Comics Review: "BATMAN #2" is DKR Good

BATMAN (2025) #2

DC COMICS

STORY: Matt Fraction

ART: Jorge Jimenez

COLORS: Tomeu Morey

LETTERS: Clayton Cowles with Jorge Jimenez

EDITOR: Rob Levin

COVER: Jorge Jimenez

VARIANT COVER ARTISTS: Jim Lee and Scott Williams with Alex Sinclair; Julian Totino Tedesco; Mike Allred with Laura Allred; David Aja; Jorge Jimenez

36pp, Color, $4.99 U.S., (December 2025)

Batman created by Bob Kane and Bill Finger

Rating: 13+

“Robin Rides the Black Mariah”

DC Comics recently relaunched its Batman flagship comic book series – the third time in 14 years.  It is written by Matt Fraction; drawn by Jorge Jimenez; colored by Tomeu Morey; and lettered by Clayton Cowles.  DC is pushing the series as the dawn of new era in Batman comic books.

Batman #2 (“Robin Rides the Black Mariah”) opens after the first issue's shock ending.  Robin/Tim Drake is in the Gotham City area known as “The Slabs.”  His attempt to stop a brutal and violent truck hijacking takes a turn for the truly worse when two Gotham City Police Department (GCPD) officers intervene.  And one of the officers has a hard-on for killing.

However, Batman is waiting in the East Coventry neighborhood.  That's where the real action will take place, and it could cost our heroes everything. Plus, in a return to Bristol Township, the location of Wayne Manor, a flashback reveals Bruce Wayne training Tim Drake on driving with a sneering Damien Wayne and Alfred Pennyworth watching this in-session class.

THE LOWDOWN:  For years, I had a subscription to DC Comics' Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? ongoing comic book series.  It was quietly canceled within the last year, but I had 14 issues left in my subscription.  Midtown Comics in NYC, which manages DC Comics' subscriptions, gave me the option of choosing any new DC title I wanted to continue my subscription, so I chose Batman – just in time for this new era, and this is my second review of it.

In my review of Matt Fraction and Jorge Jimenez's Batman #1, I said that that the first issue reminded me of Snyder-Capullo's Batman #1 in that both are fresh starts and are different in terms of narrative and graphic aesthetic from their contemporary Batman titles.  In this second issue, however, I think that this creative team of Fraction, Jimenez, Morey, and Cowles is visually and aesthetically recalling the creative team of Frank Miller, Klaus Janson, Lynn Varley, and John Costanza on the legendary miniseries, Batman: The Dark Knight Returns.  This Batman team captures the thunder and lightning of revelation that DKR offers.  The difference is that this team is not waiting for Bruce Wayne to be 50-years-old and retired as Batman. They have activated their perpetual thrill machine today.

I'm not saying that the Fraction-Jimenez Batman #1 is Batman: DKR, but this narrative plays for keeps in the way that DKR did.  There are really a lot of things at stake in this new Batman ongoing.  I believe that “Robin Rides the Black Mariah” really begins a new era of “hunt the Dark Knight.”  And don't wait for the trade paperback, dear readers.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Fans of Batman comic books will want to read Batman 2025.

A

★★★★ out of 4 stars

Reviewed by Leroy Douresseaux a.k.a. "I Reads You"

[This comic book includes two previews of upcoming comic books.  The first is a four-page preview of “Justice League: The Omega Act Special #1” from writer Joshua Williamson; artists Yasmine Putri with Cian Tormey; colorist Yasmine Putri; and letterer Dave Sharpe.

The second is a three-page preview of “Batgirl #12 from writer Tate Brombal; artist Takeshi Miyazawa; colorist Mike Spencer; and letterer Tom Napolitano.]

There is a Kindle edition of BATMAN #2 available at Amazon. The trade paperback collection of this series first arc, BATMAN VOL. 1 is due June 2026, but it can be pre-ordered at Amazon.

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