Batman #687

Batman #687
By Judd Winick
Art by Ed Benes

Overall: 9.5/10

The one thing that Bruce Wayne could never fully give was humanity. There were a few touching moments, true, but he cared little for emotion. This made him a legend. This gave him the power to walk into a room full of superpowered beings and have all conversation stop. It also alienated him from everyone he cared about, even after the Crisis and his year of soul-searching.

Dick Grayson is a new kind of Batman. He doesn't manipulate people like Bruce did, and he's much more human. This gives the potential for so many new stories, and real, thoughtful interaction in the batfamily without all the infighting and trust issues Bruce caused. Don't get me wrong--I loved Bruce Wayne. But I'm looking forward to the possibilities.

In many ways, Batman #687 defines this change. It begins with Dick taking down a group of thugs from inside the Batmobile--he still isn't comfortable wearing Bruce's costume. Then there's a visit from Superman and Wonder Woman, a talk with Alfred (more on this later), and moving into the new headquarters (more on this, too).

The Superman and Wonder Woman scenes were executed beautifully. They handed over Bruce's costume, talked a little about what Bruce had had planned for the event of his death, and left. Mostly, their brief appearance served to open up the discussion about what will happen, now that Bruce is dead, and Dick's reaction to his surrogate father's death, something we didn't get to see in Battle for the cowl. Ultimately, Dick decides not to let the JLA run the funeral, but instead to let Bruce go quietly, without the parade, like he wanted, and to let the legend of the Batman live on.

The talk between Alfred and Dick is near perfect. There's one bit that encompasses, I think, everything that Bruce's family is dealing with from his death:

DICK: "You prepare yourself for this day...well, prepare is the wrong word. Do you prepare yourself for the sun to rise, for water to flow from a tap? No. These are knowables. These are eventualities. I knew I would never see him as an old man. No, he'd leave us in a box, with jet black hair, and the only lines on his face would be ones brought by injury.

You knew it wouldn't end well. Despite all the training, all the brilliance, all the strength...under it all there was just flesh, blood, and bone. And a man who never feared death. You know as well as do he was frightened of a great many things, but his own mortality barely made the top hundred list with him. I just....

....I just wasn't ready to lose him."

ALFRED: "I know. I know. I wasn't "ready" either."

^That is spectacular.

On the subject of moving headquarters, however, the narrative falters. I want to make it clear that I blame the editor and not the writer, though. This scene appeared in Batman and Robin #1, which came out a week earlier, and the two scenes are very, very similar, though I like #687's rendition a little better. It just doesn't sit well. There's no need to have this explained twice.

The art: Frankly, its just okay. Ed Benes is pretty good, but he's no Jim Lee. No one has a chin as pointy as the one Dick sported in the funeral scenes. In the early robbery panels there are too many fire spurts and crashes to really get a full idea of what is going on. But Benes' style is clean, and coherent. Mid line.

This is one you definitely must get.