Patrick Gleason artwork, Batman and Robin #20 - Page B

Published by DC Comics, April 2011 Cover Date

Mick Gray inks, Alex Sinclair coloring

The heavy blacking and drop-out shadow effects are well done. What's a Gotham City Batman comic book without an abyss of ink in the alleyways?

The story line itself (script by Peter Tomasi) has all the excesses and banality of "Batman Family" comics and follows in the well-worn ruts of that genre, which has popped in and out of fashion in the offices of DC Comics since the 1950s. The diluting power of this approach is that it reduces the superhero concept (at least as embodied by Batman-type vigilantes) from calling and/or obsession into something like a middle-class job, though with costuming.