So this week two high profile comics shipped that were both labeled “Reborn.” The latest installment of DC’s Batman Reborn is Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s Batman and Robin #2 and Marvel’s much hyped Captain America Reborn #1 by Ed Brubaker and Bryan Hitch. First off, let me say it’s a ridiculously strange thing for DC to have labeled their Bat-Books as Batman Reborn. The new Marvel Reborn series has been well publicized for months (even if Marvel tried unsuccessfully to keep it’s content quiet). So it was a completely underhanded move on DC’s part to push their new Batman books out under the same label a month before Captain America shipped. (Also, Marvel are complete idiots for making a big deal out of last month’s Cap #600 which was shipped early to retailers at their expense to avoid a planned newspaper article spoiling its contents. Of course, the article ended up managing to not mention Cap #600 at all or spoiling anything in the issue. The article did spoil the ending to this Cap Reborn mini-series which didn’t even begin to ship until weeks after the article was published and will continue to be published for the next five months. Thanks Marvel.)

So I guess the key question is are these books any good?

First off, let me completely admit my bias. I (like most humans) enjoy Batman stories and have always thought Captain America sucks and is totally lame as a character.

With that out of the way, Captain America Reborn #1 isn’t that strong to be honest. I’ve been surprisingly enjoying the Captain America title since Ed Brubaker relaunched it. While I hated that Marvel spoiled Cap’s death in the newspapers, I was amazed that they pulled off the resurrection of Cap’s sidekick so well. (Especially considering DC’s simultaneously launched resurrection of Jason Todd went so poorly.) Bucky becoming the new Captain America after decades as a Soviet assasin was ridiculously compelling. And now that they’re bringing back the original Captain America Steve Rogers… It just doesn’t feel like the right time yet. Couple that with the apparent revelation that Rogers’ resurrection will somehow involve needing Sharon Carter to act as his constant and Rogers being displaced in time though within his body… It just feels like Brubaker is auditioing for a job writing for Lost.

After 50 issues of Captain America basically ignoring what was happening in the rest of the Marvel Universe (with one huuuuuuuge exception), it feels completely wrong to see the Dark Avengers show up in this story. What should be a classic evergreen story for Marvel will now be forever tied down with unneeded late 2000s continuity that there is no way will age well. You might as well have had NFL Superpro guest star. And the art from superstar Bryan Hitch somehow looks exactly like the art Cap has had for the last several years, so I can’t help but wonder why he’s even on the book.

Having said all that, I believe in Ed Brubaker. So we’ll have to see where this all leads.

Batman and Robin on the other hand is fantastic. The action sequences are stunning. Morrison is crafting genuinely interesting relationships between the new Batman and his brat of a Robin as well as the between the duo and the police. Batman’s struggles with his new role are perfect, especially for a character that basically hasn’t been written well in a decade. These two issues have gone a long way towards redeeming Dick Grayson… (Which continues to make me think he’ll be killed of when Bruce Wayne is inevitably brought back.) Mr. Pig is looking like he’ll be a creepy addition to the Bat-rogues Gallery. And Frank Quitely may not have ever drawn superhero comics that looked this good. There’s a double page spread of Batman fighting a group of foes in which the action just leaps off the page. I’ll be sad to see Quitely leave in the very near future.

After a controversial run on Batman that ended with Bruce Wayne sort of but not really dying in another title, Grant Morrison launched the new Batman and Robin title from DC this week with frequent collaborator Frank Quitely. Spoilers ahead…

So there’s a new Batman and Robin showing up in Gotham for the first time in this story. The original Robin who has been running around the DC Universe for the last 25 years as Nightwing, Dick Grayson, has taken over as Batman and is joined by Bruce Wayne’s evil brat son, Damian, as Robin. In contrast to the classic team, the new Batman has a sense of humor and the new Robin is a violent, psychotic, ten-year old, trained by Ninja Assasins who thinks he should be Batman. The Batmobile flies. The villain is called Mr. Toad and looks exactly like you’d expect.

It sounds stupid. Well, it is stupid. But in the capable hands of Morrison and Quitely, it works. And by the way, Morrison’s last run on Batman works better than you think it did too. Go back and read it one sitting. Seriously. Try it. It’s not nearly as incoherent as it seemed while reading it on a monthly basis.

Anyway, where was I?

Quitely’s art is a style all his own. Undeniably ugly… And yet I can’t get enough of it. His characters ooze personality.

Morrison in one issue has written the most interesting Dick Grayson we’ve seen in years. And while he’s treading on dangerous territory by making Robin such a brat… (Fans voted for the last brat Robin to be beaten with a crowbar and blown up…) I believe he has a plan for Damian. Whether that plan will be satisfying for readers or not, I guess we’ll see.

The master villain we’re introduced to at the end of the issue looks to me like someone from a horror movie and his actions seem to confirm we’re about to see the equivalent of Batman vs. Leatherface or the villain from some torture porn flick or something. The scene was sufficently creepy and sold on the strength of Quitely’s characterization.

In conclusion, it’s interesting that Dick Grayson is running around as Batman now (for the second time… See Batman: Prodigal), when just a few years ago we saw his death scene in Infinite Crisis. A scene that DC thankfully wimped out on following through with, as we saw Dick alive a few pages later. But make no mistake, Dan Didio intended to kill Dick Grayson off once, this story could just as easily be his swan song.