Tom King had to follow probably the greatest Batman run ever. Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo set a standard on Batman comics that was seemingly unreachable. When I found out that Snyder was moving to All Star Batman I thought that the Batman book was going to take a step back in quality and intrigue. Then the Tom King announcement was made and that changed everything. Tom King over the past year wrote Vision which if you haven’t been reading is absolutely incredible. Which leads us to this first volume of Batman Rebirth.

Gotham Gives Batman Takes

*Some Spoilers*

This volume starts out showing Batman working with “Gotham and Gotham Girl” two new powerful superheroes who have unknown backgrounds even to Batman. They have powers similar to Superman and seem to be motivated by good but, still suspicious. We also find out that there is someone spreading fear in the city about and upcoming invasion by “Monster Men” and we learn that the strings are being pulled by Hugo Strange with the help of Psycho Pirate. Yes, Psycho Pirate is back and that is an interesting character to bring into the Batman world. Many only know Psycho Pirate from the Crisis of Infinite Earths mini series in the 80’s but he is a very powerful yet annoying figure that could cause some real harm using his reality warping powers.

As the Vol goes on Batman eventually finds out why Gotham and Gotham Girl became superheroes and with the help of Duke (the new Robin) find out the origin of those powers. The new heroes eventually gets compromised by Psycho Pirate and with the help of the Justice League and a unsuspecting figure end up eliminating the problem. This just leads to more confusing and despair, but we get a couple of uber emotional panels where Batman is aligning himself with a new ally and revealing his secret identity.

At the end of the volume specifically the last page in issue #6 we got a tease that could open up so many doors. Part of the panel is shown above, but basically Batman goes to talk to Amanda Waller about stopping strange and these Monster Men that are coming. Waller basically says her intel tells her that Strange and Psycho Pirate are working with Bane and he is in a top secret facility in Santa Prisca and the only way to get there is her way and hints that the Suicide Squad will be involved. This is the second time in this book we have seen an interaction with him and Waller an they are always intriguing and this cliff hanger is no disappointment.

Batman Rebirth Vol 1 Final Take

The post Batman Rebirth Vol. 1: Continued Greatness appeared first on That Cool Black Nerd.