Comic Review: Batman and Robin: Year One – Dynamic Duos #2

In this review of Batman & Robin: Year One – Dynamic Duos #2, Batman has Robin disguised to infiltrate the junior pick-pocketing gang! Will this lead him to The Catwoman? Or someone worse!

BATMAN & ROBIN: YEAR ONE – DYNAMIC DUOS #2
Written by MARK WAID and CHRIS SAMNEE
Art and Main Cover: CHRIS SAMNEE
Variant Covers: DAVID TALASKI, DUNCAN FEGREDO, ADRIÁN GUTIÉRREZ, GREG CAPULLO
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: 9/9/26

This review contains spoilers

Batman & Robin: Year One – Dynamic Duos #2 begins in the Batcave deep below Wayne Manor, where Bruce and Alfred apply facial makeup to Dick in order for him to infiltrate the Wolf Pack, the gang of juvenile offenders picking the rich denizens of Gotham clean of their pricey goods. As Dick relishes the chance to play a role, Bruce plays his by calling up various members of Gotham’s elite who’ve been victimized by the gang, zeroing in on their whereabouts through these accounts. Meanwhile Mehitabel returns to the apartment of The Catwoman with a black eye. Catwoman is eager to lend an ear to her troubles, but as soon as she returns from her shower, the girl is gone.

The next day, Gordon and Batman are investigating the disappearance and presumed death of Carl Volpe, an accountant for the Mob. When his secretary heard a violent encounter with a mysterious stranger on the other side of the door, the office inside looks as though no one has touch it. Batman interrogate The Penguin, who claims innocence.

Later at the Theater District, Dick appears to the Wolf Pack in disguise and going by the name Big Top. Impressed with his speed and acrobatics, they agree to take him to their headquarters below an abandoned museum. Unbeknownst to them, they’re followed by Catwoman, who tries to get the drop on the gang’s shadowy leader Crime Master. He ends up getting the drop on her, and instructs Dick as Big Top to put a bullet through her brain.

Analysis

When Batman and Robin: Year One came out last year, it took me about half the series to get on board with Mark Waid’s approach in the story he was telling, and characterization of the two leads – particularly Dick Grayson. I had a hard time wrapping my head around a Robin who was presented as this youthful, shortsighted and light-hearted. By the time of The New History of the DC Universe’s release, the idea of a new continuity informing our current one made things easier to digest. Dick is younger in the role than he had been established previously, and that series was Waid bringing an origin story to the Dynamic Duo as seen in Batman/Superman: World’s Finest. Now we have an ongoing, complete with Chris Samnee artwork. This serves as backfilling the details for what’s ostensibly a Golden/Silver Age era Batman and Robin. We got mobs, murder mysteries and also Catwoman in a green cape.

And I’m loving this.

I think the format of an ongoing fits this better the context of “The Untold Story”. It’s a flashback series that works both in reestablishing classic imagery while also putting a serious spin on those old stories. And with Mark Waid at the helm, longtime tropes of the old classic stories can be brought to the modern day and feel just as fresh as they did back in the 1940s. For example, Bruce and Dick disguising themselves to infiltrate gangs is so old-school, we saw Robin do so in his very first appearance in Detective Comics #38, 1940! Not only that, but such action was also taken in the 1943 serials. Having the scene open with Batman and Robin with Alfred quibble over the differences in disguising men and young boys was genuinely funny. That, plus complimenting Dick’s disguise by having Bruce in costume call his society friends on the phone, gaining information through his contacts while light-heartedly gossiping between them was a masterstroke of character ingenuity. It helps that these elements have been lost to the Batman comics for years and years, decades even. It keeps the stories simple, while also squarely character based.

The mystery of the missing mob accountant is an intriguing one. The scene of the secretary listening to the unseen encounter from the other side was really intense, and huge credit to Chris Samnee for pulling off such a harrowing moment with just the look of horror on the woman’s face. I’m more intrigued by this Volpe caper than I am interested in The Wolf Pack, but that’s not to say I’ve any dislike for that plot either. Additionally, I’m eager to see this version of Batman and Catwoman interact, and how Robin might react to their interaction.

I’ve very little else to say, this was a dynamite issue. Highly recommended, every bit as classic and entertaining as the very best of Waid’s World’s Finest.