Coming home for the first time.
Even though Jim Gordon is the one parading around Gotham as Batman these days, Bruce Wayne remains a significant focus in Scott Snyder’s Batman series. The latest Batman-nual serves as a way of shining a closer light on Bruce and his current state of mind without slowing down the ongoing Superheavy storyline. This issue offers some interesting insight into Bruce and his small circle of friends and loved ones, but it loses some of its steam once the familiar Batman rogues enter the fray.
In some ways, this issue could be viewed as an epilogue to the short-lived Arkham Manor series. As Wayne Manor is emptied of its prisoners and turned back over to its previous owner, Bruce is forced to confront and take stock of a life he simply doesn’t remember. Writer James Tynion IV builds a strong dynamic among Bruce, Julie, Alfred and Geri Powers, with the latter receiving some welcome growth that builds on her sporadic earlier appearances.
Alfred becomes the most intriguing character in this mix, though. Tynion and artist Roge Antonio take great pains to showcase just how hard Alfred is working to keep Bruce’s old life buried, to the point where even the family portrait of Bruce and his various “sons” has been altered to look like a vain ode to a solitary billionaire. There’s a real undercurrent of darkness to Alfred’s behavior. And this issue has some obvious impact on the main series, its real contribution may come into play once Bruce inevitably does regain his memories and takes Alfred to task for his behavior.
This is one case where a Batman story didn’t really need a jolt of action to liven things up. It’s less interesting to see a Batman-less Bruce do battle with Riddler, Clayface and Mister Freeze than it is to see him wrestle with the ghosts of his own past. Tynion portrays the villains well enough, but their dialogue tends to be pretty on the nose in terms of establishing the symbiotic relationship between Gotham’s favorite son and its most feared criminals. Not to mention that the method of their defeat comes across as abrupt and even a little silly.
Antonio brings a strong sense of style to these pages, with his angular character designs and moody environments being more than a little reminiscent of Rafael Albuquerque’s style. Antonio doesn’t have quite the same flair for rendering action scenes, however. A few panels are annoyingly unclear in what they’re trying to convey, including one that fails to depict two characters being frozen in place by Freeze’s weapon.
Batman Annual #4 has some compelling elements as it ties into the larger Superheavy conflict. It taps into the potential of Bruce Wayne’s amnesic state in a way the main Batman comic couldn’t. Unfortunately, this issue loses steam once the focus shifts to a battle between Bruce and his old rogues gallery.
