| Title | : | Batman: A Death in the Family |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1401232744 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781401232740 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 272 |
| Publication | : | First published August 25, 1988 |
A Lonely Place of Dying). Please do not combine with the other
Batman: A Death in the Family entry.
Batman readers were allowed to vote on the outcome of the story and they decided that Robin should die! As the second person to assume the role of Batman's sidekick, Jason Todd had a completely different personality than the original Robin. Rash and prone to ignore Batman's instructions, Jason was always quick to act without regard to consequences. In this fatal instance, Robin ignores his mentor's warnings when he attempts to take on the Joker by himself and pays the ultimate price. Driven by anger with Superman by his side, Batman seeks his vengeance as he looks to end the Joker's threat forever.
Collects BATMAN #426-429, 440-442 and THE NEW TITANS #60-61.
Batman: A Death in the Family Reviews
-
Jim Starlin and Marv Wolfman’s 1988 A Death in the Family is an important comic for two reasons: Jason Todd is killed by the Joker and literally by comic readers, and Tim Drake replaces him as Robin. Problems aside, the story is vital to DC comic history.
This comic is split into the two storylines.
In the first, Jason discovers he’s adopted and begins to search for his birth mother across the Middle East and Africa. This is a convenient segue for him to travel somewhere dangerous and run into Joker who is aiding Shiite terrorists, which was probably inspired by the Iran-Iraq War ending in ‘88.
In the second, Bruce is grieving for Jason back in Gotham and has become unstable and reckless. Enter Tim Drake, who realizes Batman needs Robin both as a partner and son.
So here are my thoughts...
This comic feels dated, both parts, written in the last breath of the Bronze Age style. Campy, hammy, hyperbolic, it’s hard to believe this was published a few years after Frank Miller’s grimdark The Dark Knight Returns. The dialog isn’t amazing either, like Batman’s use of the word “lad.” If you’re unaccustomed to Bronze Age writing, this is like stepping into a time machine, especially for ‘88 when it feels like it was written in ‘78.
The writing differs, however, between storylines, because Jim Starlin writes the first part and Marv Wolfman writes the second.
The premise of Jason Todd’s story is pretty farfetched: He travels to the Middle East to interrogate terrorists for his mother’s whereabouts, while intermittently fighting Joker who becomes an Iranian diplomat. It’s difficult to suspend one’s disbelief and empathize with Jason’s death in this ridiculous setup. That said, I don’t relish seeing superheroes die, let alone a young boy looking for his mother. I would give this story 3/5 due to the hyperbole and dated writing and dialog.
Tim Drake’s story is much more grounded: Set in Gotham, Bruce battles Two-Face and his own grief and recklessness. Starlin writes much more intelligently and emotionally, depicting the contradiction of how Bruce’s actions mirror Jason’s following his death, as well as the need for a replacement Robin to encourage Batman to restrain himself with more stealth and less bombast. This story also contrasts Tim’s measured approach and cool head to Jason, and I think tries to win over readers who just killed off the Second Robin. I would give this story 4/5 because of its honesty and realism.
Jim’s Aparo artwork is definitely Bronze Age. It’s dated and totally fine, if a bit scratchy and heavily inked. He’s described as “schlocky,” being cheap and straight forward. On the cheaper matte paper, it definitely feels like reading an older comic. Little did I know that Hellboy creator Mike Mignola drew the covers for the entire series and they’re fantastic. If Mike had illustrated the entire comic, wow, it would have been that much better.
The importance of the events of this comic supersedes its writing and artwork. We know this. But this isn’t a bad comic. In fact it’s kind of fun and ridiculous when not soaked in angst and semi-tragedy. We should remember this comic was put out in 1988 by a creative team stuck in the 70s. And this comic only exists, only is important, because readers dialed in to kill off Robin. In fact, Starlin says in the afterword that he had both versions of the comic sitting around for weeks, one where Robin is killed, one where he isn’t. If Jason hadn’t died, then this would be just another campy Batman tale from the late 80s. -
Although it was a seminal story for modern Batman history, A Death in the Family isn't really that good. Jim Starlin is much better at cosmic space opera than gritty mysteries. It's actually hard to believe this story was published after Frank Miller's Dark Knight Returns and Batman Year One.
On its own merits, the story of Jason Todd trying to find his real mother has so many coincidences, as he ends up in the Middle East at the same time as Bruce. And the 80s politics are kind of bizarre, its fine for say one character to be an Israeli Mossad agent fighting terrorists but then the Joker freakin works for Ayatollah Khomeini. Yeah... it's an interesting storyline for him to become a diplomatically immune ambassador to a rogue state, but maybe it would've been better if it was fictional Qurac rather than a real country. Just ages badly.
So Jason dies, he never was a Robin that really fit, the end. However, this edition also reprints 'A Lonely Place of Dying' by Marv Wolfman and George Perez which crosses over with New Teen Titans and is a much better read. For Batman readers who aren't DC buffs, it may not seem fitting for aliens like Superman and Starfire to show up, but this is grounded in continuity. Wolfman did grow up the Grayson character into becoming Nightwing, and having him be there in the origin story for Tim Drake (my personal favorite Robin) works well.
Having both classic stories in one graphic novel makes for a good deal, with a broad overview of colorful 80s comics. Although the subject matter seems intense, these are actually fantastical superhero adventures from another era--again though, Wolfman's writing is honestly smarter than Starlin's. Read and enjoy for old time's sake if nothing else. -
Batman: A Death in the Family is definitely the wildest, most convoluted Batman story I've read yet. My edition included two books. The first, A Death in the Family, covers the lead up to the fan-voted death of Robin, his death, and the immediate aftermath. The second and, in my opinion, the stronger book is A Lonely Place of Dying. That book covers Batman's life after Jason Todd's (Robin's) death.
I liked A Lonely Place of Dying more because it had a more well-rounded story, and it really explored the psychological effects that Jason Todd's death had on Batman. The rise of Tim Drake as the new Robin was also very well done, in my opinion. There was also an excellent short piece by Marv Wolfman between the two books, titled A Lonely Place of Dying: Reminiscences, where Wolfman reveals why Tim Drake was introduced as the new Robin. I loved that.
Overall the combined story was good, even if at times it was disjointed, nonsensical, and a little bit crazy. My actual rating is 3.5 stars: three stars for A Death in the Family and four stars for A Lonely Place of Dying, for an average of 3.5 for the whole. -
In 1988 a truly interesting thing happened. For the 50th Anniversary of Batman comics, D.C. decided to do something shocking- allow the readers to vote on whether to save or kill Robin (Jason Todd). Jason, who wasn't terribly popular, was voted to be killed off. Bear in mind this is during a time when death was supposed to mean something, unlike nowadays when characters seem to die on a daily basis, only to return within an issue or two.
The story behind Robin's death is the now-famous "A Death in the Family". Jason Todd, basically, acts the fool and has a temper tantrum because his mother doesn't love him. So he's off to find the mother who tossed him away. His search leads him to three women that could be potential mommy figures. Along the way, he runs into the Joker and it doesn't end well. This story has aged well (even considering we know that Robin didn't really die) and so has the art. While not brilliant, this is a pretty good story.
My volume also has the 5-part follow up called "A Lonely Place of Dying". This is the story of how Tim Drake finds out the identity of Bruce and Dick and weasels his way into becoming the new Robin. This story, which has a subplot of Batman taking on Two-Face, was actually good. At least the parts with Batman and Two-Face trying to outhtink each other-the study in contrast and similarities was well done. Another story that has aged well along with the art.
A cool volume collecting two famous Batman stories, all packaged in a nice HC edition. A great addition to my collection. -
I didn't read the "A Death in the Family" storyline when it was first published, but I was certainly aware of it from the media coverage surrounding it. D.C. decided to allow the fans to determine whether the current Robin, Jason Todd, would live or die following a devastating attack at the hands of the Joker. Readers voted to let Jason shuffle off this mortal coil (though apparently it wasn't for long. I've heard he comes back down the line). There was an outcry in the media about the direction comic books were taken and how they weren't for kids anymore.
It's just too bad some of the outcry wasn't for the story itself leading up to and following the death of Jason Todd. Deciding that Jason is too emotionally unstable to continue being Robin, Bruce Wayne puts him on sabbatical. While wandering the streets and brooding about this, Jason wanders by his old apartment where conveniently enough the land lady has found a big box of stuff Jason left behind. Included in the box is his birth certificate and his dad's address book. Guess what? Turns out the woman Jason thought was his mother was only his adopted mother and that there are three other women in the world who could be his mom. Jason uses the Bat computer to find where they are and sets out on a world wide quest to figure out which one is his mom.
Meanwhile, the Joker has escaped yet again from Arkham Asylum and needs to replenish is dwindling bank account. He's got a nuclear missile that he's willing to sell to any terrorist group that will give him the funding. Batman is in hot pursuit across the globe and it turns out--lucky us!--that each of the locations the Joker goes is somewhere and somehow connected to Jason's quest to find his mother. (That sound you heard was your suspension of disbelief snapping!)
And so it is that Jason tracks down his mom, who has a connection to the Joker. One minute she's betraying him to the Joker, the next minute she's saying what a great son and how sorry she is. Of course, it helps that Jason is trying to rescue her betraying self from a building that is rigged to blow up in sixty seconds.
But wait, it gets better. After blowing up Jason and his mother, Joker is approached by the Iranian government to become their ambassador to the United Nations. He agrees so he can have diplomatic immunity, thus making sure Batman can't come after him for the death of Jason. Oh and Superman shows up to make sure Batman knows all this.
The more I read, the more my head kept shaking with complete and utter disbelief. Here's a pivotal event in the Batman mythology and it's let down by one of the most inane storylines I've ever read. Even worse is the fact that the death of Jason Todd barely registers on a emotional level. I found myself comparing it to the famous death of Gwen Stacy in the Spider-Man books and it comes up woefully short. That storyline had emotion to it...this one just feels like a huge marketing ploy and an excuse to see just how much insane bat-guano the readers will swallow and still buy the next issue or issues. Seriously--the Joker is a U.N. ambassador?!?
And I haven't even addressed how much re-hashing of the plot-so-far takes place in each installment. Clearly the writers expect one-off readers to drop by because of the hype surrounding Robin's death and so we are treated to a four to five page recap in each issue. I understand these comics were made to be read a month or so apart, but collected together and it stands out even more like a sore thumb.
This collection is rounded out by a five-part storyline in which Tim Drake takes over as Robin. It's moderately better than "A Death in the Family" but that's really damning with faint praise. The concept that Batman needs a Robin is an intriguing one and hopefully gets explored in future arcs and by other writers.
It's too bad a pivotal moment in the world of comic books is part of such a ham-handed and terrible storyline. -
SO
Batman: A Death in the family is a classic
I really get that fact, I really do.
It's a "must-read" Graphic novel, you love Batman!
Then you should probably read it.
So, I did it. I read the whole thing, unfortunately, it hasn't been a good time reading through it.
I really couldn't care less about Robin's death. I'm not a big fan of Jason as the wonder boy, His death was a bit of relief actually. They made him to be the most annoyingly in the history of the " Robins", he can't help it.
So the the first 120 pages was a hard time on me.
After that the clouds were gone.
I really like how tim was introduced.
I love tim as Robin, more than Dick sometimes, so it was a really good thing reading his first time being Robin.
I can give the second part of this novel a solid five, for me it was great.
the first part, 🤔
Not that much🤷♀
I have mixed feelings about it, confused as i am, i don't love it.
So
There stars will do. -
Continuing on in my quest to read the Greatest Batman Stories Ever Told according to my personal choices, I thought I had read this in the past, but I realized I either didn't finish it, or I forgot the story. Either way, I actually have the individual comic issues from my collection and read the story, from the comic books #426-429 (vs. the TPB) and in issue 2 of the story I noticed on the back cover the "phone experiment" to either call in to save Robin or have him killed. I thought about it, what my reaction would have been in 1988. And I realize I support the ending that ended up the final decision. Overall this is ranked highly among one of my most favorite Bat stories I've ever read and I completely understand why it is considered one of the most important, recognized and generally immortalized Bat stories of them all. My favorite part: The **spoiler alert** surprise appearance in Book 3 of the other DC superhero.
-
Okay, this book should be broken into 2 halves because I don't understand why they put it together like this.
You get two Robin stories for the price of one!
Aw, guys, you shouldn't have. You really shouldn't have.
First half: 5 stars
Second half: 3 stars
Overall: 4 stars
The first half is Jason Todd looking for his birth mother and it takes him overseas to Iran and Beirut. At first he thinks it's an intelligence agent, Sharmin Rosen and boy do I wish it was her. She was the nicest of the 3 options but this story is like 1/4 done so it's not her. The second option is Shiva Woosan and I got a kick out of seeing Cassie's mom. It was awesome seeing her take on Batsy and Batsy realizing he might actually lose against her. The third option wins the worst mom of the year award. Hands down.
Dr. Sheila Haywood gets blackmailed by the Joker like 5 minutes after we learn about her. I know this comic is old but you expect me to believe these women just happened to be conveniently close together just as Jason decides to start looking for them? You expect me to believe the Joker knew where Sheila just as Batman fouled his last plans? Yeah, not buying it.
Anyway, she's utter garbage and Jason tries to help her. She sells him out and he gets beaten nearly to death with a crowbar. What is it with DC and beating children with crowbars? He still tries to save his mother because he's an amazing person and he places so much emphasis on family. Much like Damian, despite being rough around the edges, they will do anything for their family. He welcomes Sheila immediately so it sucked watching her betray him. He did not deserve to die and I still teared up reading it.
The second half of this book is Tim Drake's introduction. My friend Clarissa likes to make fun of me because when I talk about the Batfam, I always say "I love Batfam... but Tim" or "This Batgirl book was awesome... but Tim". I love the Robins... but Tim. Just kidding, he's growing on me but his introduction seemed so out of place in this book. It feels like Jason was barely cold in his grave and the writers were like "Here's Tim! Dry your eyes with this new Robin comic." Like, Jason JUST died. Give it some time.
09 Jan 2021 - the second time around, I read the issues between Jason's death and Tim's introduction and it works a LOT better. I don't understand why they put this collection together and left those 9 issues out. Seeing Bruce grieve for Jason - going from being unable to even say Jason's name, throwing himself into a cold missing person's case because this woman lost a child, slowly working himself to exhaustion and giving little to no attention to his own safety. Seeing that makes this a lot more effective and feels less insensitive than reading Jason's death and then having Tim introduced immediately after.
The Two Face plot was forgettable. Two Face having another mental breakdown and there's a lot of panels where Batman and Harvey are just obsessing over each other. It felt so on the nose with the parallels literally spelled out for you and reminded me why Wolfman's not exactly my favorite writer.
Tim as a character is still pretty rough for me. I'm come around to understanding him a bit more and I feel sorry for him in that the thing that sticks out to me the most in reading this is that Tim's parents and guardians at the boarding school didn't fucking notice when he went missing. He's thirteen and there's no way someone wasn't supposed to be looking after him, especially if they were responsible for him during vacation week. Even Harry Potter couldn't stay over Christmas break without teachers watching over him.
Here, I have the same issues with him: he's bossy, presumptuous, the kind of precocious that's rather annoying. When he's lecturing Dick about how he needs to do a better job taking care of Bruce, I wanted to toss this kid in a box and ship him back to boarding school. He wasn't here for Bruce's unreasonable expectations, Bruce constantly pushing Dick away every time he tried to help and yelling at him for no reason. He tries to tell Batman what he needs and what to do and I get that he's a kid but he was shoving himself into a relationship he had no business talking about. It's annoying.
However, I do appreciate that he's the only Robin that came to the job not because he needed to channel grief and anger into something good - but because he thought Batman needed him. He's the only Robin taking on the mantle because it's a symbol that needs to continue on, which gives him a unique place in the Batfamily... as annoying as he was. I liked that he dreamed of being Robin because he looked up to Dick after meeting him at the circus as a child. (Though this exact backstory was later given to Rebirth Jason Todd). Also, this kid became Robin and Two Face hit him with a brick immediately, and he didn't quit, so kudos.
I still think the Tim Drake/Haly's Circus plot should've been a separate book.
Anyway, this is a recommend because of Jason Todd's importance to the Batfam. -
I was twelve years old when the "Death in the Family" storyline was first published in Batman, and I remember buying a copy of issue 428 in the fall of 1988, then crossing the street to read it in Van Cortlandt Park
in the Bronx, only blocks, incidentally, from
where Batman was created in 1939. At the time, the death of the Boy Wonder was an absolutely shocking development -- I cannot overstate that -- and it kicked off the wave of Batmania that consumed the following year. During that period, I reread these four issues countless times, trying to come to terms with the death of Robin. (Though I did not myself place a vote for Robin's fate -- there was no way in hell my parents would let me call a 900 number! -- I just couldn't imagine a scenario whereby a character as legendary as the Boy Wonder would actually be killed. I was not one of Jason's haters at that time; I kinda loved him from
"White Gold and Truth," the self-contained Dick-mentors-Jason story featured in Batman #416.) For a twelve-year-old Batman fan, this story was nothing short of a capital-E Event.
In the over three decades that have passed since their initial publication, I have had occasion to revisit many of the celebrated crossover events from my youth -- including
"Knightfall" and
"The Death and Return of Superman" -- and one fact has become manifestly clear: None of these beloved storylines hold up. They're all very poorly written pulp adventures that at some point Gen X elevated to Essential Literature. "A Death in the Family" is no exception.
Reading
Jim Starlin's "A Death in the Family" with experienced eyes, it's hard to determine exactly which aspects of its storytelling I find most objectionable. Its trashy cynicism? Its sloppy, illogical, coincidence-heavy plotting? Its bewildering reliance on Islamophobic tropes? All of that, for sure, but mostly I was just appalled by the Dark Knight himself: He is unambiguously the villain of this storyline. It's hard to find anything sympathetic about him, or anything entertaining about this particular adventure, once you acknowledge that Batman plucked a traumatized orphan off the streets and trained him to be the replacement Robin (reasoning that extrajudicial vigilantism, not clinical psychotherapy, would be all the catharsis required to facilitate the boy's emotional recovery from the murder of his parents), then unceremoniously shut him out when -- gee, who could've seen this coming? -- Jason became increasingly unstable, impulsive, and erratic. Batman is an absolute monster in this story, far worse than the Joker. Reading this with adult eyes, it is impossible to regard Batman as anything other than irredeemably hateful.
The five-part follow-up storyline published a year later,
Marv Wolfman · George Pérez's "A Lonely Place of Dying" (included in this edition), though far from great literature, is a marked improvement over "A Death in the Family." Sure, the plotting is silly (some convoluted, gimmicky scheme on the part of Two-Face that could've easily been lifted from an episode of the old
Adam West series), but at least Wolfman's script isn't as bizarrely nonsensical and mean-spirited as Starlin's was. By presenting the events of "Lonely Place" from the perspective of the nascent Robin (Tim Drake, in his first appearance), we see Batman's world through the wonder-widened eyes of a 13-year-old boy again -- the same age I was when this was first published, still the target demographic for comic books at that time. Tim's insistence that "Batman needs a Robin" could almost be read as a subtextual case for letting superhero stories be
juvenile pulp fiction, not grimdark wish-fulfillment fantasies for an aging readership.
Of course,
that isn't what happened. The 13-year-olds of 1989 grew up --
sort of -- and refused to loosen their possessive hold on superheroes, and crap like "A Death in the Family" somehow became not only part of the Western literary canon, but earned the cultural distinction of residing among the Most Important American Stories Ever Told. Ugh.
It occurred to me, reading "Lonely Place," that Tim Drake was an eerily prescient representation of the average preteen comics reader in the late '80s. Tim is established by Wolfman as DC's first in-universe fanboy -- a kid who obsessively followed every news story ever reported about the Dynamic Duo, combing forensically through all of that coverage to ultimately deduce the secret identities of Batman, Nightwing, and Robin, and was rewarded for his intrepid inquisition by earning a place in the Bat-Family, as it were. The mystery that had for years eluded government agencies and police departments and supervillains -- Who is Batman? -- is, in the end, handily solved by a plucky kid who'd dedicated himself to following all the breadcrumbs and studying all the arcana,
much the way today's transmedia mega-franchises reward fans for spotting Easter eggs and drawing connections.
Tim Drake's nerd-becomes-hero origin story is the same
immoral myth
Ernest Cline peddles in
Ready Player One -- that the path to greatness lies in being an
encyclopedic authority on pop-cultural ephemera. If that doesn't perfectly sum up our current
superhero-fixated culture, I don't know what does. That's how Tim Drake became Robin, sure... but we've all become Tim Drake. A lonely place of dying, indeed. -
Finally checked off this book of cannon Batman. It's essential reading for any fan or historian, and it is surprising that DC brought in another Robin just over a year after fans voted to kill off Jason Todd. In either instance, a great comic.
-
I have to admit, when I started reading this famous 1980's Batman graphic novel I had low expectations going in. I have to say, those expectations were unfounded.
This graphic novel contains the four books of the "A Death in the Family" and the five books of the "A Lonely Place of Dying" arcs. The former telling the story of the death of Robin (Jason Todd) and the latter dealing with the birth of the new (and improved) Robin (Tim Drake).
I would definitely suggest reading both introductions ("Choices" by Scott Peterson and "Remembrances" by Marv Wolfman) before diving into the stories, as they set the context to help the modern reader understand the decision making of the writers and editors of Batman comics at the time.
Absolutely a must read for any true fan of The Batman. 4 stars! -
As a lifelong Batman fan, I have over fifty trades featuring the Dark Knight, some of which I still haven’t read, so in order to rectify that, time to read what is considered one of the most important storylines in the Batman family of comics.
By the time the monthly issues of A Death in the Family began publication, which was 1988, the impulsive Jason Todd, who became the next Robin after Dick Grayson had grown very unpopular amongst readers. Aware of this, then-editor Dennis O'Neil conceived of letting fans decide his fate, leading to the creation of the storyline as written by Jim Starlin. Although audience participation played a huge part, which led to the iconic image of Batman carrying the corpse of his young sidekick, I always got the sense that Starlin was going to write Todd’s death anyway, as it was influenced by a key plot-point from Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns.
Now, despite the infamous death, what about the story that led to said moment? It follows Jason's quest to be reunited with his birth mother after being relieved of his duties by Batman. However, when Batman learns that the Joker has obtained a nuclear weapon and plans to sell it to terrorists in war-torn Lebanon, the dynamic duo goes on a fateful journey that is both international and personal.
No doubt there is decent characterisation from both Batman and Robin, and despite the story been written at the height of tensions between the United States and Iran, it feels very dated whilst the story taking some bizarre twists that would actually feel more appropriate in an episode of Batman ‘66. No disrespect to Jim Starlin, who contributed hugely to the cosmic side of the Marvel universe, but his writing here can be over-explanatory and retreads familiar ground from a previous issue. The outdated nature of the story is also apparent in the art by Jim Aparo, who may have given us THAT image, but his work rarely strikes a visual chord.
Reading A Death in the Family was like reading Hush, in that they may have been cultural touchstones for Batman, but their greatest contributions were laying their groundwork for more interesting storylines in the future, including A Lonely Place of Dying. Coinciding with their run on The New Teen Titans, writer Marv Wolfman and co-plotter/artist George Pérez wrote this storyline for the main Batman title, which introduced Tim Drake as the next incarnation of Robin.
Although the story can be a bit over the place as it’s told between the two titles so it juggles too many characters, the story has more of a hopeful conclusion with Bruce coming out of the darkness and regains a sense of family with the arrival of Tim Drake, a kid who just wants to help. Although there are a number of artists involved here, including Aparo and Pérez, the art overall is surprisingly consistent whilst having more detail, in terms of characters designs and panel layouts.
These two storylines, published as one volume, are very much a product of their time as they don’t have that timeless quality unlike other significant Batman stories. -
This holds up surprisingly well. It's wordier than more modern comics, but it still flows nicely. I knew of Jason Todd's death and figured I should check this out at some point. The biggest drawback is the art, which seems dated. Not so bad that I couldn't deal though.
As much as I liked the first story in this collection, I thought it was great that it also included the introduction of Tim Drake. This is a Robin that I know little about. His story provides a glimpse into Batman's reaction to Jason's death and leaves this book on a hopeful note. -
But I mostly liked it for Wolfman's introduction of Tim Drake. I've liked Tim as Robin for many years, but I'd never read his first appearance.
Seriously, the fans were RIGHT. Jason Todd needed to stop existing. I'm not advocating killing people with crowbars, I'm just saying Todd was a jerk, then he was dead, and EVERY TIME they bring him back, he seems like a BIGGER jerk.
Also, how can you not be impressed by the Joker as the Ambassador of Iraq? That's the Joker all over, man. -
A Death in the Family - 3/5
A Lonely Place of Dying - 4/5
Seeing as this is ostensibly a two-volume collection, it deserves two separate ratings and reviews. However, the primary purpose of this book is for the reader to experience the iconic story of Jason Todd's death. That said, I will focus on that volume.
This story is absolutely lazy writing. Batman fighting the Joker in the Middle-East? This read more like an Elseworlds comic than anything else.
So...let me get this straight...Robin is looking for his mother. And all three possible women, in all the world, all happen to be in the Middle-East...and that also happens to be exactly where the Joker is...and at the same time and same order which Robin seeks out these women...???
I get it, there was unrest in the Middle-East in the late 1980s and the Gulf War on the horizon (I know because I remember), but the outlandish nature of this story for the sake of popular contemporaneous references only makes the plot suffer severely.
I kept thinking I was reading an alternate take on Road to Morocco starring Bing Crosby and Bob Hope. How can one not with lines like this:
"So, let's get our tails in gear, man! Ethiopia here we come!" - Robin says smiling to Batam, Batman smiling back (page 22, chapter 3).
The most interesting part of this story is that the public got to decide if Robin lived or died. At the time for those in their 20s and 30s, this must have been an incredible experience. But, the plot and the pencilling/inking are very dated for 1988. Considering The Dark Knight Returns came out two years prior and The Killing Joke came out the same year; both with an incredible art style, it's surprising to see this story was still holding on to a 1970s style.
A quick note on A Lonely Place of Dying. Marv Wolfman is definitely the better story teller here. Everything of his I come across has been quality. The pencilling and inking also seems slightly updated. The juxtaposition of Batman's and Two-Face's dialogue is one of the best creative examples of text boxes I've seen. I also love seeing The New Titans from this period. Troia is one of my favourite DC characters. Raven and Starfire also have amazing looks at this time.
I'm exceedingly happy to finally read this iconic story. I had very high hopes, but it was ok at best. There were redeeming moments, but they could not make up for the lack. -
The "A Death in the Family" is a storyline I'm well familiar with, at least the main beats. I knew, before reading, about Jason-Todd-as-Robin's death, about the being beat with a crowbar, about the Joker's part. Lore-wise, to the Batman-mythos, it is probably the second-most important death to Batman's character arc behind his parents' demise (even if it is a distant second) and though Barbara Gordon's paralysis was a much more....iconic...event, however sour of a taste it leaves in your mouth*, and even though in the years since Jason Todd's death have had numerous Robin and Batman deaths and disappearances**, it still remained the storyline that I knew of, figured I knew pretty well, but hadn't actually read.
I rectified that, and now feel kind of meh that I did, because this is a case of a magician's trick being a lot less savory when seen in full light of day. Partially, it is the storyline itself. Increasingly angry and unstable Jason Todd finds a box of his dead parents' papers (thanks to a helpful neighbor who just happens to be in the right place at the right time). In it, he learns that his mother-assumed might not be his mother-in-reality and based on his father's address book and the fact that his real mother's first name started with S, tracks down the three women that might be a match. All three of which are in The Middle East and Africa. Then, to toss in another improbable coincidence on top of the first two, the Joker just so happens to be going to the same place and meeting up with two of them women at the exact same time in a plotline involving a stolen cruiser missile and stolen relief supplies. Which leads Batman, in improbable instance number four, to track him down and run into Jason Todd and team up with him.
Not only do you have some heavy-handed depictions of the region - 0nly Bruce Wayne's comments on the starvation in Ethiopia, where he basically says that he'll donate money to the cause and then forget about it because how could he handle it otherwise, a biting take on handling the atrocities of the world from the comfort of distance, being anything like thoughtful - but you also have a meaningless romp around interchangeable locales as femme fatale types are confronted and are found out to not be Todd's mother. Then he finds his mother, and again the Joker is there, and Batman has to choose between helping Todd or saving rescue workers, and Todd is killed in an explosion after being crowbar whipped in a scene that probably should have impacted the reader more (no pun intended) than it managed, being as it was told so...lifelessly (again, no pun intended).
Only this is the first half because after that, the Joker is hired to be the ambassador of Iran simply so the Iranian government can get away with mass murder with that most-80s-canard (behind, slightly, only jokes about losing your left sock in the dryer): diplomatic immunity. That's right, in a story about the death of a teenage superhero due in part to the neglect by his costumed mentor, his death ends up taking backseat to a dumb plot involving the United Nations and the Joker wearing stereotypical Bedouin robes so that evil Iranian government can stage a murderous rampage without...incident? Hell if I know what any of this was supposed to pretend to be, but reasonable storyline it wasn't.
The four issues of "A Death in the Family" are generally a dud filled with stereotypes, a plodding-despite-being-brief travel plotline, a death that should have mattered but barely did, and just generally nothing to show for it (the Batman-on-a-rampage story-arc, in the follow-up issues, is skipped though probably would have made a fair inclusion to at least deal with the death). The other ick factor to the whole thing is that Jason Todd's death was actually voted on by fans. There was a pair of 1-900-phone-numbers that you could call, at $0.50 a call, and vote for the death of Todd or to have Todd live. It's like an ending of Peter Pan where, instead of clapping, audience members could pay to bring Tinkerbell back to life or to kill her and the biggest cash vote decided the outcome. The readers voted to kill Todd, which illustrates the shoddiness of the whole gambit: since the output of the story would require these to be made in advance, essentially Todd's living or dying was effectively unimportant for the next couple of issues and the only difference would be whether or not to include, presumably, shots of Todd in a hospital bed or in a casket.
This edition, though, saves itself somewhat by having a jump-ahead to "A Lonely Place of Dying", the Batman/New Titans cross-over that introduced Tim Drake as the next Robin and also dealt fairly head-on with Batman/Nightwing's relationship and the concept of Batman & Robin as a symbol. Though some of that ends up with comic book winks to the audience (and there are storyline threads not completed in the contained issues), it is a much better story and does an ok, not great job, of introducing Tim Drake (who shortly after would get embroiled in the somewhat tortuously overwrought Knightfall-arc).
"A Death in the Family" - a weak two-stars.
"A Lonely Place of Dying" - a fair three-stars, if for nothing else reminding me at that the time the Titans were having better storylines than the main Batman issues.
Average for this edition, something like a 2.5, but I'm rounding up to 3 to account for the general importance to Batman-lore. Recommendation: Skip it, probably, and go straight to the Under the Red Hood story-arc, which does a much better job of talking about Todd's death and Batman's reaction to it.
* Even without the unnecessary threat-of-sexual-violence aspects of the quasi-canonical*** The Killing Joke,the fact that Barbara Gordon was paralyzed so long in a world in which virtually every other victim of violence except Batman's parents have come back, including the Batman himself recovering from paralysis only a few years later in the Knightfall story-arc, sours much of the potential positives of Barbara-Gordon-as-Oracle representing the overcoming of disability.
** Batman has been fake-dead at least twice and every Robin has had a death-and-return storyline, some I'm pretty sure more than once.
*** Quasi-canonical because the last few panels are assumed by some, including me, to be
in fact Batman killing the Joker, something that is up for debate and is probably meant to be up for debate. -
I still remember the day when I first saw this comic. One of my friends had brought it to class and I remember being so intrigued that they would actually kill off a superhero of such status as Robin. It was a foreign concept to me, but I think it made things more “real” (as much as a superhero comic could be) in creating a great story. Of course, Jason Todd’s death ended up being temporary (and there are ongoing debates about that decision, as well as Superman’s “death”) but that aside, it was still a bold move for the time and the industry.
Reading the story again decades later, I found that it did not have the same flare that I remembered. It’s still a great story, but perhaps the age of the story or because of the in-between years of a culture filled with similar, if not more extreme, limitations to plot armor of characters has desensitized the story’s impact. Regardless, for nostalgia alone, I still enjoyed this. -
I didn’t enjoy Death in the Family very much, the writing was all over the place, unlikeable characters and some ridiculous situations also made this a tedious read. The fact that at the time they had a vote as to whether Jason Todd should live or die was also messed up and this probably contributed to the bad writing. This is probably the worst Batman story that I’ve read so far!
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This edition has the death of Jason Todd, the beginning of Tim Drake, and a lot of Dick Grayson sass so you don't drown in your tears.
Recommended 14+ for violence, death, drug running, sadness and lots of Bruce brooding. -
La storia del fumetto DC.
Invecchiato bene? Eh, dai…
Però è abbastanza imprescindibile recuperare questa storia. -
Okay, so you know what happens in A Death in the Family. It's not a spoiler anymore. No one even tries to keep it a secret. I mean, they sell you the book with a picture of Batman cradling Robin's dead body on the cover.
Yes, Robin bit the dust. Poor Jason (okay, so he wasn't particularly likeable, but still) got the axe from the fans in a famous telephone poll. And that moment is an important part of Batman history. The scene in which the Joker beats him to a bloody pulp with a crowbar is gut-wrenching. It hurt to read.
That being said, that scene was the highlight of the series. When the only really engaging part of a story arc is one of the heroes being brutally murdered, it's not a good sign. The rest of the story arc was just plain silly. It was an endless string of ridiculous coincidences. The Joker took off in a convoy? Good thing Batman not only shipped his mini bat-copter to the Middle East with him but actually packed it in the trunk for this excursion! And now Batman is off to hunt down the Joker in a quest for vengeance? Oh no! The Joker has been made an ambassador for Iran and has diplomatic immunity! -_-
And why did they feel the need to set the scene in the Middle East anyway? I feel like it would have been more powerful to have set Robin's death in Gotham.
To top it off, the artwork is not my favorite. I really don't enjoy it when the black things (capes, hair, etc.) are so iridescent blue that they are more blue than black. But whatever. That could be ignored if the storyline had been better.
Now, this edition also includes the A Lonely Place of Dying story, which was a bit better. BUT it introduced Tim Drake as a new Robin, and while Tim is a respectable Robin, I never really enjoyed the concept of Robins in general. I have trouble buying the idea that Batman would put not one, not two, but three teenage boys in the midst of potentially deadly conflict. It just doesn't seem like him. Not to mention, Robins are a dead giveaway to the secret identity. How dumb are these criminals anyway? Tim Drake can figure it out but the numerous nemeses cannot? I don't buy it.
But hey, it had its moments, and it's certainly a key piece of the Batman canon. I don't even mind that they eventually brought Jason back. I enjoyed the way they did it. -
Didn't love the first arc, the famous "A Death in the Family." Cheesy and on-the-nose dialog. Limited and highly saturated color palette. I mean I know this was written in a different time (I guess with limited color options) and probably for an audience younger than I am. I guess I prefer modern adult-oriented comics.
On the other hand, I really enjoyed the second arc, "A Lonely Place of Dying". Better mystery, better dialog, better art and colors. But can I just say the the two foot tall erect collar on the Nightwing costume is ridiculous. Sheesh. The artist doesn't even know how to deal with that stupid thing, it's different in every panel. -
Less of a slog than I expected, and Jason Todd actually seems like an interesting character. The "Joker becomes the Iranian ambassador" subplot is woefully dated and out of step tonally, but it does save the story from being a complete angst-fest, as does the presence of Superman. The second story included, A Lonely Place of Dying, is a total snooze, despite introducing Tim Drake and the art team of Jim Aparo and Tom Grummett. Also seems strange it was included here instead of with Batman: Year 3, as it's more of a sequel to that story.
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First, I never knew that readers voted for this outcome; but I’m glad they did. The loss of Jason reminds me of how broken-hearted Batman was after he lost Damian. The responsibility of being Batman tears him apart because he can’t save everyone- even those he loves. But I’m glad I finally got to read about the loss of Jason and the gain of Tim.
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32nd book read in 2014.
Number 81 out of 376 on my all time book list.
Follow the link below to see my video review:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfZQh... -
My review
https://youtu.be/TASJf55KCcA -
Death in the Family is one of the most iconic Batman stories ever told, unfortunately for me, this story feels extremely outdated, and comes off as like an escape artist constantly trying to one-up themselves with more elaborate stunts until they create a trap that they cannot escape. The initial incident of Jason Todd discovering he may still have a biological mother out there in the world is intriguing, instantly making this once unpopular character sympathetic and coinciding with Batman temporarily relinquishing the Robin mantle giving much potential for a deep dive into Jason Todd as a character. The cracks begin to form when we catch up with the Joker, who is planning on selling nuclear weapons to “Arabic terrorists” in Lebanon. Coincidentally Jason Todd pinpointed the possible suspects who may be his biological mother, two are located in Lebanon and one in Ethiopia. The journey to find Jason’s mum and Batman’s quest to stop the Joker quickly intercept one another as they work together to solve both problems together… which means we watch the dynamic duo fight terrorists in the Middle East. Just the thought alone is rather odd, and actually seeing it is doubly so; seeing these colorful characters attempts to solve conflicts in the Middle East with their fists is wrong on so many levels, I’m not one to gatekeep on the kinds of stories that can be told, and I think it could work given a much different approach, but the execution is poor, and I don’t believe Jim Starlin is equipped to write such a story. Many more questions arise from this direction the story takes, such as, Batman asking a literal child to join his fight in an active war zone, the Joker committing war crimes, and the 2D nature in which Arabic people are depicted makes them seem less than human. The result collimates with Jason Todd finding his real mother, who double-crosses him and results in both her and Jason dying, for such an iconic moment the story really just has this event come out of know where, however, the whole warehouse beating and explosion is the best part of the story, you feel every swing the Joker takes with the crowbar and a sense of helplessness, and it’s topped off with Batman arriving in the aftermath, carrying Jason’s lifeless body away. Oddly enough this isn’t where the story ends and it takes a rather strange turn. The story treats the death lie, as an almost throwaway joke, only mentioning it once or twice after the fact, instead, Superman is thrust into the story as the Joker becomes the U.N ambassador for Iran. Joker culturally appropriates Arabic headwear and parades around like he won the lottery, and by this point, anyone still interested in Jason Todd has kindly been asked to leave the room while being thrown out a window. This part of the story quickly raps up when Joker removes his robes to reveal he has lethal laughing gas strapped to his chest, In another section which as aged horribly, Superman tears off his disguise and… sucks in all the gas as Joker attempts to escape in a helicopter but is thawed by Batman, concluding when Joker’s helicopter crashes into the water and Batman is saved by Superman. Everything from when Jason dies until the end feels like it could have been plucked out of any old Batman story, but for it to happen mere pages after the death of Robin comes off as tone-deaf. The artwork done by Jim Aparo is iconic; his characters look dynamic and fluid on the page, coupled with plenty of detail, especially within his faces, and finally, he uses intense shadowing which complements his free-flowing, dynamic pencils.
This specific edition comes with a follow-up story in both the New Teen Titans and Batman books, this story acts as a sort of epilogue while also deep diving into the effect Jason’s death has had on the people closest to him. Without a shadow of a doubt, this is the best part of the story. Since this isn’t a part of the main story I’ll keep this brief. We see how Jason's death has put a weight on Batman's psyche, along with characters such as Nightwing, and Alfred. By the end the characters are more united than ever, coming together in the loss of a loved one, and with a hopefully new beginning as Tim Drake becomes the third Robin. There is a line about Two-Face considering blowing up the Twin Towers which ages this part of the story, however this concept wasn’t unheard of prior to 9/11 so how this affects the reader is differ from reader to reader. Marv Wolfman and George Perez were superstar paring that turned everything they touched into gold and this is no exception, they get the bad taste of the original ending and turn it into a hopeful one. As this section was not a part of the original story it is hard to say how much this factors into the final score, as it stands, even without this being included I still believe the score would not have changed. -
Reading this book, I realize that the blue and grey Batman is the Batman for me. This is actually my first time reading this story, even though, like most comic fans, I've known about it for years. It's hard to be surprised by such a famous ending. You lose a lot from a story when you already know before happen what happened. I'm trying not to hold that against it.
It's a good story though. I like seeing Batman out of his element as he fights in the middle east. You also get some great character work, as Bruce puts his mission ahead of everyone. Jason has to learn the hard way that he will always come in second. I also really liked the little touch of Joker locking the door. There is just something so sinister about this little touch. Even if they escape their bonds, they are still trapped inside.
I haven't read too much with Tim Drake, but he seems pretty cool. The biggest compliment I can give the book is that I want to pick up the next issue to see what happens. -
Yeah, I’m getting back into Batman comics. But, ironically, not for the Bat who I used to think I adored. I really just love the Robins. What better way to get reacquainted than with such a pivotal chapter in Jason’s existence?
Classic. Laden with familiar angst. Wonderful moments with Jason, Dick, and even Tim if you make sure to read the version that also contains A Lonely Place of Dying.
Actual way I’ll probably rate all DC collections: 3 out of 5 Robins. Not bad.
(Because, yes, I count Stephanie.) -
This was really great! Very character-driven, and in many ways is the core seed for the themes of the much later Scott Snyder run that I love so much. I'm still the slightest bit offended that a character's fate was determined by a poll, but this is still quite the well-written story.
I think the pacing occasionally suffers because of the jumping between the Batman and The New Titans titles, and I think Tim could have used a little more development when he first shows up. But really, those are my only criticisms. I like Wolfman's writing a lot, and Perez's art (among others) is fantastic.
