Welcome to Bat-burger, home of the Bat-burger. How can I help you? Would you like to Jokerize your fries? Would you believe that Bruce Wayne and his wards would eat in a place like that? Why can’t they just stay in the cave and have Alfred’s cucumber sandwiches?
Because they’re sick of the cucumber sandwiches, obviously.
Batman 16
Written by Tom King
Art by David Finch
DC Comics has taken a fairly serious tone with the Batman book since the Rebirth, as the “I AM…” trilogy has been pretty grim and foreboding all the way through. So it was a bit of a shock when the third part of the trilogy, “I AM BANE,” kicked off last week with an issue filled with humor and joviality between the (remaining) Robins.
Bruce Wayne – not Batman, Bruce – sits with Dick, Jason, Damian and new recruit Duke Thomas (who reminds us all he’s not a “Robin”) at a place called Bat-Burgers. The opening scene, where the kid at the register asks Bruce if he wanted to “Jokerize” his fries – which apparently means putting a special red, white and green sauce on French fries, and Jason Todd loves it – was worth the price of the book alone.
The interaction between the Robins – especially the three “brothers” Dick, Jason and Damian – was perfect. Jason and Damian antagonized each other while Dick, the oldest brother – just enjoyed being there with them.
And, of course, Damian gets a Red Hood action figure with his kids meal. Really, the whole scene was perfect, even when Bruce told the boys to get out of Gotham and not get involved when Bane comes looking for revenge. They all declare their intentions to ignore Bruce’s order, except for Duke, who storms out because he doesn’t want to defy the Bat.
Duke’s realization that he was the only one at the table who hasn’t died yet was hopefully not foreshadowing, but it would make sense. And Bruce eats his burger with a knife and fork. It’s a very high class thing to do. The scene at the Bat-burger may be the funniest scene since the beginning of the Rebirth era. Maybe even longer.
Batman has a scene with Catwoman on the roof of GCPD where he lets her escape while Jim Gordan and his officers try and capture her, which I’m assuming won’t end well for his relationship with the Commish.
Tom King kicked off the next chapter of his Batman story with a bang and a lot of laughs. I assume, by the way the issue ended, that things will get back to serious in two weeks, but this was a good way to break up the severity of the “I AM…” series so far.