Batman and Robin #14 - Devoured

Yeah when comic books change the art halfway through it annoys me too.

thats too bad the cover looks really good.

DAYUM!!!

Nice. Its unfortunately sad to see this series here, from what it was, but I have hope.

I agree with your general assessment of the series 100%. I'm a little more merciful to this particular issue because it had pretty good action and that one heart warming scene at the end. Still, it is a long, steep tumble from the Nobody days.

The BatWatch review is up.

Devoured

Nice. Its unfortunately sad to see this series here, from what it was, but I have hope.

Yeah when comic books change the art halfway through it annoys me too.

What this feels like to me is that Tomasi was in the middle of the script for this arc some 5 months ago (or whenever it was written) and then was forced to wrap it up quickly to take part in Snyder's Death of the Family event. The connection to you-know-who seemed totally out of left field and forced.

What this feels like to me is that Tomasi was in the middle of the script for this arc some 5 months ago (or whenever it was written) and then was forced to wrap it up quickly to take part in Snyder's Death of the Family event. The connection to you-know-who seemed totally out of left field and forced.

Yeah, I felt the same regarding this issue and the series so far. It started off fantastically, even the Zero issue was pretty darn good, but 13 left me scratching my head as to where this was heading and this issue particularly had me laughing at how ridiculously bad it was.

Yep, this is series is going downhill rapidly... I think I'm going to wait until DOTF is over and then I'm dropping it (unless it gets better, of course).

This issue seemed rough an some thing OOC.

wasnt Terminus cut short for DOTF?

This book just never recovered from the dive it took after the first arc :(

Yeah..this book is like the Titantic (incident, not film) started off great..but now the iceberg has caused serious damaged...I'mma keep reading, but hopefully it improves, fast. 

very........disappointing. well at least i can start buying detective comics now

Im sure once Scott Snyder runs out of events it will pick back up and get back to Nobody level stories.

@ccraft said:

wasnt Terminus cut short for DOTF?

Yes, it was.

Great review. I agree with everything 100%. The DOTF segue was sloppy at best. I've been a fan of Tomasi and Gleason as a creative team for years but after the Joker stuff I'm jumping off.

this story felt rushed and pointless, and the art for Robin in the first half was laughable - his face looks insane! sad but i'll stick with it for now, it started off too strong. i did also like the last sequence with the pearl.

I can't understand the disappointment with this issue. Apart from Batman panicking a bit too much for, well, Batman, this was a great issue. Ok, the Joker part was a bit tacked-on, but the end scene was lovely, the dialogue was great, and Damian is a great character. Although there are arguably too many bat books, Batman & Robin is better than Detective Comics.

I don`t understand why this book gets so many bad reviews . Yes , it is annoying that the current story gets cut short because of the crossover , but the art , the writing and the overall quality of this book is so much better than certain other works ( I am looking at you worlds finest !) , I`d give it a 3/5 at least . 2/5 is for comic books that are far worse .

@Agent_Prince said:

I can't understand the disappointment with this issue. Apart from Batman panicking a bit too much for, well, Batman, this was a great issue. Ok, the Joker part was a bit tacked-on, but the end scene was lovely, the dialogue was great, and Damian is a great character. Although there are arguably too many bat books, Batman & Robin is better than Detective Comics.

Detective Comics is actually good now that Layman has taken over, but I will agree that it was a pile of crap before he took the reigns.

The Joker bit was supposed to be a major plot element, yet it made no sense. The entire plot was just random and nonsense. Can you tell me right now what the deal with the zombies was? What was the agenda with the whole thing?

@MaxSchreck said:

I don`t understand why this book gets so many bad reviews . Yes , it is annoying that the current story gets cut short because of the crossover , but the art , the writing and the overall quality of this book is so much better than certain other works ( I am looking at you worlds finest !) , I`d give it a 3/5 at least . 2/5 is for comic books that are far worse .

Worlds' Finest is complete crap, I agree, and I think Katzman is being a tad harsh, but this was not a good issue. It was okay at best.

Normally I'd be the first to defend this series...but I can't.

This issue was just plain bad. The art switch was horrible. I don't think the idea of two artists in one book in general but it certainly doesn't help that the new artist just cannot draw Batman or Damian's face right. Its a shame because I really love the original artist. I feel he's the best DC has right now.

Issues 1-9 and 0 were great. The rest have been complete disappointments. Tomasi would've been SO much better off if he had just skipped this whole zombie thing and given the Terminus arc the extra two issues (maybe it wouldn't have SUCKED then).

I'm not going to drop the series just because I love Damian and I really like Tomasi. But I hope he plans out his stories better in the future.

@SmashBrawler said:

Yep, this is series is going downhill rapidly... I think I'm going to wait until DOTF is over and then I'm dropping it (unless it gets better, of course).

...and I've made up my mind. I'm definitely dropping this in favor of Layman's 'Tec.

@BatWatch: Sure , still it deserves a 3/5 when Worlds Finest gets 2/5 in my opinion . Its not fair to give these books the same rating . Its almost an insult towards Tomasis writing and the artists working on Batman and Robin ...

@MaxSchreck said:

@BatWatch: Sure , still it deserves a 3/5 when Worlds Finest gets 2/5 in my opinion . Its not fair to give these books the same rating . Its almost an insult towards Tomasis writing and the artists working on Batman and Robin ...

Bolded and underlined the key part of this entire discussion. Those three beautiful words mean as long as I justify why I'm giving a certain score (which I hopefully did through the span of my review), I have the right to do so. You have every right to disagree, but to think it's an "insult" towards the creative team makes no sense to me. First and foremost, they're adults and aware that the comic community is a very critical crowd. They're producing a subjective product and because of this, will be open to both criticism and praise -- and rightfully so because we're paying for their work as a source of entertainment. The art isn't terrible nor is Tomasi's writing, but when I put down the issue I was far more disappointed than pleased with the issue -- and hopefully, I did an ample job with why in the review. Because of this, a 2 star rating was appropriate for me.

Furthermore, I think if Tomasi and company read the review and not only look at the score, it would be more than evident the I want the title to succeed and do indeed have faith in their capabilities. Unfortunately, this latest story was very lackluster in my opinion.

@k4tzm4n said:

@MaxSchreck said:

@BatWatch: Sure , still it deserves a 3/5 when Worlds Finest gets 2/5 in my opinion . Its not fair to give these books the same rating . Its almost an insult towards Tomasis writing and the artists working on Batman and Robin ...

Bolded and underlined the key part of this entire discussion. Those three beautiful words mean as long as I justify why I'm giving a certain score (which I hopefully did through the span of my review), I have the right to do so. You have every right to disagree, but to think it's an "insult" towards the creative team makes no sense to me. First and foremost, they're adults and aware that the comic community is a very critical crowd. They're producing a subjective product and because of this, will be open to both criticism and praise -- and rightfully so because we're paying for their work as a source of entertainment. The art isn't terrible nor is Tomasi's writing, but when I put down the issue I was far more disappointed than pleased with the issue -- and hopefully, I did an ample job with why in the review. Because of this, a 2 star rating was appropriate for me.

Furthermore, I think if Tomasi and company read the review and not only look at the score, it would be more than evident the I want the title to succeed and do indeed have faith in their capabilities. Unfortunately, this latest story was very lackluster in my opinion.

Well said.

I'm glad I jumped the shark with this series. I left at Batman and Robin #9 at the Night of the Owls crossover. 1-8 were brilliant and 9 was OK. Perhaps 0 too. But the rest of the issues have been poor. Tomasi needs to up his game. He was doing so well up until recently.

i loved the Nobody arc. i could not stop reading it. i think it will turn around and get a lot better in story.