Villains teaming up together to take on their common foe is an idea more bad guys should follow.
The Good
Why do villains continue trying to 'get away' with their evil schemes on their own? Years back, in Marvel comics, we saw the Acts of Vengeance storyline. There is value in villains teaming together to try to defeat their enemy. The main problem is, they can never get along or trust each other long enough to accomplish their scheme. But here in the pages of BATMAN AND ROBIN, someone is gathering some lower tier villains that all have a grudge against Batman. If villains like the Rogues can work together against Flash, you would think there would be ones that would want to team up against Batman. To make it more interesting, we see a new villain that is responsible for this gathering.
The nice thing is, this isn't the main focus on the issue. We get to see some of the Bat-Family out of their uniforms (in their civilian guises). This allows for some more character interaction, something important to see once in awhile after the recent storyline with Nobody and the Night of the Owls crossover.
If all that wasn't enough, there's another gathering as well. Why would the former Robins be called to meet? What could this possibly mean? There's a definite cool factor to seeing them together and it opens an interesting door to where this story angle will go.
I've been a fan of Patrick Gleason's art on the series but it's the also John Kalisz's colors that really make the images pop off the page. The way Damian looks whether out in the night or in the Batcave, you immediately get a sense of how much of a little $#!& he is. And let's just point out there will be a fight with Damian and another Robin.
The Bad
The idea of the crooks gathering together is great. There is the obvious concern that we know how it will play out. They'll mistrust each or fumble over each other. Hopefully this will be different.
When we see some of the Robins gathered out of their costumes, it's a little odd. They looked a little awkward. The situation could have been part of it but it could get a tiny bit difficult to keep track of who was who when they weren't all standing side by side.
The Verdict
A new story arc, a new villain, some downtime in the Bat-family and a bunch of Robins together. There's a lot to look forward to here. We've been seeing a lot of action throughout this series and it's great to finally see a new arc begin. You also can't argue with the idea of seeing more than one Robin in series that has "Robin" in the title. Peter Tomasi is prepping some dark things and you still get that sense that something really bad is coming. There seems to be a dark cloud hanging over the characters when they're in this book and it adds to the excitement. As much as I love Patrick Gleason's art (throughout the series), there were moments where some characters looked a little off. What makes this book feel different from BATMAN is the sense that Batman is working with others, hence the title. It's a great change of pace and gives each book a separate feel. I've complained about too many Batman books in the past but Tomasi, Gleason and Kalisz keep me wanting more each month.
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