Art By: Juan Jose Ryp, Jordie Tarragona, Juan Albarran, Sonia Oback
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: April 1, 2015
Shoot The Moon
*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*
It's finally happened. Time went and crept up on us and out of nowhere Batman and Robin has ended......... Which is crazy to me because it's one of the best selling books that DC Comics has..... but for whatever reason, we're saying goodbye to our Dynamic Duo and welcoming Damian to his own solo title in June. At least we had an excellent last issue last week and we still have this last Annual to look forward to. Let's hope that it's fun, exciting and most important of all, it shows us the Dark Knight and The Boy Wonder the way that we want to see them........ Pretty much as father and son and the greatest crime fighting duo that the world has ever seen. Let's push the depression away and dive into this issue.
Explain It!:
Our final Annual begins with Damian being bored out of his mind because Batman is on monitor duty on the Justice League Watchtower and he doesn't know what to do with himself. Eventually, he puts that big brain of his to use to get into a little trouble by taking one of Batman's old disabled Justice League teleporters and reactivating it so that he might check in on what his pops is doing at work. This is pretty funny because Alfred is giving Damian shit for fixing the teleporter against his father's wishes and Damian sees the fact that Batman didn't destroy it as a test of his skills and after Damian shows up on the Watchtower, I kind of have to agree with Damian's insights, even if Batman keeps a poker face about it.
After getting a lowdown on what all the monitors are looking at, our Dyanamic Duo spot lights on in an old NASA lunar module that has been missing since the first lunar landing. Of course our heroes jump to investigate and we get a very awesome scene of Batman and Robin in space suits on the Moon. It really feels like an old throwback to the Silver Age of Comics and it's just a lot of fun to see. Inside the module, our pair spot aliens rebuilding it and adding modifications and when these moon men realize that they're being watched, they blast off and our duo begin a moon chase. Now I don't know if it's just me but Batman goes on and on about how these aliens look like the original astronauts that went to the moon, but all I see are some humanoid aliens with messed up faces. I think Batman is just trying to impress his son here with all his NASA knowledge. After our team catch up with the module, they find out that these aliens have taken all the modules that they could find and made themselves a makeshift rocket that apparently they plan on flying to Earth and taking over the world......... like some sort of invasion of the body snatchers.
In the end, Batman kicks Damian off the ship as it takes off and our Boy Wonder is forced to race back to the Bat ship and catch up with his father and these aliens before the rocket touches down in the ocean......... It's a good thing that Batman reworked the navigation before jumping out and having Damian catch him with a Star Fox barrel roll because the rocket crash lands in a active volcano in Hawaii. As the issue closes, our heroes have saved the day and they look up to the moon and the stars with awe.......... and what could have been a really nice moment between father and son is interrupted by a bit of psychosis because Batman claims that when he looks at the stars he sees pearls....... We get it Bruce you're parents were murdered. Maybe you should go and talk to someone about it because you're obviously not well.
That's it for this Annual of Batman and Robin and with it the series. This is one of my favorite titles from DC Comics and it's a real shame that it's going away because it feels like it was finally catching it's stride again, now that Damian has returned. As for this issue, it was fun, if not a little excessive about how much NASA knowledge it wanted to bring across to the reader. I found these bits a bit boring and really unneeded but besides for that and Batman's strange comment at the end of the issue, I really enjoyed this over the top Dynamic Duo romp on the moon. Juan Jose Ryp is on art duty for this and while I found the style a bit odd to what I'm used to from this series, after a couple of pages I was all about it and really look forward to more from this artist in the future. So yeah, this might not be a real personal story like the last issue that we ended on was, but if you're more of a fan of adventure than drama, then you'll really be into this Annual.
Bits and Pieces:
If you're looking for a way to get out of your rut of depression because our beloved Batman and Robin has ended, well look no further than this Annual. It's a fun over the top outer space adventure complete with all the father son back and forth that you've come to know and love and let's not forget about the art that will really grab you by the end of the issue. Man, I'm really going to miss this title.
8.5/10
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