the geekocracy

Battle for the Cowl!!!111!!!

Battle for the Cowl, DUN DUN DUN! Who will be the next the Bat-man? Who knows? The first issue of Battle for the Cowl, written and illustrated by Tony Daniel, inked by Sandu Florea and colored by Ian Hannin, doesn’t seem to be about who the next Batman will be as much as it is about the supporting cast keeping Gotham together during these chaotic times. Yeah, there’s a dweeb running around as Batman, but that seems like it’s going to take precedence later on in the series. Besides, the supporting bat-cast is more interesting than the mystery of a guy running around in a bat-suit.

Tony Daniel, as we all know, is primarily an artist, but he tries his hand at also writing in this case. And, you know, the writing ain’t bad. In fact, I’d say it’s good. He holds together a solid story with many facets, including responses from individual characters about Bruce’s demise (Dick, the poor guy, takes it pretty hard), Gotham going to the dogs, super villains coming together (to do bad) all while we follow Robin around as he tries to do what he thinks is best. There’s a few spots where Tim’s internal dialogue comes off a bit awkward, making you read the caption twice to make sure the words are, in fact, in that clunky of an order; all in all though it’s solidly written. I can’t wait to see more written by Tony.

The art is, of course, beautiful. Tony Daniel has evolved from a Jim Lee clone, to a Michael Turner clone and, eventually, to something wholly original and his. It’s been nice to see that transformation really come to fruition. It helps when you have Sandu Florea backing you up, I’m sure. And the coloring, something I don’t often take much notice to, really stuck out in a good way. Ian Hannin’s colors are… Shiny. In a good way. Not overly shiny either. Look, I don’t know what I’m talking about (art’s a bit above my head) so I’ll just leave it at this: Ian Hannin’s coloring is swell, damn swell.

My favorite part of the book is the fact that the Bat-team called in the supporting cast, as created by Grant Morrison. We get to see Robin run around with Squire and I for one am happy to have Knight and Squire in Gotham. We also see Damien, who is always fun to have around, though I’m worried about how he’s going to be handled with non-Morrison writers. I don’t know if anyone can really catch the character’s charm or reason for existing. I’m also worried about Dick, who seems to be going mental. Whenever things heat up for him he seems to get the shit kicked out of him and, personally, I want to see him rise up for once.

Battle for the Cowl number one (of three) is pretty good. I’d suggest reading it, even if you haven’t enjoyed the goings ons in the bat-verse as of late.