Review: ‘Batman Vs. Robin’ #2 Prepares To Tear The DCU Apart
by Tony Thornley
Every miniseries and story has an issue that needs to slow down and give some exposition. The important thing in those stories is how they handle them. Batman Vs. Robin #2 does it in a very fun way that points to some horrific events to come.
Mark Waid, Mahmud Asrar, Jordie Bellaire, and Steve Wands set up a terrifying next chapter for the darker corners of the DCU.
Mother Soul and the Devil Nezha are tearing through the magical corners of the DC Universe, disrupting the entire universe. As Robin struggles with his actions, Batman and Alfred are hot on his trail. That trail is about to take them through the House of Mystery and the House of Secrets, and they’ll be lucky to survive it.
Every serialized story hits an exposition-heavy issue. Waid is a good storyteller and knows how to do those kinds of issues. After kicking off with some serious horror, he shifts into Bruce and Alfred’s trip through the Houses. He could have just recapped the recent Robin series from there, but he turns the exposition into a surreal horror trip. It’s creepy and fun, and best of all, it ends on a hell of a twist.
One of Waid’s best traits as a writer is giving his artists cool stuff to draw, then stepping back until it’s time to script. He does that here with Asrar and Bellaire. The trip through the House of Mystery and House of Secrets is one of the best looking sequences in a big two book from the past year. Asrar captures the surreal, and makes it look real. He paces the horror perfectly, and adds just enough action to drive the story forward.
Bellaire’s colors are an absolute star here as well. She adds an unearthly glow to each page, but each of the houses are filled with a different color. She also makes the Lazarus resin sickly green in a way that makes it feel ethereal while driving the horror of the entire story into the reader’s gut. Wands matches that with his letters, delivering exposition and pacing the dialogue to match the pacing the art gives us.
I’m really excited for what the rest of the series is going to give us. I didn’t quite expect this series to go in the direction of action-horror, but it’s continuing to one of the most unique Batman events DC’s given us.
Batman Vs. Robin #2 is available now from DC Comics.
Overview
An exposition heavy issue still lands. It points towards some big things in the story, and even better, it looks great. Batman Vs. Robin continues to be a treat.
