Batman: The Caped Crusader Vol. 5 (Batman (1940-2011))

The volume should not be a disappointment to Batman fans from this early period in the nineties. It fulfills its promise of collecting Batman and Detective Comics issues from this period. It is the first time I don’t see an annual. Content-wise, it has stories written by Chuck Dixon, Alan Grant, and Peter Milligan. The artwork is mostly by Norm Breyfogle, but Tom Lyle illustrates the Shadow Box serial (Batman 467-469) while Jim Aparo contributes a couple of issues of The Idiot story (Detective Comics 639-640).I am a first-time reader of these issues, but I was not quite enthralled by these stories. When reading the uninspired Allan Grant stories - No More Heroes, Of Gods and Men (a Maxie Zeus story) and Requiem for a Killer (Killer Crock), I didn’t feel the imaginative steam from his early period when he created new villains such as the Rat-catcher or the Ventriloquist. As a result, Breyfogle’s moody phantasmagorical artwork gets lost; it loses its genuine touch that made his art worthy of a Batman tale. While being able to intensify the villainy in the Penguin and the Joker in past issues, Grant’s Maxie Zeus and Killer Crock were no challenge to the Batman. This lack of tension and atmosphere undoubtedly prevents Breyfogle’s work to explode out of the panels the way it usually does.However, Breyfogle gets his chance with the Idiot story at the end of this volume. With the Idiot I was hit with a “mind-control” story that takes the Batman to Brazil which I found too whacky to let suspend my disbelief. But it is a zombi-like story, so perhaps, youngsters who love this might have felt enthralled by it. In his contributions, Aparo shows he hasn’t lost it although when I look at his Bruce Wayne on the last page of this volume, it makes me think that no one is free from the effects of age. His Bruce Wayne as well as some of his art has lost the vibrancy of the early years (the 70s).For those who are fans of the Time Drake years, the stories No More Heroes and Shadow Box show readers important developments in Robin’s heroic career.Other than this, although well-collected , I personally found this tome’s content quite lackadaisical.