Batman #688 - DC

Surprisingly, this issue was illustrated by Mark Bagley. And honestly, I thought he did an incredible job. Of course we were drawn to the book by this beautiful Tony Daniel cover. Anyways, Judd Winick takes some steps right away to distinguish Dick's Batman from Bruce's Batman. First of all . . he's not afraid to be seen. He's made himself accessible to camera's, surveillance and media, and he actually seems to be helping the Police with their crime-scenes . . making evidence available to the authorities. Also he's not afraid to change the MO. He's not happy with the cowl . . he feels his peripheral vision is impaired, and he hates the cape. "It weighs a ton! We've lightened it three times and I still feel like I've got a circus tent on my back." And that's not even mentioning the dynamic between him and Damian. It's tenuous at best, but . . Dick is trying to get through to him. I think he's trying to balance the extensiveness of the knowledge that he was taught, balanced with the openness that he wished he would've received. I don't think he wants to be as hard on Damian as Bruce was on him. But I'm afraid with that approach, he's losing some of Damian's respect. In the beginning of the issue, we're 3 weeks in the future and Dick/Batman is getting the snot kicked out of him by someone in the Bat-cave. I'm thinking . . it's Two-Face. We find out this issue that with this extra footage of Batman available, Two-Face is studying it like game films. He knows that there's something different. He just hasn't figured out what it is yet. I also think it's interesting that we haven't heard much from the Black Mask in the last month or two. What's going on with him? Anyways, I thought it was a great issue. I have huge respect for Mark's talent. I thought this entire issue looked incredible. Also, Judd is definitely in his element here. I can't wait to see more.