Batman: Rebirth #1 Review

Welcome to our first look at DC’s latest reboot, rebirth. Seeing as how my local comic book store has been sold out of the official first issue of rebirth for some time. If I find a copy while it’s still relevant, I’ll give it a read and possibly a review, but for now, we’re starting with Batman.

We open with Alfred answering the door of Wayne Manor to find Duke Thomas, a street level hero whom Batman had previously offered a position to.

Meanwhile, Batman is dealing with an attack by lesser-known villain, Calendar Man who’s unleashing strange spores that are meant to alter the seasons. However, with the help of Jim Gordon, Batman takes down Calendar Man and neutralizes the spores.

Later, we see Bruce Wayne having an outdoor meeting with Lucius Fox… while it’s one hundred thirty seven degrees out… and while Bruce does pull ups while hanging over the edge of a seventy five-story building. There’s not much of significance to this scene, other than the fact that Lucius thinks Bruce is crazy, and given the present scene, Batman or no Batman, he’s right.

Later on, we see Bruce and Duke in the Batcave observing Calendar Man at Arkham. Apparently Calendar Man has a new ability where he ages with the seasons and then is reborn a young man every spring, and his cycle is almost up. Seems an odd choice if you ask me, but we’ll get into this later. What this means is that Calendar Man is speeding up the seasons somehow and Batman and Duke need to find it. This means it’s time for Duke to get his first official field test. However, despite what Duke thinks, he won’t be suiting up as Robin. Batman has decided to try something new and reveals a new armored yellow suit made special for Duke. The next day, Batman has found the device that Calendar Man is using to alter the seasons blows it up while Duke does… virtually nothing.

In Arkham, we see Calendar Man’s rebirth and it’s pretty disturbing, his new, young body emerging from his withered corpse

Our comic ends with Bruce and Duke training together and Duke noting that Calendar Man gets smarter and stronger every time he’s reborn, and Batman responding by saying that that does not matter, they can still defeat him.

What Works:

I like Duke as a character and he and Bruce work off each other well. Also, despite my misgivings about this new ability, Calendar man’s rebirth scene is actually really cool.

What Doesn’t: I gotta be honest, this comic is kind of a mess and I had a hard time following it most of the time. Calendar Man’s new powers seem an odd development, as previously the character had only been a run-of-the-mill crook with an obsession with calendars. Duke’s new costume is cool, but we never get to see it, or Duke in action in this book. Hell, he doesn’t even get a codename. This comic just seems to jump from disjointed scene to disjointed scene making it immensely hard to follow and not a great read

Overall: 1.5/5

I’m sure the failings of this story can be chalked up to growing pains of the new reboot. If this trend continues however, I’m afraid I have little confidence in the future of this new direction.