Batman & Robin, Vol. 4: Dark Knight vs. White Knight

Batman and Robin (2009) (Collected Editions)

by Paul Cornell (Writer), Peter J. Tomasi (Writer), Judd Winick (Writer)

The Dark Knight and the Boy Wonder face multiple threats and villains new and old, including the mysterious White Knight, the villain Absence and the renegade Robin of the past, Jason Todd--in stories written by creators Paul Cornell (Action Comics, Doctor Who), Peter J. Tomasi (Green Lantern Corps, Nightwing) and Judd Winick (Brightest Day: Generation Lost, Batman).

Collecting: Batman & Robin 17-25

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Batman, Dc Comics, Superheroes, Comic Book, Graphic Novels Comics

208 pages, Hardcover

First published January 31, 2012

About the author

Paul Cornell is a British writer of science fiction and fantasy prose, comics and television. He's been Hugo Award-nominated for all three media, and has won the BSFA Award for his short fiction, and the Eagle Award for his comics. He's the writer of Saucer Country for Vertigo, Demon Knights for DC, and has written for the Doctor Who TV series. His new urban fantasy novel is London Falling, out from Tor on December 6th.

via Wikipedia @ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Cor...

Reviews

[Jayson · Rating 3 out of 5]

(B+) 77% | Good
Notes: Cornell carries on with concept foes, Tomasi calls back to his Nightwing run, and Winick continues to own Red Hood.

[Chelsea 🏳️‍🌈 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Update: So, this is still pretty damn good. Unfortunately, the art took a turn for the worst in the last 2 issues and it pained me to look at it. I still really like that story with Jason Todd but I wish they'd kept the artist that did the first part of that arc.

This is my favorite out of the Dick Grayson!Batman and Damian!Robin series.

There are 3 arcs here and I loved everyone of them. For once, every villain had depth and held my interest. So, each story is written and drawn by different teams.

The first is written by Paul Cornell/with art by Scott McDaniel which gives it a Batgirl, Nightwing kind of 90s feel. I don't mind this art and Paul Cornell does the Damian/Dick banter very well. Una Nemo is leading them around the city has a hole in the middle of her head and was on a vendetta to make Bruce miss her. Admittedly, not great making her into a version of the woman scorned but she isn't reduced to being a love interest. At least, I didn't feel that way.

The second one is the strongest one. It's written by Peter J. Tomasi with art from Patrick Gleason. A new villain, the White Knight performing some seriously screwed up art pieces around Gotham dressing the family members of Arkham Asylum inmates as angels and dropping them from buildings. His backstory was interesting and the last shot of that arc was amazing.

Then we end with a story written by Judd Winnick and the art in the first part is from Guillem March and Andrei Bressan and then Artur Fujita does the last 2 issues and it was a major bummer. Dick and Robin having to protect and then capture Jason Todd. We get lots of Jason unapologetically killing other inmates and the art was gorgeous for the first half of this. Dick and Jason were amazing and I got a bit distracted, not gonna lie. The ending was kind of unexpected.

There's character development as Dick and Damian are working more like a well oiled machine. There's a lovely scene where all of Bruce's kids (sans Cassie and Jason, of course) sit down to watch Zorro with milkshakes and popcorn. It was adorable! There's banter between Dick and Damian. There's a moment where they discuss nature v nurture and Dick and Alfred tell Damian how proud they are that he made the choice to be good. It was all very heartwarming.

I was really impressed by the parallels between Jason and Dick's upbringing. There's a lot of Jason admiring the differences between Dick's Batman and Bruce's. He notes that Dick gets so angry when he's taking on bad guys and he could be a great Batman if he'd let that anger help him but he's too busy trying to be Bruce. He calls Dick the "Good son" and that's fascinating considering how Dick quit being Robin.

Essentially, Dick never felt like he'd live up to Bruce's standards and then Jason never had the same morals as Bruce. Tim is the one who appears the most in line with Bruce's thoughts but he tells Cassie in Fresh Blood that he thinks Bruce needs to work more with law enforcement and he doesn't quite subscribe to Bruce's view. Damian is slowly coming around to Bruce's viewpoint but there's a darkness there that is a bit more in line with Jason's Robin's viewpoint. Oddly enough, Cassie is the one most like Bruce and I think that's why people think she's the perfect candidate to be Batman.

Anyway, really enjoyed this. It actually made the think and the villains were interesting. Definitely recommended.

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow.
I am thoroughly shocked by how much I really enjoyed reading Dark Knight vs. White Knight. I started reading this with the expectation that I would probably hate it, especially after the cluster-fuck that was Batman and Robin, Vol. 3: Batman and Robin Must Die!. As I've mentioned before, Grant Morrison did an excellent job on the first and second volumes, only to go off the rails for the third.

If there is a fine line between genius and insanity, then Morrison walks that line with all the grace of a drunken frat boy....

But wait!
Evidently, they tied up Morrison and threw him in a closet. This allowed other authors to give the new Batman and Robin a spin.
And they did a pretty good job, in my opinion.

I was a little nervous reading about the chick with a giant hole in her head. Aptly, she is named Absence. And while I never could quite get a grasp on exactly how she was still walking around, it ended up being a pretty decent story.

The second story was equally confusing when it came to figuring out how the villain obtained his glowing powers. I mean that literally, too. The guy...well, he glowed.
That aside, the plot was good. Glow Bug's (I can't remember his real name) father was a guard, killed in a riot at Arkham. So his bright idea (get it?! Hyuck, hyuck!) is to kill off all of the people related to Arkham inmates. It's a good story.

Oh. Wait. I just remembered his name. It's, er...White Knight. Yeaaah. Kinda like the title of this volume. Sorry. My bad.

Anyway, the real gem of this volume is the third story, which features Jason Todd/ The Red Hood. It is by far the best of the bunch, and well worth reading. In fact, I think I may have my first 'villain crush' after reading it.
Just sayin'.

So go read it.

[Subham · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was so good omg and yeah it has 3 stories!

Like the first one focuses on this new enemy "Absence" and why she is doing what she does and her ties to Bruce and it brings an interesting point of his dating life and how Dick and Damian have to handle it and its fun and makes for a good read and new challenges for them! 7/10 to that!

Then a story of some new "White knight" taking out the relatives of Batman villains and its by Tomasi and its really good and just shows this enemy in an interesting light and gives Dick a really solid moment here highlighting his strengths and all! I like the way Tomasi writes Damian here and the beginning of his epic saga here!

Finally a story with the return of Jason the villain by his "Under the hood" writer Winnick and its interesting exploring him like that and what he does after his ward scarlet gets kidnapped and what he does next? Its fun and just a solid one and leads well into new 52 and also shows how dangerous this foe can be for Dick and Damian!

A good volume overall and some cool stories here and there!

[Artemy · Rating 2 out of 5]

After Grant Morrison finished his fantastic run on Batman & Robin, the series itself, bafflingly, lasted for 9 more issues, with three writers producing three 3-issue arcs to cap the book off. It's no wonder that this volume is left mostly forgotten nowadays, because none of the stories here are especially good or interesting.

Paul Cornell wrote probably the best arc of the bunch about a woman who was mistreated by Bruce Wayne and decided to get revenge — it had an interesting premise and a pretty unexpected finale, and villain's motivations were refreshingly relatable. The thing that ruined this story for me (and for a lot of people, judging by the reviews), is the villain's design — the woman was rocking a huge, perfectly round hole right in the middle of her head, and it didn't impact her ability to think, speak, nothing at all really — in fact, apparently it only made her smarter and better because of all that oxygen that is now getting to her brain (her words, not mine). I guess we should all get huge holes in our heads, too, since it has such amazing benefits, eh?

Peter Tomasi's story about the "White Knight" (unrelated to Sean Murphy's recent ghastly book), a being made of pure light who's killing Arkham inmates' blood relatives was uncharacteristically pretty good right up until the final issue where it all went to shit in typical Tomasi fashion, revealing that the villain's father was an Arkham security guard who was killed by one of the crazies, and that's why he decided to take vengeance on their... relatives, yeah, that makes sense. No explanation as to how he became an angel made of light, too, but who cares if it looks cool, right? And it does, to be fair — Patrick Gleason's art was fantastic, much better than it later looked on Tomasi's own Batman and Robin run, not to mention Superman.

Judd Winnick's Red Hood arc was the only one that directly spun out of the events of Morrison's run, bringing back not only Red Hood but also Scarlet, Professor Pyg's victim. This was just a very nothing story with a lot of mindless unexciting action and not much of a plot, and I got bored by it very quickly. The art here was probably the worst of the bunch, too, slowly deteriorating into muddy ugly splotches towards the end.

Overall, it's a pretty forgettable collection of filler stories. I didn't hate any of them, but that's also the best thing I can say about them. Which is kind of a shame, because there aren't really a lot of Dick/Damian duo stories out there outside of this run. The pair worked so well together, they deserved many more comics written about them after Morrison left. If there are any others that are worth checking out, recommendations would be very welcome.

[Sam Quixote · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of three three-issue stories featuring the Dick Grayson Batman/Damien Wayne Robin duo. They tangle with three villains, two new, one old: Una Nemo, a socialite who undergoes a dramatic change in her appearance thwarting a heist; the White Knight, an angelic psycho who is killing relatives of Arkham Asylum's inmates; and finally Jason Todd aka the Red Hood.

I thought the White Knight storyline was pretty good, it was pretty graphic in its murders and also quite striking in its brightness, contrasting the usual Gotham gloom. The Jason Todd storyline was decent as well with Judd Winick returning as writer. Todd's personality is both dark and playful and I actually felt myself rooting for him as he seemed the more interesting character in comparison to Grayson's good-guy Batman. The artwork in this story though was fairly scratchy and poor, like the artist was trying to mimic Andy Kubert and failing.

The Una Nemo character design is just so ridiculous it's difficult to take her seriously. She literally has a giant hole in the centre of her head and yet is somehow alive. It's perfectly oval, it hasn't damaged the structure of her skull or thought processes, and it looks so, so silly.

The storylines are alright, it's Batman and Robin taking down villains that don't add up to a larger storyline. In that sense it's good to see contained stories like this. On the other hand, the stories themselves weren't that amazing and ultimately felt a bit unsubstantial compared to the intense and inventive Grant Morrison books. It'd be nice to see Winick return to write a full length storyline with Jason Todd, otherwise "Dark Knight vs. White Knight" is your standard Batman/Robin book.

[Paz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nine issues, three mini-arcs, three writers.

First, a spurned lover turned villain. The story called The Sum of her Parts, written by Paul Cornell and illustrated by Scott McDaniel and Christopher Jones, starts with Batman and Robin interrupting a strange wedding where the guests in a cult-like way keep repeating what is missing?
Days earlier, the corpse of one of Bruce's ex-girlfriends is robbed out of her grave and later delivered to the GCPD, except the body is missing a finger and does not match the real identity of the victim. Una Nemo, Gotham billionaire and socialite was Bruce's latest conquest. However, when she realised she was never one of Bruce's priorities and was constantly overlooked, she ended the relationship. On a yacht party later, she's the victim of a robbery, shot point black in the head. Six weeks later, she appears as the bride in the wedding looking for revenge and using this ambush on Batman and Robin to send a message to Bruce.
This story is a bit wild. Una leads Dick and Damian on a wild chase where she's continuously messing with their head. I liked the idea of exploring Bruce's flaws. This time, the women he disregards just so he can keep up the Bruce persona. Though I found many moments too preachy, at the end I realised Una was different than I thought, she used the cliches to her advantage making a fool of our male heroes. Just as Damian said, "If she was a proper psychotic, this would be much less tiresome."
I do appreciate how Dick ends up conceding to Una's arguments against Bruce and how Damian was troubled by it too: "Who pretends to like someone?"

Dark Knight vs White Knight, the second arc collected, is written by Peter Tomasi and illustrated by Patrick Gleason. It tells the story of a man wanting to save humanity from their future sins. When a man falls from an eighty floor building, with wings stitched to his body and glowing blood bleeding from his corpse, Batman and Robin start investigating this case with the GCPD. When other jumpers are saved, a pattern is found. This glowing White Knight is after the families of Arkham inmates. In his weird way, he's trying to purify their bloodline, making them jump so they can ascend and not bring more pain to this world.
The storyline is creepy, the writing a little too messy. I did like the moments where Damian shows his talents as a detective and how Dick is there teaching him. I also appreciate Damian bringing himself up as an example of nature vs nurture and how both Dick and Alfred were there to assure him he is his own person and they are proud of his decision of being Robin.

Third and last story, The Streets Run Red, is about a surprising team-up of Batman and Robin with the Red Hood. Written by Judd Winnick this is by far my favorite of the bunch, though I do have issues with the art style. First issue is illustrated by Guillem March, and though it's overall good, I hate Jason's design. The excessive muscular frame makes him look forty. The last two issues have a dip in quality too, it's a very muddy artwork I struggled with.
The arc starts with a short flashback of Batman and Nightwing observing a very young Jason and evaluating him as Robin. This tender, but sad moment changes into current Jason Todd, inmate at Arkham Asylum, where Bruce goes to visit in a very cold manner.
Jason requests a transfer out of Arkham. As he says, he is a bad person and homicidal but he is not clinically insane. However, when he arrives to another Gotham City correction facility, he starts killing and hurting other criminals. When he is broken out of prison for a mysterious reason he is threatened to cooperate because they have Scarlet (hey do you remember Jason's sidekick Scarlet from Morrison's B&R volume 1?). It's here where Dick and Damian involve themselves. This team up is... well, you have to read it. I really liked the couple of flashbacks to a younger Jason, I liked the complexity of relationships. I really loved to see Jason's perception of Dick as Batman and how he resents him seeing him act as Bruce's good son and waste the rage he knows Dick has inside.
Though I was not a fan of the ending of this story, I really liked it. My favorite moment was Damian waiting for Jason to suit up saying "This sucks" and Dick answering with "I'm oddly proud that you are finally utilizing youthful colloquialisms."
(Finally a good line by Dick who throughout the trade has some really awful one liners.)

[Sud666 · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of Batman (Grayson) and Robin (Damien) tales. The first tale is AWFUL. Had that been the mainstay this thing would have gotten 1 star. A garbage tale filled with feminist tropes that are beyond annoying. A few things- (1) Bruce Wayne is really, really rich. Only a few others Luthor, etc even come close to matching him. So when the Una Nemo (what kind of stupid name is that? if you're going to create an ethnic character-how about doing some small research on ethnic names) declares (after whining that Bruce dated her 6 times and she's still kept at 'arm's length') that she is wealthier than he is and he shouldn't consider her a gold-digger..I had to ask "who are you?"..answer- no one at all. Just for the sake of a PC argument we have to have some super-rich "ethnic" character. Then we are treated to lines such as "Una, you run your company like a man, you're distant like a man, you're emotionally dumb like a man". Uh-huh. Gotcha.Thanks. So anyways this una character tries to stop a robbery, get shot in the head and reawakens thanks to the toxic sludge in Gotham River. Ummmm so..like for the purposes of this story..the entire Gotham river functions as a Lazarus pit? yeah? Uh-huh. Gotcha. Thanks. Then I sat through the supreme irony of a girl with a massive hole in her freaking head, with a thin layer of brain matter (yes her brains are literally GONE) go to her own funeral and be angry that no one cared she was dead and we are treated to the line of "...I'd been a perfectly honest and kind business woman." Ummm surrreeeeee...... an "honest" and "kind" billionaire.....gee how did ya make them billions? But as a woman, of COURSE, she's not wicked, corrupt or downright "mean" like a male CEO would be. Uh-huh. Gotcha. Thanks. Oh and this awesome line "..were they missing some extra warmth they expected of a woman?" So the next time you are at a funeral and no one really seems sad- it's all about sexism! Uh-huh. Gotcha. Thanks. Anyways, this fool of a writer- Cornell, apparently was so busy being PC that he forgot to worry about his piss poor plot. The part where Ms. I-literally-have NO-brains explains to the reader how she removed "her money from the corporation"..which is like Bruce taking HIS money from Wayne Enterprises....and NO ONE noticed because of her secret access. This shows us that not only is Mr Cornell PC to a fault, but as with most of his ilk he's a bleeding imbecile as well. If a billionaire, owns a company....and owns a crap ton of stock...and is a billionaire because of that money..then well..when they take it out..EVERYBODY notices since the company will be missing it's CAPITALIZATION. Oops. Ok enough about this moron and his idiot story.

The comic is saved by much better writers such as Tomasi and Winick. Their two stories were pretty good. Tomasi tells the tale of a guy named the White Angel who is killing relatives of Arkham inmates. Winick tells us a tale of the Red Hood. Both tales are good and saved this comic. The artwork is uniformly good throughout-even the awful story at the start has good art. This would have been a 4/5 star book....but Cornell's moronic and sophomoric PC sob-tale was poorly thought out, offensive on many levels (Una Nemo? WTF kind of 'ethnic' name is she? the only daughter of Cap. Nemo? Blatant sexism...Ms. I-have-no-brains at one point even says "manslpaining" *sighs*), bad in terms of plot holes seen by anyone over the age of 8 years old..just awful. My advice- ignore the first wretched story and read the far more entertaining last two stories....

[James DeSantis · Rating 4 out of 5]

So this is actually 3 different stories in one. They all vary in quality but let's just say the first story doesn't do the rest of this book justice.

So we start off with one of the weirdest/dumbest villains ever. Una Nemo has a big ass hole in her head and decides she has to kill people. Batman (Dick) and Robin (Damien) go to stop her. On top of that we get another story, which is the title, Dark Knight vs White Knight, which is the highlight of the entire collection. This one is about Batman and Robin trying to stop a crazy person who is killing family members and such of criminals. Last but not least is about Red hood being his insane motherfucking ass as always.

Good: Loved the dark night vs white knight story. Highly entertaining, banter between Damien and Dick is spot on, and the ending is wonderful. I also enjoyed the Red Hood story as it was fun and the banter once again was great as well as the art.

Bad: The first story is easily the weakest, with a terrible villain, and very little else to care about. Also, the 90's art throwback didn't help.

Overall the 2nd and 3rd part of this collection push it to the 4 star rating where's the first story holds it back from being amazing. A 4 out of 5.

[Ken W · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it!

I've always loved Batman and Robin but I think I like Dick Grayson as Batman and Damian Wayne as Robin better than Bruce and Dick! Excellent characters and excellent story arc! 5 stars!

[Just a Girl Fighting Censorship · Rating 4 out of 5]

At least this series ends on a high note.

This volume has three main story lines, the first of which was my least favorite. Some lady with a hole in her head has a grudge against Bruce Wayne because he didn't love her...



The second and title story was my favorite. It was dark and creepy and violent plus we get a few Arkham scenes. The villain's origin felt a little hokey, but he looked cool and had a pretty interesting MO.

Rounding out the volume was a story about Jason Todd AKA Red Hood, so your enjoyment of this story will be dependent on your feeling regarding this character. My personal opinion is one of indifference but I enjoyed the dynamics between Todd and Grayson.

Overall, Dick Grayson's Batman is wonderfully characterized and has been the highlight of this book and the entire series. I thought I would absolutely hate reading Batman books pretty much devoid of Bruce Wayne, but it was well done and interesting. Additionally, Damien Wayne was tolerable. This is the best treatment of the character that I've read. First, the other characters openly acknowledge that Damien is annoying. Second, Damien whines a little less and is actually useful. Third, he misses his father, the reader can sympathize. And lastly, I think that teaming up with Dick makes Damien more than just the "son of Batman". It allows him to be a fuller character and interact with a Batman that isn't teaming up with him out of obligation or parental bias.

[Kieran McAndrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Batman and Robin: Dark Knight Vs. White Knight

The new Batman and Robin are beginning to gel as a team, leading the war on crime in Gotham City. When an old girlfriend of Bruce Wayne's dies unexpectedly and then her body is stolen, Batman feels compelled to investigate further.

Bold inking, striking art and colouring add extra dimensions to a story filled with despair. Each of the individual stories examines the dynamic of the new team and revives Batman for a new generation.

[Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first "Batman & Robin" collection that's not written by Grant Morrison, and let me tell you... it shows (in a good way!). What we've got here are three 3-issue story arcs, each written and illustrated by different creative teams. By now, for this series anyway, we've all become accustomed to having a new artist for each new story arc. This is the first time however that different writers get to play with these characters. The stories read well and flow nicely. The only thing I might have a problem with is some of the art in the third and final story of this book. The first 2 stories feature brand-new [as far as I can tell] villains, the White Knight being a particularly good idea. The third story features the return of the Red Hood, and readers in the know will not be surprised that Judd Winick wrote it. It's okay: he's the one that brought the Red Hood back from death, least he could do was break him out of prison! Anyway, Winick's got a really good handle on this character and his evolution is interesting.

While I am a fan of Grant Morrison, sometimes I find his stories not as accessible as I'd like, as if I need to invest in 3,4, sometimes 5 books just to "get" a story. The payoff's usually worth it, but y'know, sometimes I just want to be entertained and not have to take into account what happened in that scene with that guy so many issues ago. Sometimes, what I need are books like this one: Fun, accessible, and ENTERTAINING. No baggage.

So, yeah, I highly recommend this book. And if you get it online at whatever pittance they're asking for it, this book is definitely more than worth it. 4 stars.

[JB · Rating 3 out of 5]

I know they say „don’t judge a book by it’s cover”, but that’s exactly what I did with this book. I really liked the cover and thought it would be a great book because of it. But this is just ok, a bit mediocre. There are 3 stories included in this book. Each of them had something I liked, but for several reasons didn’t get passed the „ok-mark”.

The first story had a really interesting villain, with an interesting backstory, but the art really ruined it for me. It needed an entirely different kind of art style, less cartoony and more realistic.

The second story was my favorite of the bunch. This is the actual Dark Knight vs. White Knight story. It had the best art and felt the most like an actual Batman story. It also had a nice Bat-family moment in the beginning of the story. The White Knight was a great villain going after family members of all the Arkham inmates.

The art in the last issue of the last story was just bad, really bad. The only things I liked about this story was that it continued the Red Hood story that started in Morrison’s Batman and Robin and that we got to see a collaboration between 3 Robin’s, Dick Grayson, Damian Wayne and Jason Todd.

If you’re reading Batman and Robin from the Morrison run and you want to read some more of it, you can check this one out. I wouldn’t completely write this book off, I’ve just been reading a lot of great Batman stories lately like Batman the Black Mirror and after reading stories like that, this one kind of fell short. (If I could give 2,5 stars it would have been 2,5)

[Aaron · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wrote a pretty long review of this on my iPhone right before the Goodreads app crashed, so let me just sum that sucker up.

Three stories, none amazing.

First one is oddly misogynist (villain is a scorned woman who literally has a hole in her head) and never explains how the main villain is able to brainwash dozens of people to work for her. Cause she's a wily woman, I guess? This had to have been written in the 50s.

Second story again does not explain HOW the main villain is able to do all the stuff he can do. He just does insane stuff and we're expected to go with it. Decent structure, but too many holes.

Third story is just Judd Winick writing another Jason Todd story (the only thing he knows how to do these days). It's got good dialogue and action, but ultimately seems like merely setup with no payoff.

So, some of this is fun, some of it is bad, none of it is original. Screw you, Goodreads app.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although Batman and Robin Must Die! was probably the worst graphic novel I read this year I'm glad I gave the series another chance. ('m reading them all out of order - not by choice - and unfortunately the aforementioned Vol. 3 was the first one I was able to acquire.) Dick and Damien, with assistance from the dependable Alfred, make a great team. The title story - the second of three in this edition - was probably the best of the bunch.

[Ben Truong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Batman and Robin: Dark Knight vs. White Knight picks up where the previous volume left off, collecting the last nine issues (Batman and Robin #17–25) of the 2009 on-going series and covers three stories: "The Sum of Her Parts", "Dark Knight vs. White Knight, Tree of Blood" and "The Streets Run Red".

"The Sum of Her Parts" is a three-issue storyline (Batman and Robin #17–19), which has Dick Grayson as Batman and Damian Wayne as Robin investigates the murky depth of Bruce Wayne’s past to protect him from whoever has stole the corpses of his girlfriend, Una Nemo, while contending with a new villain in The Absence.

"Dark Knight vs. White Knight, Tree of Blood" is a three-issue storyline (Batman and Robin #20–22) who has the new Dynamic Duo faces off the mysterious White Knight, which is hell-bent on making Gotham City into Heaven on Earth. Bruce Wayne as Batman, Tim Drake as Red Robin, and Kirk Langstrom as Man-Bat makes supporting and cameo appearances.

"The Streets Run Red" is a three-issue storyline (Batman and Robin #23–25) that has the new Dynamic Duo trying to figure out who has broke Jason Todd as Red Hood out of prison and these three sons of Bruce Wayne as Batman may have to team up tougher to fight a common foe.

Paul Cornell (Batman and Robin #17–19), Peter Tomasi (Batman and Robin #20–22), and Judd Winick (Batman and Robin #23–25) penned the trade paperback. For the most part, it is written rather well – even with three writers. They took a storyline each and felt more like an anthology of short stories than a graphic novel with one central point. Tomasi writes an excellent Damian Wayne and it is good to see Winick writing Jason Todd again as he was the one who brought Red Hood into existence.

Scott McDaniel (Batman and Robin #17–19), Patrick Gleason (Batman and Robin #20–22), Christopher Jones (Batman and Robin #18–19), Greg Tocchini (Batman and Robin #24–25), Gullem March, and Andy Smith (Batman and Robin #23 and #25 respectively) are the pencilers for the trade paperback. The pencilers styles meshed rather well, albeit quite unique. Although there were many pencilers the artistic flow of the trade paperback was rather smooth as there were logical points where different pencilers were introduced except the last story.

Overall, this Batman and Robin series was rather even and felt like an anthology of short stories as most storylines are three-issue long with generally one penciler like a revolving door of guest pencilers. Some pencillers are better as others as well as certain storylines, but overall it was evenly written and penciled.

All in all, Batman and Robin: Dark Knight vs. White Knight is a wonderful conclusion to an equally wonderful series.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was okay.

I would rate the first 3 issues 2 stars. I just couldn’t get into the villain at all. It was too hard to take somebody with an inconsistently drawn giant hole in their head seriously.

The second part about the “White Knight” was a little better, but honestly not much so 3 stars.

The last part was the best part and Judd Winick really knows how to write Jason Todd. It would have been nice if we could have had the same artist throughout but it didn’t detract too much. 3.5 stars

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 4 out of 5]

This volume featured a variety of creative teams that followed up on Grant Morrisons' run. I have to say the new teams did a great job of capturing the same vibe that Morrison had started. We had a serial killer after the family of Arkham Asylum inmates, a villainess with a literal hole in her head, a story of the Red Hood, and what looks like the appearance of a French Joker.

Overall this was a good volume with good art and a strong way to close the series. Surprisingly good even.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 3 out of 5]

In “The Sum of Her Parts”, Cornell does a great job of capturing the weirdness of Morrison’s Batman & Robin, with Absence feeling like she fits in the same world as Pyg — but the story doesn’t have the depth that Morrison’s did, possibly because Cornell was working with a much smaller canvas [6.5/10]. Tomasi’s “Tree of Blood” seems to similarly create a new weird villain, but without nearly as much luck. We get a mundane story that is never that interesting, other than a couple of nice character moments between the Batmen and Robins at the very start (in a scene that has pretty much nothing to do with the rest of the story). [5/10]. With Judd Winnick, we’re back to pretty standard superhero fare, rather than the high-flying stuff that Morrison (and Cornell) was doing. Still, “The Streets Run Red” is a decent story, primarily because Winnick has a good handle on the Red Hood [6/10]. All said, there’s no reason to add this volume to a collection of the Morrison Batman & Robin.

[J. Griff · Rating 4 out of 5]

THIS! This is what I miss from reading comics. Good artwork & better writing. I’ll be honest, I’ve never liked Jason Todd as a character & liked him even less when I heard they were bringing him back from the dead. Nobody stays dead in comics unless your name is Thomas & Martha Wayne or Uncle Ben. Judd Winick does a decent job of writing Jason Todd (Red Hood) although I think he makes him almost too smooth. I couldn’t put this volume down & had it read in a day.

[John Yelverton · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the worst Batman novel that I have ever read.

[Tony Laplume · Rating 4 out of 5]

This final Batman and Robin volume before the "New 52" relaunch under Peter J. Tomasi and Patrick Gleason actually features their first work with the Dynamic Duo, plus a few other creative treats. In some respects it'll be completely impenetrable to the unsuspecting reader. So that's why you have someone like me to fill in the blanks.

(Heh.)

The volume begins with Paul Cornell and Scott McDaniel telling a story about what happens when someone leaves an impossible void to fill. Cornell (a brilliant writer better known for his Doctor Who work as well as various other projects he did for DC during this general period) is obviously riffing on Bruce Wayne's then-recent return. Grant Morrison, who had written the material in the three previous volumes of the title and was then dominating the whole Batman comics mythos, had just brought him back, setting up the Batman Incorporated concept lightly referenced in the collection. So the Batman in this collection, as in previous volumes, is still Dick Grayson. Seems worth mentioning.

Cornell is otherwise following Morrison's example in trying out bold action instead of heavy new stories, letting the concept of Batman be fun again. The villain he creates is not wholly original, and in fact seems to borrow many of her motifs from the old '60s TV show. But she serves her purpose all the same. She points out how different the Batman concept had become while at the same time helping explain how it happened.

The third story is Judd Winick returning to Jason Todd, the Red Hood. Winick was the writer who got to bring Jason, also known as the second Robin, also known as the Robin who ended up being murdered by the Joker, back after the character was kept dead for decades and finally teased in another comic as coming back (Jeph Loeb and Jim Lee's famous "Hush"). Anyway, Winick even wrote a Red Hood mini-series filling in the blanks of Jason's death and return. Here he gets to "redeem" the character, after reintroducing him as a kind of Batman willing to kill bad guys, teaming him up with the good guys once again, but on his own terms.

But anyway, the real winner here is seeing Tomasi and Gleason in their first Batman and Robin adventure. Gleason and McDaniel have the best art (they even complement each other nicely), by the way. If readers sour on Winick's Red Hood it's because the accompanying art woefully falls below what precedes it. But the second and third stories in this collection help set up the New 52 era. Jason Todd's Red Hood would get his own team-up book (still running in a different iteration), while Tomasi and Gleason snagged the Batman and Robin reboot.

And executed it so brilliantly they snagged Superman in the next DC reboot, the Rebirth era. But that's the story of other reviews.

They obviously nail the "audition." Of the three stories they most nail the opportunity to write the Dynamic Duo. Like Cornell, Tomasi has a new villain (and like all three stories it's ultimately a family story) with a patented Batman villain gimmick. But it's in the artwork, the storytelling, where the magic really happens. McDaniel had done Batman before. This was Gleason's first shot, and he seizes the opportunity with gusto. It's the birth of a superstar. (He and Tomasi had plenty of experience together in the pages of Green Lantern Corps and Brightest Day, so they already knew how to work together, and it shows.)

This may not feel like stuff you should care about after three volumes of Grant Morrison material, but all three stories have something to say, a unique way to say it, and plenty of creative justification. It's just, one of them was the first step to something even greater. Well worth your time to read.

[James DeSantis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume collects three distinct story arcs from the Dick Grayson/Damian Wayne era of Batman & Robin, and while it's a solid collection overall, it's not amazing as it could be The real strength of this book lies in the character dynamics, which are a joy to read.

The first story, "The Sum of Her Parts" by Paul Cornell, is okayish start. It introduces a new villain named Absence, a spurned ex of Bruce Wayne's who creates crimes based on missing or absent things. While Absence is just an okay villain, I really enjoyed the psychological depth this story gave to Dick Grayson as he grapples with the emotional weight of being Batman.

The second arc, "Dark Knight vs. White Knight" by Peter J. Tomasi, is where the collection really hits its stride. It's a blast to see Dick and Damian team up against a new villain, the White Knight, who targets the relatives of Arkham Asylum inmates. The villain himself is just okay, but the fun and entertaining partnership between the more lighthearted Dick and the grim, serious Damian is the highlight of the entire volume. This arc is a fantastic showcase for their unique dynamic.

The final arc, "The Streets Run Red" by Judd Winick, brings back an unhinged Jason Todd after his escape from prison. He teams up with Dick and Damian to save his former sidekick, Scarlett. The story is a fun and wild ride, offering a great look at the strained but compelling relationship between all three Robins. While not an amazing story, it’s a very enjoyable one and a great capstone to the collection.

Ultimately, Batman & Robin, Vol. 4: Dark Knight vs. White Knight is a good collection that's perfect for anyone who loves the Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne partnership. The plots and villains are generally decent, but the phenomenal character work elevates it to a worthwhile read.

[Christopher Wolbert · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 different stories, each having 3 parts. Not bad. I had to do some research into Batman Inc. I didn't know this was the third volume in the Batman & Robin series when I barrowed from the library. In this series Batman is Dick Grayson (formerly Robin) and Robin is Damian Wayne. I am looking forward to back-tracking.

[Jousef W. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a big fan of this book and you could just see by the writing that Grant Morrison left the project. The first story about the woman with a damn whole in the head? That was creative but not my thing at all. I don't know where she came from all of a sudden and what was going on in the first place. The White Knight had his moments though it felt very shoe-horned in the whole. The Jason Todd story was pretty entertaining in the end and left me closing this book with a good taste.

[Saphirablue · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love Dick and Damian as Batman and Robin. <3 I also love the brother and mentor relationship these two have. <3

The scene with Tim, Dick, Alfred, Damian and Bruce watching a movie together? <3

The stories are interesting and the art is (mostly) great.

[Vinicius · Rating 4 out of 5]

As histórias escritas pelo Tomasi são incríveis, ele tem um tato pra desenvolver personagens que é absurdo, principalmente quando trabalha as relações pessoais deles. Se a HQ fosse apenas ele escrevendo seria 5 estrelas fácil.

[Christopher (Donut) · Rating 4 out of 5]

All over the place with multiple writer/artist teams, but never out and out bad. On the contrary.

[Arturo Del Rosal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Liked it!!!
No further comments!!!

3.75 Stars.