About Heroes

Writer: Paul Dini
Artists: Dustin Nguyen and Derek Fridolfs

If you get nothing else from this review you at least won’t make the same mistake I did. After reading five pages, I said to Omar “Hey Detective doesn’t conclude the Resurrection of Ra’s storyline, like we thought it did, and mentioned on the podcast (we all speculated that there might not be an aftermath issue at all).” Turn to the next page and “oh, never mind.” Ra’s and the ninja’s do show up, and deliver some very mixed feelings. In fact, this is probably the most mixed up I’ve ever been about a book.

I liked the stupid villain at the beginning and I really liked Batman’s line, “Every time I think I’ve seen it all, up pops a new criminal with a new obsession,” true and classic. I like the simple fight and I like how when I turn the page suddenly Ra’s is standing there. I don’t like Ra’s being an Albino, that ain’t my Ra’s, nothing against Albino’s, but its always appeared to be such a lame excuse for villainy…oh he’s white, really white, and he’s evil. Ra’s has lost almost all his credibility with me, and he had a long time standing as my favorite Batman villain. If you ask me, the reason for this story is nothing more than Ra’s himself trying to prove that he isn’t some lame result of what could have been an awesome return of an awesome villain.

If you, like Nick and Melanie, felt the conclusion to the Resurrection of Ra’s crossover was quick and wrapped up too neatly then you will probably not get much gratification in this “aftermath” issue. It is just as quick and ties things up even neater than they were left in the final part.

In no time Ra’s goes from threatening to move in to Gotham to…moving in to Gotham. And equally as fast Batman swoops in knocks him off his rocker and away Ra’s goes from the picture. For one panel it seemed like Batman had really killed Ra’s, which had me saying “uh, what?” then of course he isn’t but rather disposed of the same way all Gotham villains are. Basically for me, this issue very loudly proclaimed “WE JUST SPENT A CROSSOVER BRING BACK ONE OF THE BADDEST BATMAN VILLAINS just so we could have him be quickly disposed of in a single issue and shrink wrapped so completely that the word “end” at the bottom of the last panel is almost unnecessary.

Now of course we haven’t seen the end of Ra’s, but I was hoping the Resurrection was just the beginning. I never expected Ra’s to go down so easily. And sure some may say, “oh maybe he’s planned for all of this,” to you I say, go back and look at how comatose the guy is, and how serious Batman is to get rid of him, no, this is for real.

Now to add a few more things I liked about the issue: I liked the lack of narration and how some panels were just ambiguous enough to make you go back and look at them a few times. They act almost as unimportant/important clues to the story being told, and you have to keep reading and catch what is being said in order to make them make since. Dini did a great job with that aspect of storytelling, especially Alfred mentioning how Bruce had to steal clothes, and the entire reason for Bruce mixing drugs in a laboratory so state of the art that it would make a Meth head from the year 2999 drool. I also really liked the art. I can say without a doubt that Nguyen and Fridolfs are not for everybody but I’ve always liked an angular Batman and they really delivers him to me. There was also a clear amount of history between Batman and Ra’s that I can’t conclude without mentioning. The chemistry of the two is one of the reasons I had such mixed feelings. All their talk and banter really seemed to be setting up something big like a Gotham centered grudge match. All in all I’m sorry to see Ra’s disappear so soon, if this is in fact the end, as you may have already guessed C.