Batman: The Dark Knight #9Judd Winick: writer
David Finch: penciller
Inks: Richard Friend
The Solicitation
• "NIGHT OF THE OWLS" continues here!• Guest-writer JUDD WINICK joins artist DAVID FINCH for the return of RED ROBIN!• Red Robin is back in Gotham City just in time to face off against TALON and THE COURT OF OWLS!
Preview
The Comic
Again, we have another Night of the Owls crossover with us following the story of a Talon and then our heroes trying to stop them. It's been a bit since I last read Dark Knight, and that was mostly because the writing was just awful on it. Now we have Winick, who I enjoy with the Batwing series, taking the writing duties. He already did a nice crossover in Batwing, how does he do here?
On its own, it isn't too bad. However, I have some major, major issues with this book.
First thing first: Red Robin was on the cover and was featured in the solicitation as being the star of this book, or at least the co-star. He gets one panel that he shares with the other former Robins, minus Red Hood. So, it is very, very off.
Major issue, part two: Talon meets up with Batman before Nightwing is recruited as Robin. Essentially this Talon was the last Talon before Dick Grayson was supposed to join. So the Talon goes to see who will replace him, and he meets up with Batman. My thought, and I may need to re-check this, is that Bruce never encountered any member of the Court of Owls previous to the recent story line in Batman. So this flies in the face of that.
This issue's second half is basically a closer look at a few panels from Batman #9. That's it. So in the context of the rest of the crossover, this is just bad. But if I read this on its own, it wasn't too bad. It's conflicting, but I'm going to have to go with the poor sell of what is on the cover not reflecting the story and go with bad.
The Art
Finch is good as an artist. Flipping through this book and then seeing other recent books by other artists, I find a great appreciation for his backgrounds. He isn't skimpy with them and takes the time to put some details into what is behind the figures in the picture. Between this and the fact that the teenage Robins at the end of the book have a much more teenage muscle structure, I gotta give this book props for having some good art.
The Cover
Red Robin's left arm looks weird, like it should be coming out towards you in a 3-D effect, but its on a 2-D surface. I liked the cover, and was looking forward to what would happen inside the book, but was sorely disappointed. If there is anything that screams that this book didn't sell what it promised to, it was all in the cover and the solicitation.
Grades
Words: 5/10 - split decision since it is good one its own, but bad within the context of everything.
Pictures: 8/10
Recommend: Ultimately, no. This is better than my previous reads of Dark Knight, so it has that going for it, but it is nothing of what was promised for a tie in book to the main series that you couldn't get from reading Batman.
Buy Next Issue: I'm not going to be here.
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