Batman and Robin #12

It would be okay if Terminus unmasked Batman since Terminus only has a few hours left to live.

Batman and Robin have confronted Terminus in Finger Square in Gotham City. Along with Terminus are his army of thugs and henchmen who have all, at one time or another, been on the wrong side of Batman's Beat Stick. That's a lot of angry dudes! Good thing Damien is here to back up Bruce and begin a smaller club based on thugs maimed by Robin.

Too bad Terminus is almost dead. I actually like his homage to Batman costume.

This guy seems like a big armored up Bane. I'm not a fan of Bane although maybe a rereading of Bane and Batman's history (and perhaps Knightfall, of course) would change my mind. I guess I wasn't reading much Batman at the time when Bane first appeared. So I always just pictured him as this big, dumb, drugged up brute of a guy. I think his Venom drug enhanced his intellect as well though or else he really should never have stood a chance against Batman, let along break him. Oh, but I was talking about Terminus! I like Terminus's look and he manhandles Batman fairly easily at first. I also like Terminus's back story with his army of thugs maltreated by The Batman. Too bad he's going to die!

I wonder how many more paragraphs I can end with restating that Terminus is going to die (I think this one counts as well!)?

If by seeing one lunatic, you've seen them all, how many lunatics has Batman seen? All of them cubed? All of them to the tenth power? The hundredth?

Because Terminus wants to prove a point, he resists crushing Batman's skull until Batman acknowledges that he's, as Batgirl says, been a jerk many times over. This gives Batman a chance to shoot the blade things on his gloves into the face mask of Terminus, shattering it. Has Batman's spikes on his gloves always had this power? I can't imagine somebody hasn't had Batman use them this way before. They seem like they might be a little dangerous though. What if they went off accidentally while he was walking or swinging through downtown? I guess that could be said for all of his wonderful toys.

Once Batman has the upper hand, he commands the Batmobile to destroy a building with a laser and drop it on Terminus. Normally I'd complain about Batman so casually destroying the infrastructure around them but the building is probably owned by Bruce Wayne.

Meanwhile, Robin gets knocked through the front window of a knife store by Bootprint Face. That's probably going to mean Bootprint Face is about to get cut up really badly.

While Terminus is escaping from the rubble, Batman slides under the Batmobile and is fitted with a Batman Armored Defense And Strength Suit. Now that Batman has leveled the playing field, it becomes a giant bout of fisticuffs!

That's what I said! Sort of.

 

Robin begins throwing knives into the thugs surrounding him, consciously avoiding hitting any main arteries. I wonder if it's harder to avoid stabbing them in the arteries when I'm sure he was trained to target all of the areas that would quickly kill an assailant? But since there are so many enemies, he's eventually grappled by some mutant beast that looks like three humans involved in a teleport accident. I think it might be Brundle Guy. Luckily help arrives (like he needs it!).

OMG! Monster boobies!

I'm surprised Red Hood continues to stick around. It's possible he wants to be written by a decent writer for awhile so he just hung back in this comic for as long as he possibly can. Even though he's supposed to be in space right now helping save Tamaran. Even if Tamaran survives the fight against whatever aliens are taking it over now (forgive me for not remembering!), the planet is still about to be destroyed by Invictus and replaced with the fake Tamaran from his Orrery!

The Robins seem to have a pretty good handle on the thugs while Batman finally figures out a way to shut down Terminus. He pulls all of the cooling rods out of Terminus's suit. But Terminus still manages to toss him fifty feet into the air. He continues to pummel Batman until the thing we all try desperately to ignore--by reading comics or browsing the internet or playing sports or having sex or eating delicious food or lounging in the sun or working hard or playing role-playing games or raising families--catches up to him.

There never is.

The only problem is that a warhead filled with a deadly toxin was set to launch as soon as Terminus's time ran out. Terminus is still alive but incapacitated. He's dying and he can't help but tell Batman about the rocket because he needs to see the look on Batman's face when Batman learns that he's failed his city. It's all he wants before he dies.

Batman, of course, doesn't know what it's like to lose or to quit. Luckily his Augmentation Suit has rocket thrusters! He blasts off into the sky to stop the rocket from exploding over Gotham.

Instead of just standing there looking majestic and trusting that daddy will fix everything, how about one of you call up Superman? You know, just in case?

Batman manages to override the the rocket's guidance systems while riding on the back of it. He steers so that it explodes in the harbor underneath the water. Batman jumps off and safely heads back to the ground using one of his many means of doing that trick. Meanwhile, the fish and other lifeforms in Gotham Harbor have become immune to toxins and disease because of all the pollutants. Probably. That's my speculation anyway. And Robin can't let Terminus die thinking maybe he's beaten Batman.

That is one cruel kid.

And finally, there's the confrontation between Damien and Dick. And it's nearly perfect.

Dick Grayson has become one of my surprise favorite characters of The New 52.

Batman and Robin #12 Rating: +2 Ranking. Ignoring my rankings off to the side for a second (because they're mostly biased, unscientific bullshit), Batman and Robin is far and away one of my favorite titles in The New 52. It's got a little bit of everything and it's all handled and balanced really well.