain control of the Gotham underworld. He's basically using Two-Face and Penguin as pawns in his grand scheme. I look forward to seeing what he has in store for Batman.

I like how Dick has sort of taken responsibility for Damian. It will be very interesting to see how those two interact with each other. I liked how Damian kept saying only Batman should drive the Batmobile at the beginning when Dick was still wearing his Nightwing costume. Seeing them spar against each other later on was also pretty well written. I enjoyed the dialogue as Dick was trying to get under Damian's skin which he accomplished pretty easily. It just shows the growth and maturity Dick has gained over the years as well as the vast amount of knowledge from being trained and working with Bruce. Now he's applying it in sort of the same way Bruce applied it to him all those years ago. While I think it's great Dick wants to be his own man, he's still a lot like Bruce whether he admits it or not. 

The art in the first issue is by Ed Benes and the rest is done by Mark Bagley. Both are extremely talented artists who do an outstanding job. Tony Daniel provided some outstanding covers. 

This was a solid story arc that doesn't get enough credit. A lot of people don't like Judd Winick's writing. Personally I didn't mind it at all. Was this the best Batman story? No. It's still worth a read and a great beginning to Dick Grayson's career as Batman.