Blackest Night: Batman #3 Review

The Revolution was not thrilled with the last issue of Blackest Night: Batman. So many of these Blackest Night tie-in issues and mini-series are beginning to be quite repetitious. Having said that, I have great faith in Tomasi. I do believe that Tomasi can rebound and deliver a solid and satisfying ending to this mini-series. Let’s go ahead and hit this review for Blackest Night: Batman #3.

Creative Team
Writer: Peter Tomasi
Pencils: Ardian Syaf
Inks: John Dell

Art Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Story Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10

Synopsis: We begin with Dick crashing the Bat-plane into a cemetery. Dick tells Damien to go to a specific tomb in the graveyard and there he will find a secret passage to Wayne Tower. Dick tells Damien to take Commissioner Gordon and Barbara Gordon back to Wayne Tower. Damien grudgingly leaves the fight scene.

Tim and Dick then find themselves inside of a huge circus tent. Dick’s parents are above them performing on the trapeze.

Tim stammers that he thinks the Black Lanterns are a second chance. That this is Dick and Tim’s chance to save their parents from getting killed. Tim says that the Black Lanterns are proof that they can bring people back from the dead.

Dick tells Deadman to run and get help from the only person Dick could think that could help out in this certain situation.

Deadman arrives at Jason Blood’s house. Deadman takes over Blood’s body and gets him to transform into The Demon.

We cut back to the graveyard with Dick telling Tim that it is all a trick. That the Black Lanterns are simply playing mind games with them. That they are just evil zombies.

Suddenly, Dick’s father swoops down and pulls Dick up with him onto the trapeze. Dick suddenly gets lost in his father’s eyes. Dick thinks how it sounds, looks and even smells like his dad. Dick realizes he is being a total hypocrite with Tim and Dick wants nothing more than to be with his parents again. Dick says that it all feel so right.

Dick’s father says that he and Dick’s mother are not here to kill Dick. That they are here to be a family once again with Dick. Dick looks into his father’s eyes and wonders how he can possibly set his father on fire.

Tim then sees his father’s apartment. Tim’s dad grabs his gun and talks about how it was not Tim’s fault that he died. Time’s father tells Tim that being Robin was a good thing and that Tim has done so much good and that Tim can never give up.

Black Lantern Captain Boomerang enters the room and goes to kill Tim’s father. Again. Tim yells “No.” and dives forward and saves his father from getting killed.

Tim then holds his father. Tim then goes into a rage and attacks Zombie Captain Boomerang. Tim goes red with rage. Time beats the hell out of Zombie Captain Boomerang.

We then cut to Dick still in bliss with his parents. Suddenly, the rope holding the trapeze in the air snaps and Dick’s parents fall to their deaths. Again.

We see Black Lantern Zucco appear on the scene. Zombie Zucco grins and laughs about getting to kill Dick’s parents again. Dick flies into a rage and his emotional spectrum turns all red for rage. Dick proceeds to beat the hell out of Black Lantern Zucco.

We see both Dick and Tim red with rage and beating the hell out of Zombie Captain Boomerang and Zombie Zucco. The villains comment how the two orphaned boys pack serious punches. The other Black Lanterns then descend onto the scene. We see Dick’s parents and Tim’s parents ready to attack their sons.

We realize that all of this has been nothing more than a ruse to work Dick and Tim up into a rage fueled frenzy. That the Black Lanterns feed off the emotion and now Dick and Tim are very tasty.

Dick and Tim whip out their flame throwers to hold off the Black Lanterns. The Deadman controlled Demon then appears on the scene and starts roasting Black Lanterns left and right.

Dick realizes that the flame throwers are starting to run low and Deadman comments that he does not know how much longer he can control The Demon. The Black Lanterns keep re-forming after they are damaged.

Dick radios Damien who is back at Wayne Tower. Dick asks Damien to send him Dr. Freeze’s cold gun that they confiscated and stored in the Bat-bunker. Damien wants to deliver it to Dick in person, but Dick tells Damien to stay with the Gordons and to send the freeze gun on one of Dick’s old flying drones that he used while he was Nightwing. Damien spits that this is the last time he sits out from the battlefield.

Dick, Tim and the Deadman controlled Demon continue to battle the Black Lanterns. The flying drone appears on the scene and Dick grabs Mr. Freeze’s cold gun. Dick then asks Tim if he trusts him. Tim says yes. Tim takes a big gulp of air and Dick freezes Tim with the freeze gun. The Demon then freezes Dick with the freeze gun.

The Demon then breaks free from Deadman’s control. A Black Lantern goes to rip out the Demon’s heart and then realizes that the Demon has no heart and that the Demon is impervious to the Black Lanterns’ attacks. The Demon is irritated by being manipulated and leaves the scene.

Now that Tim and Dick are frozen solid they no longer register any emotions at all. They have gone completely blank. The Black Lanterns can no longer sense Tim or Dick’s presence. Since they no longer have any emotional presence the Black Lanterns quickly leave the scene in search of other humans full of emotion to feed off of.

Deadman then hops into Tim’s body and breaks him free of the ice. Tim gasps for air. Deadman then hops into Dick’s body and breaks him free of the ice. Dick gasps for air.

Dick then tells Tim that they have to take the knowledge that they have learned about the Black Lanterns and tell the other heroes in order to help them in the war against the Black Lanterns. End of issue.

Comments
The Good: Blackest Night: Batman #3 was a good read. I was pleasantly surprised that Tomasi was able to rebound from a weak second issue and deliver a rather entertaining finale to this mini-series.

Tomasi turns in a technically well written issue. Tomasi has a great feel on how to manage the flow of an issue. Blackest Night: Batman #3 was nicely paced. Tomasi keeps the story moving forward at a brisk speed without ever making the story seem rushed or cluttered. The story was well framed and had nice smooth flow as each scene nicely transitioned into the next.

Tomasi serves up a fine blend of action and drama. This is what impressed me the most. Tomasi was able to satisfy most action fans by doling out tons of high energy zombie roasting scenes.

At the same time, Tomasi cultivates some excellent drama with the rather emotional scenes where Tim and Dick have to come face-to-face with their dead parents. These scenes give some quality depth to the story. And depth is an element that has been lacking on most of the Blackest Night issues.

The character work and dialogue on Blackest Night: Batman #3 were both well done. Tomasi simply understands Dick’s character better than most of DC’s writers. Tomasi’s run on Nightwing was excellent and it is obvious in this issue that Tomasi is comfortable with how to handle Dick’s character. I liked the use of Dick’s flying drone that Tomasi used during his run on Nightwing.

The dialogue between Dick and Tim as well as the dialogue between Dick and Damien was fantastic. Tomasi nails the difference in these relationships. Dick displays an authoritarian tone of a master with a student in his dialogue with Damien. On the other hand, Dick displays a more loving and brotherly tone in his dialogue with Tim.

Dick, Tim and Damien all benefit from good character work in this issue. Tomasi is able to stay true to the roots of each of these Robins and give each one their own unique personality.

I like how Tomasi steered clear of writing Damien as just a spoiled brat. Instead, Damien comes off as a very proud and confident warrior who clearly chafed under Dick’s restrictions. I appreciate that Tomasi did not feel the need to denigrate Damien in order to elevate Dick and Tim.

Of course, the stars of this issue were the two orphan boys: Dick and Tim. Tomasi did a fantastic job generating excellent chemistry between these two brothers. The scenes with Dick and his parents and Tim and his parents were what made Blackest Night: Batman #3 an incredibly powerful and emotional read.

Tomasi did a masterful job contrasting Tim’s undying hope and desire to use this opportunity as a second chance to save his father with Dick’s pragmatic view that this was merely a trick designed to trap Dick and Tim.

The best part was how the pragmatic view that Dick gave Tim melted away the minute Dick looked into his father’s eyes and heard his voice. Tomasi absolutely nails how the heart can rule the mind.

I particularly enjoyed the creative manner in which Tomasi used the Black Lanterns in this issue. Up until now, all we have gotten with the Black Lanterns is the same old boring “Aagh, *insert name of loved one* has come back from the dead as a zombie!” “Aaagh, we have to kill them before they eat our hearts!!”

Instead, Tomasi takes the Black Lanterns and delivers an entirely different style of attack that plays in nicely with their desire to feed off intense emotions.  Tomasi takes the formulaic and rather tired and uninteresting format of all the other Blackest Night issues of characters having to fight their old friends or family members and adds something interesting to the mix.

Most of these fights that we have gotten have been rather shallow and just consist of the hero shrieking about the dead teammate or family member who has come back to life and then the hero and the zombie loved one proceed to pound each other into the ground.

Tomasi manages to actually inject some interesting psychology into the fight between Dick and Tim and the Black Lanterns. This psychology helps to give more depth to this action story than the other Blackest Night issues have possessed. Having the Black Lanterns recreate the deaths of Dick’s parents and Tim’s parents was perfect.

The hope and love inside of Dick and Tim make it completely understandable that they would fall for this trap despite Dick’s initial warnings. The subsequent rage that both brothers would possess after seeing their parents “die” again was also understandable. This was a nicely crafted and cool spin on the Black Lantern’s abilities and manner in which they would stalk their prey.

Tomasi also came up with a rather creative way for Dick and Tim to escape from the Black Lanterns. I was wondering how Tomasi was going to get Dick and Tim out of this seemingly impossible situation. I liked the use of Deadman possessing the Demon in order to help fend off the Black Lanterns.  The Demon was a logical choice given his magical nature and fire powers to combat an enemy like the Black Lanterns.

The reader also learns something new about the Black Lanterns. Not only do they sense, track and feed off emotions, but the Black Lanterns cannot “see” anyone if they do not register on the emotional spectrum. Evidently, the fact that Dick and Tim are visible and frozen was not enough to register with the Black Lanterns.

This does make sense given that every time we see anything from a Black Lantern’s point of view, we don’t actually see people. Instead, we just see outlines of people infused with colors of the emotional spectrum. It is much like infrared vision. Take away the heat, or the emotional spectrum in this case, and you effectively have a blind person. At any rate, it was a new wrinkle added to how the Black Lanterns operate.

Ardian Syaf and John Dell combine to deliver some very nice artwork in Blackest Night: Batman #3. The art is detailed and slick. The action scenes are quite dynamic. Syaf also does a fine job conveying the emotions of the various characters. I was unfamiliar with Syaf’s work before I picked up Blackest Night: Batman. I am quite impressed with his work and look forward to seeing more of his art in the future.

The Bad: Blackest Night: Batman #3 still suffers from many of the same defects that the other Blackest Night tie-in issues possess. It is not necessary at all to read Blackest Night: Batman in order to enjoy Blackest Night itself. In fact, Blackest Night: Batman does little to nothing to add to the story over on Blackest Night.

Blackest Night: Batman is nothing more than an excuse to create a story with the “shock value” of having our heroes having to fight their dead family members. This is what makes it basically just like every other Blackest Night tie-in issue up to this point. Readers who are tired of the mechanical nature of the fights in the Blackest Night issues between the heroes and the Black Lanterns may not be that impressed with Blackest Night: Batman #3.

Overall: Blackest Night: Batman #3 was a good read. It was certainly much better than I expected. Blackest Night: Batman #3 is my favorite issue out of all the various Blackest Night mini-series that we have gotten up to this point. Fans of Dick Grayson and Tim Wayne should certainly purchase Blackest Night: Batman #3.
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Rokk