Robin & Batman #1

Robin & Batman #1

DC Comics 2021

Written by Jeff Lemire

Illustrated by Dustin Nguyen

Lettered by Steve Wands

The legendary story of Batman and Robin has reached nearly mythic proportions: the crime-fighting Dynamic Duo, always one step ahead of the criminals they pursue and never meeting a case too big. This isn’t that story. This is the story of a young Dick Grayson, newly orphaned, struggling to find his way in a strange, difficult, dark new world…This is the story of Robin and Batman

Dick Grayson was my Robin growing up and over the years we’ve seen a lot of different approaches to his being the boy wonder but none have been like this. The dynamic between Alfred and Bruce has never been better and we see how much respect there is between the two long before anyone else came into the picture. Also learning just what possible connection Killer Croc and Dick Grayson possess well that’s something that I hadn’t quite expected and it’s something that’s rather genius when it comes right down to it. This is so engaging for a myriad of reasons and among them is that I went off page and thought about tall the Robins that follow and how he set the standard but now with the suit but with Bruce everyone who follows would get the benefit of what Dick was able to do at this stage of the partnership and that’s powerful.

I love the way that this is being told. The story & plot development that we see through how the sequence of events unfold as well as how the reader learns information is presented exceptionally well. The character development, which is mind-blowingly awesome, that we see through the narration, the dialogue, the character interaction as well as how we see them act and react to the situations and circumstances which they encounter does this magnificent job in establishing their personalities at this stage.

I greatly appreciate the way that this is being structured and how the layers within the story begin to emerge and grow. I like how we see the layers within the story open up new avenues to be explored and whether they will be or not they all manage to add some great depth, dimension and complexity to the story. The cliffhanger ending is one of the best in recent memory. How we see everything working together to create the story’s ebb & flow as well as how it moves the story forward are impeccably achieved.

The interiors here are very distinctly Dustin’s. There’s a trade off for me to see his work and that’s we lose a lot of backgrounds but his characters are gorgeously rendered. The attention to detail that we see so this feels very mixed media is absolutely stunning to see and it just excites the reader and grabs the attention and doesn’t want to let go. How we see the composition within the panels being utilised to bring out the depth perception, sense of scale and the overall sense of size and scope to the story is exceptionally well handled. The utilisation of the page layouts and how we see the angles and perspective in the panels show a masterful eye for storytelling. The various hues and tones within the colours that we see being utilised to create the shading, highlights and shadow work shows a sensational eye for how colour works. The shading techniques and then the coloured lights casting their glow on them tinting the colour just enough to notice is exceptional stuff.

​

Going back to reread this there are things that make a lot more sense right now and I have to say that impresses me a lot more than I would’ve thought and the reasoning behind that is something I hadn’t counted on, it’s more protective than angry per se but it’s also another hidden yet powerful moment when you realise it. This is exceptionally well written with some of the best and strongest characterisation of these two I’ve seen and wrap it all up in these style of interiors and Holy Picasso Batman this breathes new life into the mythology we’ve all known for years.