Batman and Robin #7

This is a fight nobody can win!

Last issue ended with Batman driving like a maniac toward Gotham Harbor where Nobody was beating the crap out of Robin. Will Batman get there in time? Probably. Because if Robin dies then the title of this comic will become Batman and a comic with that name already exists.

I guess that's that for the Ambassador.

Batman drives his weird beetle bat car off of the bridge and directly into Nobody's safe-boat. Nobody and Robin and lots and lots of shrapnel fly all over Gotham Harbor.

No, really, what is up with Batman's vehicle? What the fuck is this?

It vaguely resembles Lex Luthor's toy ship from the 1980s. Which I own!

Once he crash lands on the boat (which was big enough to land on and didn't explode everyone everywhere), Batman steps out of his Beetle Car and threatens Morgan's life. Morgan threatens Robin's life and everyone has a jolly good brawl.

Batman responds with, "And you're still just an insecure little boy with wounded pride looking for daddy's approval!" That about sums it up.

Let me take a break in the middle of the brawl to speculate on how it's going to end. Quite a few variations to the end of this battle exist. Will Nobody get the upper hand and just as he's about to kill Batman, Robin kills him? That's a possibility. And it would allow Batman to continue his non-lethal crime fighting. But if Robin does this, doesn't Morgan win? If Robin does need to save Batman at the end of this fight, he needs to do it Batman's way. I imagine he'll use Nobody's body paralyzing move to do it. If it comes to that.

Another possibility might be Batman winning the battle and being consumed by rage. He'll be about to kill Nobody when Robin will stop him. Because Robin truly believes in what his father has been teaching him. Or maybe just before Batman is about to kill Nobody, Robin will do it for him to keep his father's beliefs intact.

Or maybe Nobody will appear to drown and neither Batman nor Robin will need to take responsibility for his death. And then Nobody will be back around issue #20 or #25. Okay, enough speculation. Time to find out how it ends!

Oh crap. I missed such an obvious ending! The "I'll kill you but you're lucky my son is watching and I've always taught him different and he saved your fucking life, you piece of trash!" ending!

Batman gets the upper hand and dunks Nobody's head in the vat of acid. Just before this, Robin has raised the ambassador from out of the pool (minus some of his legs). Batman pulls Nobody out of the acid instead of killing him because he loves his son and he needs to show him what's right. Even when every emotion has built up and tells you somebody needs to die for what they've done, it still isn't up to you to make that final decision. He chains Nobody to a table and begins clearing debris so they can escape the sinking boat.

But that's not the ending. Of course it's not the ending. No matter how much Batman thinks he's leading Robin down the correct path, Robin is still following his own rather vague and gray trail.

This is followed by Robin doing Nobody's move on Nobody. But killing him instead of paralyzing him.

Robin gets the chance and Robin kills Morgan. In a way, Morgan has taken Robin away from Batman anyway. Or at least pulled him farther. It's significant that Robin uses the move which Morgan taught him and Batman refused to teach him. Batman knew it was too tempting, too much power, for the confused ten year old to wield. But Nobody taught to Robin precisely for this moment. I'm sure Morgan believed he could beat Batman. But I'm also sure he knew that there was a large possibility he wouldn't. And so this version of besting Batman was always Plan B.

There will be fallout next issue.

Batman and Robin Issue #7 Rating: +1 Ranking. The comic maintains its pacing and excellent storytelling. Except for the last page. The last page was a downer because it just seemed out of place and one of those odd lines that sometimes a writer just can't resist. If I had my way, I'd remove the Speech Bubble and just leave the page in silence.