Written by David Hine
Illustrated by Greg Tocchini and Andrei BressanLe Jardin Noir — France’s very own Arkham Asylum — falls under siege! Someone has freed the lunatics, and unless they can be stopped, they’ll turn Paris into a surreal Hell on Earth! Batman and Robin join Nightrunner in a mind-bending battle with the strangest lineup of villains this side of Bizarro World.
David Hine really wants us to love Nightrunner. The final pre-relaunch issue of Batman & Robin features the parkour-loving French-Algerian as he and the dynamic duo take down some surrealist French villains. Surrealism? In my mainstream DC comic? It’s more likely than you think. Follow the cut for the skinny.
David Hine deserves a good ol’ thumbs up for some of the things that he does with this issue. When you make a “surreal” comic, you tend to alienate those who don’t care for such a stylistic choice, but the way that Hine uses surrealism in this superhero story folds it into the genre in an interesting and approachable way. Everyone likes to compare Grant Morrison’s work to the craziness of the Silver Age, but with this issue Hine forms an even closer parallel. Hine takes the sort of thing that you’d expect to see on Superdickery, everyone’s second favorite website – after our site, of course – and turns it into a fascinating and exciting story. I have my ups and downs with the superhero genre, but it’s issues that prove why it has endured: because you can do pretty much anything with it!
My first big gripe – story-wise – can’t be helped. I feel that one more issue would have allowed this story to breathe a bit more. Maybe not even a whole issue’s worth of pages, but maybe if this one was an oversized finale or something like that? It’s not like the issue seemed overly compressed or anything like that, but… well, I just wanted more. Sadly, I won’t be getting any more because DC thought it was a better idea to give Judd Winick a Batwing series rather than giving a series to David Hine and his creation that got a lot of media attention for a “minor” comic book character. Additionally, I’m not sure how I feel about the villain’s reveal. On the one hand, it seems kind of lazy and unoriginal, but at the same time it kind of embodies a very different and very interesting take on the core concept of that character. Vague, I know, but I don’t want to spoil anything for those of you who haven’t read it yet.
And there’s one more gripe: Greg Tocchini. Tocchini was my least favorite artist of July, and I became a lot more hesitant to pick this issue up when I saw his name on it. As I’ve said before, I don’t want to say that he’s bad; it’s just that his work is so style-heavy that if you don’t like his style, then you’re not going to find much of anything to enjoy about his artwork. It’s not a matter of technicality, it’s a matter of personal preference. I will admit, though, that I did enjoy his work in this issue a bit more than usual, because he did an admittedly good job at portraying some of the more surreal moments. Still, it was a bit of a relief when I turned the page and found that Andrei Bressan had stepped in to finish the issue off, and I must say that editorial picked a great moment for the change.
This doesn’t quite feel like a finale for Batman & Robin, but that doesn’t change that it’s a solid story. Tocchini’s art hurts it a bit for me, but not enough to make it not worth buying. Plus, as I said, it’s actually not bad… for what I’m used to from him. David Hine doesn’t get enough love – remember his great Arkham Reborn story? – and it’s a massive shame that he’s nowhere to be seen in the relaunch… yet. Don’t let me down, DC.
Final Verdict: 7.0 – Buy it!
