Villains Month had its ups and downs. Few of those downs were as low as The Joker, written by brilliant artist but extremely mediocre writer Andy Kubert. This month, Kubert returns as writer and artist for Damian: Son of Batman. One of the least entertaining writers on the DC roster taking a swing at one of the least interesting characters on the DC roster. What could go wrong?
A lot.
Lets start with the plot of Damian: Son of Batman. Opening on the scene of a mass slaughter, Damian and Batman begin sorting through the chaos for clues. Batman stumbles upon a fish with Joker’s face, a fish which then blows up and “kills” Batman. The rest of issue #1 is Damian dealing with his father’s death. He asks for help from his mother Talia and her father, Ra’s Al Ghul, which is met with a speech from Ra’s about the lineage of the Batman. Damian decides he must take out the criminal element of Gotham in a much more brutal style than his father had. Night after night, Damian beats criminals nearly to death before deciding to rid the world of Joker once and for all. That’s when Bruce Wayne shows, and the issue ends.
Most of what ails Damian: Son of Batman is Kubert’s clunky writing. His dialogue is so forced, it comes across as desperately wanting to sound like these characters, while only managing to sound like caricatures of them. Batman sounds closer to the self-righteous, melodramatic parody that Adam West gave us in the TV show. Damian is just a mouthy kid. Even the Ra’s Al Ghul speech is awful. It comes across as somebody who has no idea about the character at all.
Moving past the dialogue, the plot isn’t much better. Batman dies and nobody knows it? Bruce Wayne is buried and nobody makes the connection? Not to mention the question of why on Earth Bruce Wayne would complicate his life by faking his death? To teach Junior a lesson? To see if Damian could take over? It’s a clunky plot device that Kubert adds to justify his story, but without any merit. I can’t honestly say if Kubert adds any dimension to the Damian character, it’s too early into the four issue run for that. I can say that, outside of the art, nothing here is good enough to hook readers, no matter how fond of Batman they are.
This makes the glorious art that much more disappointing. Kubert’s pencils are wonderful here. Panel after panel, he puts so much into the designs. The opening scene in the rain – Kubert’s art really communicates how horrible of a situation it is. The work is fluid, and captures so much movement. Looking at this book without reading it, it’s a masterpiece. The splash page of a war-torn Robin is a prime example of how good Kubert really is. If you do plunk down your hard earned cash for this series, treat it like a sketchbook and avoid the text, because it will ruin the book for you.
Andy Kubert is a tremendous artist, just not a very good writer.
(5 Art, 2 Story)
