🦇🐥 Batman and Robin (2023) #5 rambling and a conspiracy theory lol
tbh this is the most exciting issue for me since…the first one 💀 i’m going to talk about the story and art separately because Nikola Cizmesija’s one of my favorite action focused comic artists so this issue’s a treat 😭
Alfred used to mediate during a lot of Bruce and Damian’s early relationship, so it’s refreshing to see Bruce take more initiative involving himself in Damian’s life even if it’s for a case lol
a couple instances of Alfred’s fatherly support on behalf of Bruce and Damian from Batman and Robin (2011) #2, 4, 39 and Teen Titans (2016) #1
Damian seems to take Bruce's involvement more as a sign he’s not reliable rather than Bruce finally just. being around to help him. which is fair 😭
this is complementary to Cizmesija’s art, but i love this half of the page so bad 😭 the negative space and the shaded foreground with Damian mid-run gives this feeling of time kinda stopping for us to really feel the impact of Damian’s entrance AND the effect it has on Bruce, like!! that wide eyed expression in the below panel!! 😭
Bruce’s quiet “you can do it, son” to A FULL BODY CHEER OF “GO, DAMIAN!” Bruce witnessing Damian be great outside of Robin, and on top of that it’s just another mundane moment that Bruce has wanted with Damian 😭
this is such a goofy bully line sdfgh though the whole “broken” bit might be a callback to Batman and Robin (2011) #1, in that Bruce is really trying to do his job as a father here or i'm likely reading way too into it
SO the “shocking ending” of Zach being Zsasz’s kid was definitely a surprise but then got me wondering what is up with Williamson doing reveals of new kids for villains lol otherwise, the hints in the issue were neat!
the tally marks!! at least tallying blocks is pretty innocent compared to kills 😭
and Damian would recognize how Zsasz moves, since he’s personally fought him before in Streets of Gotham (2009)!! very much not in a sport, but uh maybe it was to Zsasz
the art!! first a shoutout to the colorist Rex Lokus for giving Damian his green eyes and maybe melanin (it didn’t look consistent throughout so i say maybe)!! 😭 also a Talia by Cizmesija!! even though this panel calls her a “not great” teacher…💀
SUCH A FUN PAGE 😭 i’ve been into montage scenes lately lol and i love how quickly Cizmesija establishes Damian’s routine - Tues, Wed, and Fri are the funniest for me!! Damian grumpily getting lectured by his teacher in the foreground while his classmate’s still visibly steaming from the hit he took LOL, DAMIAN’S BUG EYED STARE WITH HIS SUNGLASSES UP, and then Damian looming. stealthily. in a tree. while some kid is blatantly pointing him out HAHA 😭
Cizmesija’s use of motion lines and effects when conveying movement is so cool!! the shonen manga vibes jumps out!! the smoke/dust trails following the movements; the limbs and soccer ball having a sort of blur effect with the motion lines. V COOL.
which leads to my favorite part of Cizmesija’s work - HIS IMPACT SHOTS!!
more motion lines and effects!! the splatter effects!! the arcs!! the jolting impacts!! GRRAAHH!! the setup to that impact shot of Zach's block is so great, and then following with Damian's reaction!! i almost wish that "???" wasn't there, just because that expression of stunned silence already feels so loud!!
last thoughts about Cizmesija's art is that i'm really hoping for a showdown between Damian and Zach next issue because i need to see a Damian fight scene in Nikola Cizmesija-fashion 😭 we get a taste of it with Orca and soccer but i NEED MORE LOL for now, dropping the moment when Damian overpowers Zsasz, in Batman: Streets of Gotham #11 since it was such an epic moment
okay SLAPPING MY CONSPIRACY BOARD!! so on another note Principal Stone being Shush is starting to feel like a red herring and Ms. Heather Hall could actually be Shush. Shush’s main point about Damian as his instructor was emphasizing how much potential he has, but the “wrong” influence could affect that
Stone and Hall have made the same observation about Damian’s potential, but the difference is how they address that - one wants Bruce to be more involved while the other wants Bruce to back off
Stone acknowledged Damian can take care of himself but still wants Bruce to step up in Damian’s life; Hall says it’s okay to be a helicopter parent BUT implies giving Damian space (which we already know Bruce has given so much of after Alfred’s death to the point of neglect 😭)
Hall even suggests moving Damian on to college, which would estrange Damian further. also idk how Damian kicking his teammates/bullies asses at soccer is really “making friends” lol
and of all the subjects she’s teaching, it’s AP Biology - according to the current case Batman and Robin are working on, which is centered around DNA-sequencing, it makes Hall the perfect accomplice to Langstrom
this is where my brain started reaching because i laughed at first at how specific that comparison is, but then it just made me think of how Shush’s first introduction was sniping Bruce LOL anyway, Bruce’s reaction is me 😭
one more Cizmesija appreciation panel - the lil running effects behind Damian :)
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something silly & self indulgent, set in the verse of 'in that iron ground.'
cw: parental death mention
“Daniel?” His mum says, her voice airy with the echo of laughter. “What a nice surprise.”
There’s no trace of concern in her voice, though it’s 4 AM in Rotterdam right now, something she must know. Or at least have known once upon a time. Too early for a casual catch-up.
It’s strange to be faced with the different ways his dad’s death affected them all. His mum can be fearless answering the phone, but Daniel’s palms still sweat whenever he sees his light up with the notification that her or Michelle is calling. Stranger still, maybe, that this is still something he thinks about whenever he speaks to his family on the phone.
“Sorry, you sound busy,” he apologises, but even as he says it, staring out at the inky black night, he hears the noise of background chatter recede. His mum’s muffled voice as she makes her excuses to step outside of whatever room she’s in, all the way across the world.
“No, no, Tim and I just have some friends over for our breakfast club, but I’m never too busy for you,” she says easily enough, back to talking to him now. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah Mama,” he promises, nodding though she can’t see him, “everything is- It’s good. Just wanted to hear your voice.”
There’s a pause, where he thinks she might call him out on the strangeness of the hour, but then-
“Not too long till Christmas now, darling.”
They fall into the easy routine of catching each other up, their familiar dance perfected through more years spent living apart than together now. It’s mostly her speaking to start with, like she knows he needs it to ease himself in. He hears all about Isaac’s new job, and Izzy’s new baby. Stuff he already knows from Michelle, mostly, that he can just hum along to. The last thing is how the cold is finally ebbing from the earth long enough for her to think she can plant some new bulbs soon in her garden.
“And what’s new with you?” She prompts, enough of a tone in her voice for Daniel to know that if he could see her, he’d be getting that pointed look right about now.
Come on young man, tell your mama.
Time’s up.
“We dropped Milly at uni earlier,” he admits after a moment but then doesn’t say anything else, letting it settle between them.
“Oh,” his mum says, something knowing in her voice, and if Daniel stays as an attuned parent to Emilia, despite the new distance between them, he’ll be happy. “How did Max take it?”
That makes Daniel smile at least, looking over his shoulder towards their bedroom, though he knows he won’t be able to see the shape of Max under their duvet through the blinds covering the balcony’s glass door.
His mum hums sympathetically.
“Well, he only pretended not to cry for half of the car journey back,” Daniel says with a laugh, though at the time he’d ached watching Max try and fail to stop his bottom lip trembling as they pulled away from the University of Amsterdam’s welcome fair. “Then he gave in and asked me to pull the car over to give him a cuddle.”
“He did tell me he was nervous for her go,” she says, and nervous is the understatement of the fucking century, but her words make a thick kind of love fill his chest. The same feeling he gets when Max says, “Remind me to call your mum tomorrow, I haven’t spoken to her for a little while.” When he walks in on the two of them exchanging new recipes over Facetime.
“Yeah, she’s our baby,“ Daniel says simply, laughing just to ease the words from his throat, “he isn’t taking it so well, but- But you know Max.”
He can say that because she does.
“Poor Max,” she says with a sigh. “And how is my baby taking it?”
Daniel breathes out the breath he’s been holding in since they dropped Emilia off at her accommodation. Max pressing one hundred quick kisses to her head, making her promise to call them tomorrow to tell them all about her ‘lovely new friends’, while she tried desperately to back them out of the door so they couldn’t cramp her style any worse. Since Max touched his knee and looked at him with wet eyes in the car ride home and said, “This of course is for the best,” like he hadn’t also been right there with Daniel, agonizing over her moving a two-hour car journey away.
Nothing really, when you compare it to two planes and twenty-four hours of travel.
“I’m okay,” he says because it’s mostly true. “I just- Fuck, mum, I don’t know how you and Dad did it. Packed me up and let me move to Europe, two years younger than Milly is now.”
His mum hadn’t even cried in the airport, he remembers. She’d just kissed his cheek very hard, his dad hovering behind telling her she’d make Daniel miss his flight, then hugging Daniel afterwards for just as hard, just as long.
“Ah, well,” she says, words half gentle laughter. “This is the hard part. Welcome back to the era of sleepless nights, except this time they aren’t in the next room, needing you.”
He has to close his eyes against the harsh truth of it. The pain he put his parents through, the pain he feels now, it’s all born from too much love.
“Yeah but Milly always needs me,” he insists, laughing wetly, trying and failing to cover the way he is the one crying now. “Who else is going to teach her how to bag all the hot Dutch boys?”
His mum snorts, and for a moment the ache in his chest is soothed by giggles they dissolve into together. “Don’t let Max hear you say that.”
They lapse into a comfortable silence again once the laughter has trailed off, but Daniel still hasn’t said the thing that made him pick up the phone and call. He promised himself standing at his father’s graveside that he wouldn’t let important things so unspoken between them again, but it doesn’t make it easy.
“Thank you,” he eventually croaks, his throat aching with the words. “Mum, thank you for- For letting me go. I wish I could say the same to Dad, I- My daughter is off to study law two hours up the road and I’m a mess, and- And you guys let me move two continents away just to give my dream a try.”
His dream that never came true, not all the way at least, but that Daniel still wouldn’t trade the life he has now for.
“Oh, sweetheart.” His mum’s voice is gentle, and he wishes so badly she was here to give him a hug. “I just did what you are doing now, for Milly. It’s all a part of it. Sophie would tell you the same.”
She probably has already, to Max at least.
“Yeah,” Daniel says, wiping at his eyes and sniffing a little. “I just- I’m going to miss her, I think.”
For the last nineteen years, the bedroom opposite his and Max’s has been five different colours, has seen four different ‘best friends,’ and had posters of athletes, pop stars, Max’s maps and most recently Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the wall, but- But it’s always had his baby girl inside, sleeping in the bed every night.
“Of course, you’ll miss her. You’re a good dad, Daniel.” His mum says it like a promise, her voice cracking down the middle too. “I tell your dad all the time when I go to visit him. How proud of you he would be, my darling.”
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