Batman #416 (1988) Comic Book Review

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. I'm back with another review. This time I'm taking a look at one of my favourite comic books. So let's dive in and discuss Batman #416, which was published in late 1987, but has a cover date of February 1988, which is why I put the year of the cover date for the issue. There will be some spoilers, so let's get into it.

Despite having been collecting Batman comics from the '80s and '90s since the early to mid 2000s, I didn't get this issue until probably 2013 or 2014, maybe 2015 at the latest. It wasn't an issue that I read when I was growing up. It became my favourite though because, not only was it the first post-Crisis On Infinite Earths meeting of Dick Grayson/Nightwing and Jason Todd/Robin, but it's also Dick's first post-Crisis appearance in a Batman comic as Nightwing as the last time he appeared in a Batman comic, at the beginning of Batman #408, he was still Robin. Not only that but it fully establishes Bruce and Dick's relationship following their fallout in Batman #408. 

After Jason botches a takedown of a Cocaine lab and Dick has to save him from getting killed at the hands of the criminals, he visits Bruce in the Batcave and fills him in on his life following his departure from Wayne Manor. Dick also isn't happy that he had to find out about the new Robin from the newspapers rather than from Batman himself. Bruce reveals that he brought Jason on as Robin, despite dismissing the older, original, Robin, because he missed Dick and needed a partner. Dick and Jason go on to take down the bad guys from the beginning of the issue.

One of the things that I like about this issue is that it does establish Bruce and Dick's relationship now that Dick is no longer Robin. Especially for those who read this in the '80s and weren't reading The New Teen Titans/The New Titans ( the comic changed names in 1987 or early 1988), and hadn't been introduced to Nightwing yet as Dick was absent from Batman from issue #408 until this issue. Unlike in the pre-Crisis continuity where Dick was around to guide Jason in his new role as Robin. It's this new relationship between the two that has this ongoing behaviour from Bruce, which prevents him from calling Dick when he needs help, as what happened in Knightfall after Bane broke Bruce's back. Dick had to find out about the new Batman from the newspapers as well, rather than from Bruce, Tim or Alfred. 

I also like the relationship between Dick and Jason. Dick knows what it's like to be Robin and to grow up fighting crime alongside Batman. After seeing Jason in action, he takes it upon himself to help the new Boy Wonder as he grows up and learns the craft from Batman. Basically acting as a sounding board for Jason since Bruce is so emotionally distant and indifferent. However, I know that Dick doesn't appear in Batman again until Batman: Year Three, which is the telling of Dick's post-Crisis origin as Robin, and Jason only appears in The New Teen Titans in issue 20 of the second volume, which came out in 1986, as Crisis On Infinite Earths was wrapping up, and he doesn't appear again in that series outside of flashbacks and his image on a computer screen in the Titans Tower, so we don't actually see Dick and Jason interact with each other after this issue, like we had in the two years before Crisis On Infinite Earths altered the history of the DC Universe entirely. Or how we'd see Dick and Tim interact after this.

I think that's my biggest problem with this issue and this era of DC's publication history in general. Jason Todd was really shafted hard after his character was altered for the post-Crisis DC Universe in 1987. Because of that his relationships with the other members of the Bat Family didn't really have time to develop and grow before he was killed off in A Death in the Family. Even when we had flashbacks to this period in books like Batman: Gotham Knights, like the one where Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) teams up with with Jason for a mission, all that story does is establish their relationship since Barbara was absent from this period, since this issue came out right before The Killing Joke did. Even by the time Jason returned as the Red Hood in the late 2000s, the DC Universe had already been altered by both Zero Hour in 1994 and Infinite Crisis in 2005, with new retcons being added or changed or removed after each event. 

Jim Aparo is the artist on this book, and he, along with Norm Breyfogle, were the first Batman artists I ever experienced since they were both working on the Bat titles when I started reading Batman comics in 1993, during Knightfall. So I always enjoy seeing his earlier work on the Batman books.

This issue is collected in Batman: Second Chances, which is a trade paperback that was published in 2015. The book collects Batman #'s 402-403, #'s 408-416, and Batman Anuual #11. While I own this trade paperback I actually have 416 in single issue form as well. That's how I read it for this review.

This issue also formed the basis for the 17th episode of The New Batman Adventures, "Old Wounds", in 1998. Instead of Jason Todd, Nightwing teams up with Tim Drake, and Bruce doesn't appear in the wraparound story, only in the flashbacks to when Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) discovered Batman and Robin's true identities and Dick quit being Robin. I hesitate to call it an adaptation though, because there's very little of the original story in the episode and Dick is telling Tim about the end of the original Dynamic Duo, rather than Dick filling Bruce in on what he's been doing since he quit being Robin and left Wayne Manor.

Overall, this is a fantastic issue. It's self-contained, on both ends of the issue, it sets up alot of the new dynamics between Bruce and Dick, and Dick and Jason, and it's a pretty emotional story to read. Especially for this era of DC Comics. I recommend giving it a read if you can get your hands on it. It's not really a key issue, in terms of important Batman milestones, but it's also not a throwaway issue either. So a copy of the individual issue should still be pretty cheap, despite the issue being nearly 40 years old at this point. Like I said, it's also available in the trade paperback edition that I mentioned, and that book should still be in print even though it's now nine years old at this point. So you should be able to find it in some format pretty easily.

That's it for me for today. I'll be back soon with more posts. I might do either a movie review or a TV show post next. I haven't quite decided yet. So until then have a great rest of the day and I will talk to you all later. Take care.