Monday, May 19, 2014

Secret Origins #1 (HERE BE SPOILERS!)

I read this issue for the Robin story, and, although it didn't give me what I wanted, I can't say that it wasn't interesting.

Higgins doesn't answer the main question that "Nightwing" #0 raised, namely, whether Dick was Bruce's ward, living at Wayne Manor, etc.  We do see Dick in Wayne Manor a year after his parents' deaths, but he's in a library, not a teenage boy's room.  The mystery remains so.

The most interesting part of the story is that Higgins connects Tony Zucco to the Falcone/Maroni crime family.  I just re-read "Batman:  Year One" and "Batman:  The Long Halloween" as a result of Carmine Falcone's re-appearance in Gotham in "Batman Eternal."  At this stage, Snyder hasn't give us many hints about the New 52! status of the various "Batman:  Year One" stories.  So far, he's only ret-conned Falcone's death (though, to be honest, "Batman:  Dark Victory" always left open the door that he might not be dead).  By mentioning Maroni in context of Falcone, Higgins seems to be reminding us of their connection in the "Batman:  The Long Halloween," raising the possibility that it remains part of the Batman canon.

However, several characters in "Batman Eternal" have mentioned that the Penguin and Batman ran Falcone from town five years earlier; in "Batman:  The Long Halloween," Two-Face shoots Falcone.  So, it's unclear if both events happened (with Falcone maybe returning from the dead and then Penguin and Batman doing their thing), or if Snyder is ret-conning Falcone's death.  It's not exactly Robin-related, but it's interesting in its own right, given the various mysteries that "Batman Eternal" is putting on the table.

** (two of five stars)

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