Ray: It’s the first of two issues concluding epic miniseries telling tales of Batman and Robin’s early years this month, and this one has the edge of one artist through the entire run – the brilliant Chris Samnee. Over the run, we’ve seen Bruce struggle to adjust to being a father, Dick battling with his grief and rage over his parents’ death, and a criminal conspiracy taking over Gotham. In this final issue, the villains’ plan has been exposed, and Two-Face and Clayface are on the run. Fortunately, Batman and Robin are back together – while Dick was taken from the home as part of the Clayface infestation and placed with a new foster family that gave him a normal life, he hasn’t been able to forget about the life he left behind. And with Batman injured and the odds against him, Dick’s arrival helps to turn the tide of battle at the exact right time – assuming they can handle two of Gotham’s deadliest villains.

The final battle is intense, especially given the many encounters Dick has with Two-Face in the future. There are some scenes that show just how far the boy is willing to go to do the right thing – even at the potential loss of his own life. While the action segments are strong, there are also a lot of interesting moments here outside of the costume. While the replacements of Gotham’s elite by Clayface may be over, there are still a lot of unanswered questions here that aren’t as neat to resolve. This is probably the most realistic depiction of the process of how Bruce adopted Dick we’ve ever seen, and the character who played a key role in it had an interesting evolution. Similarly, this issue does a great job of showing how Batman and Jim Gordon’s working relationship developed over the first year and how the first Bat-signal came to be. Excellent stuff, no surprise from this creative team.

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Source: geekdad.com