Batman: Second Chances

Product Information

The switch to Starlin’s scripts at the end is a welcomed change but comes too late to do anything about the book’s overall feel as a complete miss.

Batman said that only the kidnappers' footprints would be in the OR because the doctors and nurses would wear paper socks over their shoes.The story jumps back to when Bats and a street-wise Jason first meet, as the kid was tryna steal the Batmobile’s tires! Sometimes the second part of a story would be drawn in an entirely different manner from the first, and apparently minus any reference material having been provided to the second artist to keep character visuals consistent with the first. Following the end of his partnership with the first Robin, Dick Grayson, Batman has found a new Boy Wonder in the form of streetwise kid Jason Todd. Love Bird" is a slight story, but it features a moderately clever twist at the end, and at least it's short. These 1988 stories take Batman into police procedural territory, and set the stage for the bestselling Batman: A Death in the Family.

He’s impressed with the kid’s fire but hands him over to the seemingly innocuous Ma Gunn and her orphanage. But, there's also issues that don't resolve in this set or are part of a crossover story, so the flow is broken up.

We eventually get a confrontation between Batman and Nightwing, resolving all the unspoken tension that started when Grayson was let go.

In theory this collects most of the Post-Crisis issues of Batman before those collected in the Caped Crusader volumes. Jason Todd was replacing Dick Grayson, whose role on the 1960s Batman TV series made the young ward a household name.

With Second Chances we get to see how Jason Todd was revamped for the Post-Crisis era Batman and how the second Robin was written in a way that could only end one way. When Batman goes into action on his own and meets a young hoodlum named Jason Todd, he’s determined to guide Jason away from a life of crime.

I think any fan of Bronze Age Batman can have fun with this, but the only people who need this volume are completionists and like me they will disappointed by the glaring omissions.

We all know what happens to Jason Todd and he's become a cool character in his own right, but what does he mean to Batman? Unfortunately, his other persona emerges once more, and he punches his enemy, causing Batman to let him go.