(Titan Books �18.99)

BATMAN is dead - long live the new Batman and Robin team!

Probably the most status-shaking story to hit the Dark Knight’s world in recent years, the recent Batman: RIP epic saw Bruce Wayne apparently dead, leaving his adopted son Dick Grayson to take up the mantle of the Caped Crusader. He is joined by Wayne’s recently-resurfaced son, Damian, the prodigy of immortal madman Ra’s al Ghul’s daughter Talia, as the new Robin.

Grayson now finds himself in an unenviable position. Not only get through the death of his mentor and his uncertain adoption of the Batman identity, but he must train the reckless and arrogant new Robin and deal with a fresh wave of criminal lunatics who have appeared in Gotham City in the months since Wayne’s disappearance.

Penned by comics savant Grant Morrison, and illustrated by a plethora of the industry’s top artists, this initial collection of stories featuring the new Dynamic Duo is a breath of fresh air for the franchise. For the first time we have a more upbeat and carefree Batman allied with a dark and brooding Robin, and that shift allows for some wildly different adventures for the team. Add to this Morrison’s usual madcap characters and contrivances, his reverence for the Batman’s entire history (yes, even the camp 1960s period!), and an inspirational sense of fun injected into the series, and you’re left with a Batman title few would find fault with. A-plus superheroics.