Batman: Prodigal

Synopsis: This was originally printed in Batman #512-514, Batman: Shadow of the Bat #32-34, Detective Comics #679-681, and Robin #11-13.

Dick Grayson returns to Gotham and takes on the mantle of Batman while Bruce Wayne is away.

Good Stuff: First of all, for longtime fans of Batman and Robin, seeing Dick Grayson wearing the Batman suit is just really, really cool. Better still is actually seeing Batman and Robin working together as a team. It’s nice to see them presented as a partnership, since we just don’t get to see that much anymore.

The stories run the gamut from okay to good. The Two-Face scheme is fun, as is the last story with Robin tracking down Steeljacket.

Not so Good Stuff: One of the major subplots running through these stories is that Commissioner Gordon doesn’t know who’s currently wearing the Batman costume—just that it isn’t the Batman he knows and trusts. This causes him no end of personal problems, and makes it tremendously difficult for him to work with Dick as Batman. However, it’s a plot point that simply does not work at all for me, as all Dick would have had to do is tell the Commissioner that he used to be Robin. It’s one of those, “well, this doesn’t really make sense, but we’re going to do it anyway” points that really annoys longtime comics fans who remember the days when things like this didn’t happen so frequently.

As I said before, the stories run the gamut from okay to good—unfortunately, there’s a lot more okay than good. Outside of the point made earlier, there’s nothing awful. It’s mainly just mediocre.

I give this book 6/10.