To be perfectly honest, I wasn’t sure if I’d enjoy this last volume after realizing that the Azrael storyline wraps up within the first quarter of the book. But…I’ve always been a huge fan of Dick Grayson and the dynamics between him, Tim Drake and Bruce Wayne made this both an enjoyable and very satisfying finale. This third volume wraps up the Azrael storyline with the confrontation between Jean Paul Valley and Bruce Wayne and then follows the Prodigal Son storyline in which Dick Grayson steps in for Bruce Wayne as Batman while Bruce sorts out what he wants Batman to be. The final confrontation between Azrael and Bruce-Batman is very quick, almost disappointingly so. After seeing the carnage that Azrael wrought in the second volume, I wanted an ass kicking. But maybe that was the point. It does highlight the differences between Valley and Wayne and Valley once again looks like a complete emotional wreck.

The rest of the book follows Grayson as he temporarily steps into Wayne’s shoes as Batman. Grayson is a different Batman, less severe than Bruce and also less obsessively dedicated to it. I have to say that I think Tim Drake is the most interesting Robin. Even with Bruce, he’s more of an equal partner than a sidekick and I really liked that. It was interesting to see how Tim and Dick meshed as partners and I liked that Dick wasn't hesitant to both trust Tim’s opinion and respect him as an equal. One of the main parts of the Prodigal storyline is Dick having to confront the past in the form of Two Face.



It’s not that it’s a bad story…I just didn't find it a particularly compelling one. It did make Dick really question whether he has good enough, which was interesting but it just lacked something for me. After that though, Dick struggles to find motivation to keep fighting night after night and it was interesting to see how awkward it was for him to be Batman rather than Robin or Nightwing. What truly made this volume good though was the conversation Bruce and Dick have at the end where they resolve hurt feelings over Dick’s transition to Nightwing and Bruce’s strange decision to choose Jean Paul Valley as a successor rather than Dick Grayson. There was a pretty damn heartwarming moment there at the end and sentimental idiot that I am, I loved it.



If you made it through the ridiculous second volume, this one is worth a read. Although…I’d really like to know what the hell Bruce meant at the very end about the changes. Not sure it’d be enough to make me hunt down the next issues but it definitely made me curious.