The Dynamic Duo

Batman and Robin

A year or so prior to Blackest Night, the Big Event for DC Comics was Final Crisis, a mind-bending epic where Darkseid took over the Earth.  It had its high-points and low-, but the finale had Batman zapped by Darkseid's omega beams and left a burnt corpse in Superman's arms.

But don't worry, he got the bastard who did this.

An epilogue showed Bruce Wayne had actually just been transported back to caveman times, but as far as his friends in the 21st century were concerned, he was dead.

Then came a mini-series called Battle for the Cowl, and when the dust settled from that, former-Robin Dick Grayson was the new Batman and Bruce Wayne's illegitimate son (and trained assassin) Damian Wayne was his Robin.  Evidence began mounting that Bruce Wayne hadn't been killed, which would eventually lead up to the Return of Bruce Wayne mini-series.

Unfortunately for Bruce, that mini-series came *after* my arbitrary April 2010 My52 launch date, and I happen to really enjoy the combination of Dick and Damian.  So Bruce gets to live out the rest of his life in prehistory, and a new Batman and Robin make the scene full-time.

It's hard for me to editorialize on these characters because they were pretty much pitch-perfect in Grant Morrison's post-Final Crisis run with them.  Dick Grayson brings all the bad-assery of Batman without all the grim attitude.  In other words, he has all of Bruce's skills, but without the need to constantly impress everyone with them.  Damian's Robin, meanwhile, drops the "acrobat sidekick" shtick and turns him into a skilled combatant with a mean streak as long as the Batcave.  Combine that with the petulant attitude of a spoiled child and you have one of the most enjoyable Robin in ages.  

My kids treat me this way, and they DON'T know 26 ways to kill a man.

Their surroundings got an invigorating coat of new paint as well, moving out of the Batcave and into the Bat-bunker beneath Wayne Tower, and travelling in a new, high-tech Batmobile. Morrison wasn't shy about introducing new villains either, and treated readers to characters like Professor Pyg and Johnny Karaoke and the Geisha Grrls.

In the free moments between fighting crime and reigning in Damian, Dick finds himself fighting in the board room where he faces off against business challengers to Wayne Enterprises.  He still has loyal friends like Lucius Fox and Alfred, but there are a lot of sharks in the water following Bruce's death.

So really the only thing I'd change about this series is the build-up to Bruce Wayne's return.  'Cause he won't.