Review: Batman - Face The Face TPB

Batman: Face The Face TPB
Written by James Robinson
Pencils By Leonard Kirk and Don Kramer
Inks by Various
Published by DC Comics. $14.99 USD

I wasn't paying attention to the Batman books when this serial was going on, but the credits indicate it was one of those deals where the two main books, Batman and Detective were sort of hijacked to run a continuous storyline. It's very much in continuity, in that it brings Batman back from a year's absence for God knows what reason, reestablishes the status quo, and cleans up whatever interesting loose end was left, which in this case was the curious idea that former Two-Face Harvey Dent, having been "cured," was immediately given charge of Gotham's crimefighting chores by Batman while he was away. This is the same Batman who has fought Two-Face a million times and doesn't even trust Superman fully. It was a dumb idea, but at least it was different. Robinson appears to be a hired gun here, getting the Batverse from Point A to Point B for someone else to take over with a more or less clean slate. I didn't know this when I ordered this book and had some hope that I'd be getting a bit of the old Robinson who had something to say or at least a stylish way to say little.

But this is pretty standard, easy stuff. Jim Gordon is reinstalled as Police Commisioner again, and his first order of business is that stirring admission of defeat--firing up ye olde Bat Signale, and of course there's a green young cop who gets to be awestruck in Batman's presence. Actually, it appears the first order of business was flouting the law by smoking a pipe in his office. There's a bit of nonsense with Poison Ivy, an awkward but competent step forward with Bruce Wayne offering to adopt the now-orphaned Tim (but why even mention that times have changed so he can't just be his ward now, when no one has been anyone's ward for 50 years? Just ignore it!), and a lot of time spent with little emotional impact and not much sense on the unraveling of Harvey again. There's a thin mystery of sorts, too, as it appears Two-Face is killing off some minor villains (oops! There goes another Byrne creation! What did Magpie ever do to anyone?) but it's really a frame job. It's pretty contrived that Harvey would get so bent out of shape when Batman questions him about the murders--he's the most obvious suspect! You have to at least ask the questions! Robinson gets to that Point B without knocking anything over but it's some mighty flat work. I did like Batman hiring sleazy private eye Jason Bard as his daytime agent--that could pay off with some fun stories down the line.

The art alternates between Kirk and Kramer, who are mechanically adequate in the imitation of their respective inspirations. I don't know who's who, but the guy drawing the chapter with Poison Ivy really sucks, and the other one doesn't suck as much, though he relies too much on tightass George Perez-like fine lines that might as well be little nails fixing the characters to their surroundings. There are four different inkers, which adds to the lack of consistency, but Andy Clarke really dominates the look of the pages he inks, so that everyone has a pretty creepy expression. Clarke once did a nice serial for 2000AD called "13" that I liked, but the creepiness was much more appropriate to that story than to depictions of Robin and Gordon.