BB Review Group week 226 - Batman: Battle for the Cowl #1 (Spoilers)

**Ray G.** · 03-11-2009, 10:04 AM

This week we are reading: Batman: Battle for the Cowl #1 (DC) written and drawn by Tony Daniel.

This week the Alternative Review Group is Reading:

The Lagoon HC by Lilli Carré (Fantagraphics, 11/19)

http://www.606studios.com/bendisboar....php?p=5820221

The voting for next weeks book will begin Thursday

Our reviewers this week are:

dEnny! - 7.5
Raydawggie - 9
Morrison Lad - 8
AceOfSpades - 9
Savage Gong - 8.8
Fake Pat - 7.5
The Haven - 9
Liam - 9.5
Supreme Convoy - 8
dnk - 8
Johnny C. TheLastHorseman - 5
changingshades - 6
Corpse Reign - 6.2
doug - 6

Our Previous reviews:

**ATTN: There has been a change in how we are allowed to review older books. Please feel free to review any of the 24 most recent books at any time. If you would like to review a book older than that please PM me first, those threads are over 6 months old they are locked. If you'd like to review one of those books I'll create a new thread and link to the original.

Spoiler:

Our higest average grades so far were for Pride of Baghdad with 9.66 and Daredevil #82 with 9.64

Our lowest average grade so far Wildsiderz #0 with 2.9

Our Sponsor: Isotope Comics (SF Bay area)

What we do: This is a fanbased review group, open to everybody.

As people post the reviews, I will add your name and score to a list in the main post and at the end of the week average the scores for an overall grade on the book. We grade on a scale of 0-10, the meanings of which roughly translate to:

10 - Everything I want in a comic, an instant classic
9 - Excellent, a nearly perfect read
8 - Highly recommended but it has minor flaws
7 - Very good, it does have some problems
6 - Above average but has deep flaws
5 - An average comic
4 - Below average, the flaws outweigh the good
3 - A disappointing comic
2 - Forgettable, a waste of time
1 - Stay away!! One of the worst comics I've read

Anyone who participates is asked to please keep this scale in mind when giving a grade so that everyone is operating on the same system.

THERE IS NO OBLIGATION TO PARTICIPATE EVERY WEEK. Please join in as little or as much as you like week to week. If you are uncomfortable giving a grade then just join in the discussions and ask questions.

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**Ray G.** · 03-11-2009, 02:13 PM

I'll give this a 9/10.

I can see a lot of Morrison fans disliking this, but for me, it was just about a perfect Batman comic. Tony Daniel's DC writing debut was surprisingly strong, and he gets the voices of just about every major Bat-character. He even made Damian an entertaining character! There's something a bit Johns-esque in his writing style, which I liked a lot. And his art was probably the strongest it's ever been. The conflict between Dick and Tim is the real core here, and Daniel captures that very well. It's action-packed, but not shallow in the slightest.

**Morrison_Lad** · 03-11-2009, 02:37 PM

8/10

I have to say, I was ... worried, is maybe the right word ... concerning Daniel's authoring this. I had nothing to go on, no idea of what to expect, other than some really stunning art.

Well, all my concerns were in vain. Tony can write. This was solid from beginning to finish, with flashes of brilliance peppered throughout. He definitely got the voices down, created a compelling collection of conflicts, and left me wanting more.

And the art was spectacular. And that goes for Sandu Florea inking, and Ian Hannin on colors, too. Everything from the panel layouts to the storytelling to the consistently gloomy Gotham to the figures and actions themselves was just stunning. It's very detailed work throughout.

Oh, and there's a costume change in there that made my heart sing!

Overall, this was a very good read.

**AceOfSpades** · 03-11-2009, 03:41 PM

Niiiiiiiiiiiiiice.
Tony Daniel can write, who'da thunk it?
Nice variety of characters there, good sense of Gotham being in REAL shit this time.
Art was awesome to look at.
Even Damien wasn't annoying, even though he knew that chicks dig the car.

9/10
I'm feeling generous

**Brother Power the Gong** · 03-11-2009, 03:50 PM

Hey, I love Morrison's Batman, Ray, and I dug the shit outta this. Yeah, it's all kinds of different than Grant's run, but Batman and his universe are broad, and this fairly straight but high octane take certainly has a place in it.

Sharp writing and art. Story reaches high altitude within the first few pages, and you really don't need to know that much about the Batman U. going in.

Could be a contender for event of the year if it holds up the quality and a few of the tie-ins are good.

8.8/10

**Fake Pat** · 03-11-2009, 05:11 PM

I really don't have much to say.

Completely average.

7.5/10

**Ray G.** · 03-11-2009, 05:25 PM

Originally Posted by Savage Gong

Hey, I love Morrison's Batman, Ray, and I dug the shit outta this. Yeah, it's all kinds of different than Grant's run, but Batman and his universe are broad, and this fairly straight but high octane take certainly has a place in it.

Sharp writing and art. Story reaches high altitude within the first few pages, and you really don't need to know that much about the Batman U. going in.

Could be a contender for event of the year if it holds up the quality and a few of the tie-ins are good.

8.8/10

That's cool. I know a lot of the Morrison fans in the DC thread were saying this would just be a "punching comic", and I was pleased it went a bit deeper.

**Morrison_Lad** · 03-11-2009, 05:28 PM

Originally Posted by Raydawggie

That's cool. I know a lot of the Morrison fans in the DC thread were saying this would just be a "punching comic", and I was pleased it went a bit deeper.

As a huge fan of Morrison's Batman, I really liked it too. As was said, there's a lot of room in the Bat-verse for different takes, looks at different aspects of the overall milieu, etc.

And there really wasn't anything major to criticize in this, at all.

**AndrewG** · 03-11-2009, 06:58 PM

I liked it a lot. I thought the art was great and the writing was pretty damn good and I was skeptical about handing this event off to a new writer. DC knew best (so far).

I like the idea of Gotham needing a Batman for the sake of the city's well being and the whole villains on the loose thing even though it's been done before, especially in Batman.

While I enjoyed the fact that the book showed so many effects of Batman being gone, from criminals going wild to various people stepping up to help the city between all that and the character development with Tim, Dick and Alfred I thought that if anything there was maybe too much going on. But hell, why not go for broke in your first issue.

And though I don't like Tim Drake as Robin, Red Robin, Batman or anyone else I thought it was completely plausible that he would be the one to put on the Batman suit under the belief that Gotham needs a Batman. This is the same kid who was so persistent in discovering Bruce and Dick's real identities and was so headstrong in his belief that Batman needed a Robin.

Favorite moment was Alfred showing off some weapons skill with Dick.

9 out of 10

**AndrewG** · 03-11-2009, 07:04 PM

Liam's Review:

I like that all of Batman's friends were helping the city because everyone is upset that Batman is dead. I like how the Riddler was asking Commissoner Gordon if Batman was dead and Gordon just ignored him and I thought it was cool when the batsignal when off with RIP written on it.

Black Mask looks like a cool villain and I like how he freed all the other bad guys to have them team up together and if they don't work with him he melts their faces off.

I really thought that the first Batman they showed was going to be the old Batman who wore the armor <Azrael> since he looked kind of like a robot and the colors in the pictures were red. But I think that Batman and the one on the last page were the same one. I don't know who that one is.

I like Robin putting on the Batman suit but I don't think anyone would believe that that's the real Batman because he's just a kid. One of my favorite parts was when Croc ate Damien's girlfriend and Damien got scared when he was alone with all the bad guys. I also thought the part when Alfred beat Dick with the bo staff was pretty cool. I still think Dick is going to end up being Batman even though he says he doesn't want to. He's the toughest and has been around the longest.

I wish there was a bit more fighting in the book. The good guys were running away a lot instead of beating up the bad guys.

9.5 out of 10