Batman # 691 - Long Shadows Conclusion: Two Knights. Two Faces.

 I have bin following this series in ernest, but never before have i bin so geared up a.k.a excited for any comic as much as this one. Two-Face is arguably one of my favorite Batman Villians of all-time, I mean let's face it the guys a ruthless bad-ass. So you catch the drift which upon rides the excitement of the comic! ( Woooow) 


This comic was by far in all the best of the Grayson Era, This comic had everything comic book readers are looking for, Good Writing, Storyline, Character Portrayal, Action everything. The storyline is awesome, seeing these two in action is a literal classic. I give this comic a 4.5 out of 5 for the mere reason, that it's just that good     

Batman 691, was absolutely amazing. First I would like to thank Judd Wininck for reopening the batman series under, 'REBORN', because the issues have been a work of art, and the story lines, and characters chosen are brilliant. The writer has really set his mind on it. Mainly Two Face has been discovering that Batman is not Batman, that someone else has taken the cowl, because in true fact batman is dead and Richard Grayson has put on this new batman persona.
 
Personally I was surprised how thoughtless Richard is being during the series, he's definitely not acting as the real batman would, (smiling on camera and wanting to be seen,) I am proud though that Richard is respecting Bruce and is not using the bat cave as his  headquarters, because it's respectfully Wayne's.
 
The whole story line and plot was nicely done, I'm starting to enjoy the character Two Face, his whole idea and plan to take down the Batman is smart he's definitely an evil genius, Just to note that Two Face has a secret henchmen 'Benny' who is revealing the Penguins plans to Batman, in order for Harvey being able to watch batman every move so that he can discover the truth! I was happy to see that the writer used clayface because I don't think he's used enough in comics, because he's a valuable member from the DC UNIVERSE.
 
SPOILER
 
For this issue Mark Bagley does the art work, and I have to say that his art work is not bad at all and has no room for complaints. Now to reveal the secret! Richard and Alfred were clearing the bat cave, and Richard was about to put down the Jason Todd's Robin costume when he discovers at the base of the glass cabinet there is a chip/usb stick hidden. Richard then puts the chip into the batmobile to see whats contained in it and see's all these secret files from his parent's (the flying Graysons) Death. All I want to say is why on earth would Bruce hide this from Richard he has the full right to know of anything regarding his parents death.
 
So I'll definitely be picking up Batman 692, also for the reason that Tony Daniel will be writing and doing the artwork for the next future issues. All I have to say is if you're not collecting the series because your not a batman fan, you're seriously missing out, and if you are a batman fan and you're not collecting the series I don't what you are doing!

After this issue concluded, I can't imagine there would be any further use of the Bat cave. During R.I.P, the Joker and Dr. Hurt both located and invaded the Bat cave. Hush infiltrated the Bat Cave during Heart of Hush. Now, Harvey Dent has finally infiltrated the Bat cave. You'd think there would be a blinking sign outside for all of Batman's rogues to hold a party in Bruce's memorial.   

The Long Shadows arc was Judd's handling of similar material that Grant Morrison explored in the first 3 issue arc of Batman and Robin. This is the issue where Dick comes into his role as Batman. We know his allies have accepted him as Batman but what about Batman's enemies? Batman is a character that relies on the psychology of fear and if Two-Face doesn't buy Dick as Batman, then the worth of the caped crusader persona is finished. 
 
You can guess, how the physical confrontation works out except the final page that takes us in a different path. Perhaps Bruce wasn't completely honest with Dick. That story is far more interesting than this one.
 
Rating: Borrow it!