Review: Batman: A Death in the Family

Batman: A Death in the Family by Jim Starlin

My rating: 3 of 5 stars



This story is one of the most controversial in the whole Batman mythos, being the one where Jason Todd (the second Robin) is murdered by the Joker. I known of this history and had seen it in animated form (in the direct-to-video Batman: Under the Red Hood) but I'd never actually read the story. I decided that it was time to rectify that and read it. I picked it up from my library today and finished it within a couple hours.

I'm honestly still not sure how I feel about the comic as a whole. I've been reading so many comics from the mid-to-late 90s and beyond that the dot style coloring is a huge throw-back for me. And the story itself doesn't have the same... realism?... I guess that's the best word... for me as the later ones do. Still, it was a decent story for it's time, where Batman was moving into the grittier stories that are common now. It's just looking back at it now that it feels almost contrived. It also reminds me, in a lot of ways, of the reboot that Donna Troy went through. But the picture of Batman holding a battered and bleeding Jason Todd (in Robin costume) is still one of the most powerful images I've seen in the world of Batman.

So I'd say "Check it out." It's not a bad book, by any stretch of the imagination. And it is a very important part of the Batman history.



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