Review by Ian Keogh

Man-Bat is a Gotham villain whose appearances have lacked consistency. Introduced as a tragic victim of hubris and science, he’s since been portrayed as an addict, surviving on mindless instinct, a vicious killer and misguided in attempting to act for the greater good. Joshua Williamson’s take is of someone in control wanting to establish a cult. The reach wasn’t established in Father and Son, so Growing Pains opening by noting how broadly it’s developed comes as a surprise.

Whereas Williamson emphasised a togetherness in the previous volume, Batman and Robin spend much of this volume apart, each involved with separate threats as the newly introduced Shush provides the connection point. Tying the plots together is largely well handled, although requires Robin’s usually razor sharp instincts letting him down. The point made about confirmation bias doesn’t really hold water, so perhaps we should remember how young he is. The extra inclusion of Robin’s old friend Flatline indicates more that Williamson wanted have a try writing her than any great benefit to the plot. He does leave something hanging, though.

Simone Di Meo and Nikola Čižmešija share the art for half the book, Di Meo’s fine-lined elegance contrasting the blockiness of Čižmešija (sample art left) who’s the better storyteller, but both can take the breath away with a finely composed illustration.

The final three chapters are self-contained. Williamson reveals Bane is alive on Dinosaur Island, so Batman and Robin head out there to deal with him, accompanied by Goliath, Damien’s pal from Robin, Son of Batman. Bane is in his element protecting the dinosaurs, but he’s also the killer of Alfred Pennysworth, so there’s some heavy emotions involved. It leads to a story with too many characters and not enough of what readers really want from the idea, which is artist Juan Ferreyra (sample right) giving us Batman and Robin vs. Bane vs. dinosaurs. What evolves barely features dinosaurs and is set around a daft transformation. Ferreyra contrasts past and present well via a more constrained style as Robin remembers Alfred, and it does all close off the themes Williamson’s been developing, but it’s not what we want.

All creators take their leave here, but Batman and Robin continues with Memento.