About Heroes

This review was submited by Ray Hoey

I must confess that I came into this series late, since I've been re-introducing myself to so many monthly titles. The first thing that grabbed me about these two issues was that the covers used imagery from two of my favorite "Batman: Elseworlds " stories: "Batman & Dracula-Red Rain" and "Gotham by Gaslight". After plunking down my greenbacks, I realized several clever things in these issues as I began reading:

1. What had previously been principally Elseworlds stories, were now being established as
one of the 52 earths for the Challengers team to visit. A very cool idea!

2. On each book, they got at least one key member of the original team that worked on the
previous graphic novel: Kelley Jones, the artist of "Red Rain" also pencilled "Red Robin"
and Brian Augustyn, who wrote "Gotham by Gaslight", now penned "Night of the Bat".

(Trivia: If you still have a copy of the "Gotham by Gaslight" trade, look closely at the cover, and then at the "Gotham by Gaslight" portion of the Countdown cover, and you'll see a little
in-joke!)

On to the books!

"Red Robin"

Writer: Peter Johnson
Artists: Kelley Jones, Eric Battle, Angel Unzueta

A shocking tragedy! That about sums it up for me. Though I knew this was a different earth, not "our" earth, it was still shocking to see Dick Grayson stake Barbara Gordon, even if she was a vampire! It was the unthinkable acts like these, and in the previous stories in the "Batman/Dracula" trilogy that kept me rivetted to this story, right to the ending. Seeing Dicks' ultimate fate must have been especially hard for Donna, and to a degree Jason, but they had to keep going with their search for Palmer.

The truth is, the story was a fairly simple one that moved in a pretty predictable fashion, so the bickering between Kyle and Jason did give the plot a little more dimension. And something does happen to Kyle that sets up a key plot point in the next issue...The art was great, what with its shadowy depths and the sewer portions of the story reminded me of "Batman: The Cult" , which of course Jason was a part of.

Question: Is this story meant to be a different world with a vampire Batman, than the original "Red Rain"? The reason I ask is because in the first sequel to "Red Rain", "Bloodlust", Batman has himself staked at the end, and at the end of the second sequel "Crimson Mist", he walks into the sunlight. Yet through it all, there is no mention of Dick Grayson/Robin, or Barbara Gordon, from what I recall...(?)

Overall, a great little trip down memory lane...A-

"Night of the Bat"

Writer: Brian Augustyn
Artist: Greg Tocchini

A Victorian Blue Beetle! What a concept and a nice surprise! And it works, in my opinion. Plus, having Kyle become a major vampire big bad...awesome! It was nice to see his vulnerability from something that happened last issue. The look exchanged between Jason and this era's Batman was a great dramatic point, since Jason is no longer as impulsive as he used to be, facing a Batman who would never know the difference. That doesn't mean he's letting up on jabbing Kyle Rayner every chance he gets: "I came back from the dead, Kyle. Y'know, like Hal Jordan...the real Green Lantern--?!" He sure loves to hit below the
belt.

Tocchini's artwork was great, though I kinda wish Mike Mignola could've penned this one.
On the other hand, Tocchini really appreciates one of the finest points of Victorian era art:
the heaving bosoms! LOL! So, for that, and the story overall, I give this one an A.