Do you remember Tim Drake? It's understandable if you don't; sometimes it feels like neither do the people making comics. Believe it or not, he used to feature pretty heavily in a lot of Batman stories. That is, until around 2011 where he's sort of been without a home for the most part. Different writers…

The last issue had a bit of a problem with contrived drama. Fans of Jason Todd would be especially upset, as it rolled back a lot of his character in order to rehash an argument he's been having with Batman for almost 20 years now. The optimist might have seen that and hoped that it…

After two and a half years, Chip Zdarsky's run on Batman comes to a close. Over the course of his roughly thirty issues, Zdarsky developed a clear thematic focus of using Batman's past as a way of examining his psyche. While certainly not the first writer to make Batman's origins central to the story he…

After a brief diversion last month focusing on Batman's investigation to exonerate Jim Gordon, the story now returns to the larger plot concerning Riddler's attempts to buy Wayne Enterprises along with the political unrest facing Gotham. Heading into the issue, there are a lot of seemingly disconnected threads that need to be tied together. Bruce…

Sometimes even when something is all but over it can still find ways to surprise you. I admit I've probably become a bit of a broken record when talking about this title, in large part because the same core problems underlie so much of the run up until this point. "Dying City" was Zdarsky's final…

Just as with the last issue, Batman #154 can be separated into two component yet disparate parts: detective work and political conflict. Each one is given its own section of the story to occupy and so far they don't seem to much overlap. It's still early and Zdarsky has plenty of time to start tying…

Chip Zdarsky and I perhaps got off on the wrong foot. It's no secret that I was not a fan of the extended Failsafe/Zur/Joker arc that took up the first 25 issues of his run. I'm not here to relitigate my problems with that story, but rather come into a new one with fresh eyes…

Last month I gave a tentatively positive review to that issue's cliffhanger ending, with the caveat that it would need to rely on this issue to follow through. Well, suffice to say it failed to follow through. Rather than an exhilarating action sequence showing how Batman and Catwoman's combined tactical and martial prowess allow them…

Absolute Power is in full swing, and you know what that means: tie-ins! Last month only the backup was connected to the event, but now everything is related in some way or another to the plan to rid the world of superheroes. More specifically, Batman recruits Catwoman to help him steal a Mother Box from…

If anyone picked up this issue excited about it tying into the Absolute Power event, then you'll probably be disappointed. For that, you'll need to skip ahead to the backup. In fact, the main story this month is arguably a continuation of the Gotham War event more than anything else. However, rather than being about…