Bruce Wayne: The Road Home 1 Shots
Unlike a regular review, I’m not even going to list the writers or artists involved in these “1 shots.” Each story is decent, and the art on each book fits. There’s not much wrong here, but nothing great either.
Each of these issues would have gotten 3.5 out of 5 ridiculously unemotional reunions. But…
Editorial screwed the pooch here in so many ways I think I lost count!
First off, these four books shipped the same week as Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #5 (of 6) which, as its numbering suggests, isn’t even the final chapter of that story! In fact, SPOILER ALERT it ends with a crazy tech-ed out Bruce Wayne stepping through a time portal into the Hall of Justice, with half of DC’s heroes fixing to throw down with him in a fight. Pick up these one shots, though, and Bruce is back. BACK back. As in, of his right mind, wearing a costume, and running about. It’s jarring. All the moreso if you don’t know which book to read first.
Guess what. You won’t know what book to read first.
“But what do you mean, read first? Aren’t these one shots?” In name, only. These are, in fact, the first four (maybe?) in an eight issue mini series. Batman and Robin is ABSOLUTELY the first issue here, because if – like me – you read Red Robin first, you learn that Bruce and Tim are working together, and you begin to wonder how long its been going on and whether or not you should go back and read some of the issues you missed to find out just how long he’s actually been back. But don’t worry. It just started in B&R. And then the story continues in Outsiders, and then on to Batgirl. Except…
Outsiders tells you that Catwoman is the next volume, while Batgirl ALSO tells you that Catwoman is the next volume. And Catwoman CLEARLY comes after Batgirl. So, the question then is “Does Batgirl come between Outsiders and Catwoman, or is it SO superfluous that it’s not even PART of the not-a-mini-series?
You know what WON’T help you figure it out? The covers. Each cover in this series of “1 shots” links with the others to form a single image, as seen above. Except, Outsiders, which is DEFINITELY the third installment in the story, doesn’t even fit in as one of the first four covers for the super-image, as the fourth slot CLEARLY goes to Ra’s Al Ghul, which didn’t even come out this week.
::slow clap::
Bravo, DC, for getting one over on Marvel. Last year, when Captain America’s return was universally spoiled by royally shit-tastic editorial decisions and shipping snafus, we all thought things had gotten as bad as they could. I’d argue that DC has managed to top Marvel’s clusterfuck with this neat little train wreck, if only by erroneously calling these “1 shots.”
Disregard reading order. Disregard the covers. Disregard the reveal as it relates to the story of Bruce’s actual return. Put all of that aside, and consider this. You walk into the comic store to buy your books for the week and – not currently a fan of Batgirl, the Outsiders, or Batman and Robin – you buy Batman: The Return of Bruce Wayne #5 (of 6) and Bruce Wayne: The Road Home: Red Robin. Once home, you sit down to read your books. Once finished with Red Robin, you don’t even HAVE the other “1 shots” to read out of order! You’re stuck in the middle of a story, with no warning whatsoever, and no salvation but a trip back to your LCS. Infuriating, no?
None of this is even addressing the hideous plot point of a supersuit that mimics the powers of the major members of the Justice League, mainly because I’m not sure who’s to blame for that. It may be a holdover from the final chapter of Grant Morrison’s tale of Bruce’s return, or it may be completely the concoction of Fabian Nicieza for this story. Whoever’s to blame, it’s a godawful idea. If Bruce can make such a suit, why not use it more often? Worse yet, what if he does use it more often, thereby making him a nigh unstoppable force? Either way, it’s a plot contrivance that shouldn’t have been allowed to exist because of the catch-22 it creates: a Bruce who can use it but doesn’t is a fool; a Bruce who does use it is overpowered and will likely then be written as a fool to allow for defeat. But again, I don’t yet know if this can be pinned on the writings teams here, so it’s an entirely tangential bitch. For now.
DC editorial gets 5 out of 5 Stephanie Brown slaps across the face for the way they’ve executed this most epic of fails
This sucks. Why are the editors so retarded when it comes to this stuff?
Yeah this does seem not very well thought out and a little hobbled together. The least they could have done was put it out next week before Return of Bruce Wayne # 6. In the editors’ defense though I’m sure their objective was QUANTITY over QUALITY. I agree btw about the suit, why not just put Bruce in a ninja outfit, he’s gotta have a stupid super suit? I really hope that ties in to ROBW # 6, because if not… cheap shot.
What kills me… what ABSOLUTELY kills me… is that the Vicki Vale story going on here actually seems decent. It’s an interesting take on her finding out his secret identity, PARTICULARLY with her seeing right through Tommy Elliot. And Bruce’s evaluation of each of his “family” members is great. But I find it a little frustrating that Bruce – and I know, he’s the ultimate tactician, but still – that Bruce wouldn’t go to Dick and Damian and tell them he’s back.
And yes, that suit is just such a terrible, terrible idea. It exists now. Even if he doesn’t use it on a day-to-day basis, the next time he’s teaming up with the Justice League to fight some big bad guy, I’m going to be asking myself “Where’s the super suit?”
I’m glad I decided to skip these.
I’m in complete agreement. The Vicki Vale story and the idea of Bruce going around evaluating everyone are interesting. The problem is the execution. It’s just confusing. Also, some of the specifics aren’t great.
The suit Bruce is wearing is just stupid. He should have just worn an ninja suit and gone around. Or, if he really wanted to test them using super powers he could have enlisted the help of some other heroes.
Hell, he could’ve disguised himself as some sort of villain, if need be. Just… not this thing.
I agree on the timing of all this. It would have been nice if these came after the conclusion of Morrison’s story. I’ll never get the logic of why things like this are done.
As for the books themselves, I found the stories enjoyable enough. Jason was right that it was missing a wow factor, but nothing was really bad about them. As for Bruce not telling Dick & Damian he’s back, well, that’s just typical Bruce. Looks like some habits die hard.
As for the suit. I’m on the fence about it. I can totally see the point of this making Bruce overpowered, but maybe because I’ve always been a fan of Amazo, I’m curious to see what Bruce can do with it. And who knows, it may get destroyed over the next few months. Which may be very possible since it already had a system failure when Bruce tried to save Gordon in his one-shot.
Overall, I still have my reservations about Bruce not being Batman and going with this new role instead, but my curiosity is indeed piqued.
Oh, and about Batgirl and Outsider referring to reading Catwoman next, yeah that was annoying. But after reading them all I think I have an answer..
So far, the other books have led into one another. B & R led into Red Robin.. Red Robin led into Outsiders.. etc..
Thing is, Stephanie’s book was the start for her story, so nothing really led into it. And the Oustiders was mostly self-contained also. So whether you picked up the story with Batgirl or the Outsiders, both endings led to Catwoman as the next progression of the story.
And maybe the Ra’s Al Ghul story was supposed to ship as well, but got delayed?
Not saying it couldn’t have been done better, but I think that’s the “why” at least.
Oh, I think you’re absolutely right with your assessment. But… if you’re going to have SOME books tie together and others not… then call it the Road Home Mini and Road Home one-shots. Don’t have the one-shots covers connect to the main picture. Etc. etc. etc.
This was just a very poorly executed story/subevent.
As for the suit, I’d say it will almost certainly be destroyed. But… they’re going to have to have one HELL of a good reason for why he can’t make another, because if he’s got the tech to do this, it would be absurd for him to not do it more often. I’m sure they’d use a “I can’t afford to use the suit as a crutch” kind of argument, but it still wouldn’t hurt to have one on hand for the next time you’ve got to cold cock Darkseid.
^ Yeah, I hear ya. This seems like it’s all moving very fast all of a sudden.
Perhaps there’s some un-fixable glitch with the suit.
On a side note, if I read this particular conversation right, no one outside of the few people he’s told know that he’s back. Dick & Damian, the JLA.. none of these people know Bruce is alive. This has me very curious as to how Morrison’s story is going to wrap up.