Batman: War Drums

Batman: War Games #0

by Andersen Gabrych, Bill Willingham, Pete Woods (Illustrator)

War has hit Gotham City...but the stage was set in the issues collected in this action-packed trade paperback! The startling prelude to 2004's "War Games," the collection features stories from DETECTIVE COMICS #790-796 and ROBIN #126-128, with a new cover by James Jean! A talented pop star goes missing and Leslie Thompkins, the most important woman in Bruce Wayne's life, vanishes. Batman is drawn into an all-out battle for the section of Gotham City known as The Hill, but is taxed to the limit by new threats and trouble within his circle of allies. And when Tim Drake gives up his Robin identity after his father discovers his secret, Batman gets an unexpected and unwelcome replacement in the form of Spoiler!

Genres: Comics, Batman, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Fiction, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics

208 pages, Library Binding

First published October 1, 2004

About the author

Andersen Gabrych is a Northern California native. He’s written Detective Comics, Batman, Batgirl, Catwoman, and Omega Men for DC Comics, and is the author of the original graphic novel, Fog Town.

As an actor he appeared most notably in the award-winning Edge of Seventeen and at HBO’s Aspen Comedy Festival. He currently lives in L.A. with his cat, Moses, and is the co-creator of Pyrasphere, “Hollywood’s fastest growing new religion,” and the subsequent documentary Bright Day! about this fictitious spiritual movement.

Reviews

[Chaunceton Bird · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun fix of Batman, but forgettable without later books to fill in the story.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Detective Comics. Gabrych does a good job of making his Detective Comics actually about detective work. However, it's really the characters that excel. The mood is also generally somber, and has some nice, dark art to match (except in parts of the back-up comic.)

After a nice look at Bruce's current state of mind and his relationship with the new Batgirl in "Scarification" [7/10], we get a superb look at Leslie and her relationship with Batman in the three-part "Surrogate" [8/10]. "Monsters of Rot" is the weakest of this early set with its silly villains, but it shows nice interactions with Tarantula [6/10]. Finally the back-up story "Polished Stone" is a little bit of nothing, mainly because it reiterates the Orpheus plot from the main comic, with the only thing of note being the introduction of Onyx; it's not bad, just pointless [4/10]

Robin! Stephanie as Robin is delightful, thanks to great writing from Willingham, who really excels in these characters. (The one crossover issue of Detective Comics is also nicely done.) The biggest pity is that this arc is so short and heavy-handed: it's all about bringing Stephanie in, then tossing her out. Still, it's fun while it lasts. [7/10]

Overall, this is a nice set of stories, but it's the Robin bits which are the most memorable.

[Virginia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oooh... this is what a graphic novel should be all about! I loved the artwork and story lines and all the ancillary superheros that were involved. The story isn't finished yet and I look forward to reading the next three volumes. Good stuff.

[Matthieu Savignac · Rating 4 out of 5]

Après la lecture de Hush Returns, je n'espérais plus rien, et finalement, j'ai été agréablement surpris.

La première partie est intéressante. La première histoire fait revenir le personnage de Leslie Thompkins et amène une relation avec Bruce très intéressante. C'est prenant et agréable de voir ce côté finalement très humain de Batman. L'intrigue sous-jacente installe doucement cette tension dans la pègre et la criminalité de Gotham, qui va être centrale dans l'événement à venir. Et même si l'intrigue principale n'apportera rien pour la suite, c'était assez plaisant.

Le récit suivant met en avant le personnage de Tarantula, qui apparaît principalement dans la série Nightwing. Un personnage très présent pendant War Crimes, mais que je n'apprécie guère personnellement. L'intrigue, plus ou moins mystique, m'est passée au-dessus de la tête, n'ayant pas la référence du vilain plus ou moins affronté. Un petit passage à vide qui aura néanmoins permis de mettre en avant Orpheus, un personnage assez fade, mais qui aura son importance par la suite.

Petit interlude avec le personnage d'Onyx, qui sort véritablement de nulle part : un personnage oublié depuis plus de 20 ans, ressorti pour les besoins du scénario. Pourquoi pas, finalement.

Changement de style avec l'arc Robin. Je n'avais pas spécialement parlé des dessins de la première partie, qui sont dans l'ensemble très agréables, bien plus que dans Hush Returns : sombres, très sombres, mais lisibles et plaisants. Avec les issues de la série Robin, en revanche, on change complètement de style.

Cela devient très, TRÈS coloré, très "manga". Et pourquoi pas ? De toute façon, la série Robin visait un public plus jeune, plus adolescent, et c'est totalement ce que l'on retrouve ici. Franchement, cela fait du bien.
L'histoire reprend là où la série s'était arrêtée juste avant, avec un Tim Drake qui n'est plus Robin suite à la découverte de son identité par son père, et une Spoiler qui, finalement, va doucement forcer Batman à la faire devenir la nouvelle Robin.

C'est bien amené, un peu forcé peut-être, mais cela aura de réelles implications par la suite. On trouve un Batman un tantinet out of character, mais rien d'insurmontable. Comme dans la première histoire, cela approfondit le côté humain et relationnel dont Bruce a besoin, encore plus depuis la saga Hush et sa liaison avec Selina Kyle. À ce moment de l'histoire, on a un Bruce qui a besoin d'être entouré, plus qu'il ne le voudrait et plus qu'il ne le devrait.

Est-ce que la suite des événements était prévue et que cela a été écrit en fonction ? Ou est-ce que les scénaristes suivants ont pioché là-dedans pour développer la suite ? Je ne sais pas, mais cela ajoute une cohérence très intéressante au développement du personnage.

Bref, un recueil que je n'attendais pas, mais que j'ai beaucoup apprécié.

[Frances · Rating 3 out of 5]

[Cross-posted from Nightjar's Jar of Books.]

A collection of issues 790-796 of Detective Comics, in which Batman is first reunited with his mother-figure Dr. Leslie Thompkins, who needs him to find the family of a pregnant, dying teenager; then reluctantly teams up with the vigilante Tarantula to find the cause of a disease that's rotting people alive; and finally takes on and begins to train an unruly new Robin - the former Spoiler, Stephanie Brown.

The first two storylines in this book I wasn't super-invested in; as a lover of backstory generally, I enjoyed the bonding between Bruce and Leslie in the first, and I liked seeing Tarantula in the second (and I'm hoping that I'll see more of her when I finally get around to reading the Nightwing comics)... but I mostly found myself chomping at the bit to get to the final story, as Stephanie is one of my favourite members of the extended Bat-family. Her run as Batgirl is to-date one of my favourite comic series of all time, but although I've obviously been aware for some time that she was Robin for a while, to my shame I've never picked up any of those volumes - until now!

... And I liked the two quick cases that she was involved in here; her interaction with both Batman and Tim (the previous Robin) was fun to read, as was how she took to the much-more-intense-than-expected training.  The volume ended rather abruptly, but I know that this book primarily serves as set-up for the War Games arc, so I'm looking forward to seeing how things continue to develop there.

[Samantha · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are 11 issues in this prelude to Batman: War Games. I read these back in May, severely disliked parts of them, forgot pretty much everything else that happened, then didn’t read another comic for almost 3 months, so that’s a pretty good indicator of how I felt about this arc.

I’m relying on my notes for this review because I was so done by the time I finished this I forgot to even track it or leave a review. So, from my notes:

Batman throws a man out of a window and then threatens a different man with prison rape - very in character I’m sure.
Batman implants listening devices under people’s skin after knocking them out. Very fascist of him
There is a gangster who goes by “Biggie Tiny” - no comment on this one but it does kind of highlight the quality of the writing here.
Leslie decides to save an unborn baby over the 14 year old mother, based on the word of a woman who exploited her and wants to the steal the baby for herself. As a doctor her priority really needed to be the actual patient. She also performs a c-section on this 14 year old without anaesthetic! And the 14 year old died. There is really no defence for this I’m sorry.
Batman then teams up with his son’s rapist. He didn’t know so I can’t hold it against him, but still…
There are also just generally typos and errors, which is impressive considering the amount of written text on the page.


I’m too much of a completionist to not finish this whole War Games storyline, but hopefully with a 3 month break I can finish it and move on with my life (or at least keep going onto better DC comics).

[tony dillard jr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tensions among the gangs of Gotham City is at an all-time high. From the shadows, Batman seeks to control his city's organized crime by putting another vigilante hero named Orpheus as head of one the crime families.
Meanwhile, Tim Drake has retired as Batman's partner as a promise to his father. Thus, the Caped Crusader is in need of a new sidekick. Enter Stephanie Brown, AKA Spoiler to take up the mantle of the Boy Wonder. But can she make the grade, especially with an assassin in town seeking to take down her predecessor.
War Drums is the preface to a trilogy of Batman acts called War Games. I've been sitting on this and the trilogy for 2 or 3 years now. I inherited these books from the wife of my best friend Todd. These aren't really volumes I've been looking for or had on my list, but they were his and I thought that these would make a great read. So far, good.
I've been hesitant to read this. I guess it's been my way of not letting go of my best friend or not accepting that he's gone- or something. Well, my shelves are overflowing and if I want to add new stuff to my permanent collection, I gotta make room somewhere...
My only problem now- I'm not sure I wanna give this book up. It's that good.

[Katey (Kaje) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pros:
- Steph!
- Cass!
- Babs!
- Onyx!
- Multiple female villains
- Bruce having friendships (well okay Alfred and Leslie but still)
- Mentions of Jason and Dick
- Detective Bats
- Orpheus was an interesting character

Cons:
- I didn’t like the art from the Steph POV chapters (her hair just distracted me)
- Very stereotyped “gangster” behavior from a white author — also the popstar storyline made no sense
- Pacing was off — too fast at points, just right at others

I’m torn on if Bruce firing Steph over things other Robins definitely pulled was a con. I think it truly shows how much he learned from Jason and that pulled at my heartstrings hard. But it also feels like another iteration of sexist Batman (slightly odd considering he’s got Babs and Cass).

Anyway, I landed on a 3-3.5 ⭐️ rating because I don’t think the story will stick with me and it didn’t make me think “I have GOT to read War Games now.” But it was still a fun read.

[Claire · Rating 5 out of 5]

Leslie is fantastic in this and I love Steph’s Robin so much. I read war games before this and honestly this arc really helped provide a lot of important context for that story so I definitely recommend reading this first. You can really see how this one sets up the story, it’s really well done. Especially the parallels between Steph and Jason Todd. (Hint: under the Red Hood happens just after the war games arc and Hush directly preceded this one). The five stars are for Steph’s Robin. Steph is amazing.

[Heather Robinson (GFB) · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story with Dr. Tompkins was intriguing but I really just don't like Dr. Tompkins all that much.

Then Batman works with Tarantula, which I kind of skimmed over. Batman isn't nice to Tarantula but they're working together when I would prefer he punch her the throat and drop her off at jail.

I like the idea of Stephanie as Robin more than I enjoy reading it. Batman is uncharacteristically harder on her than the other Robins.

I haven't read War Games yet but I don't think this was a necessary read.

[Luis Dion-Dussault · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pas mauvais! Les 2 premières histoires ne resteront pas dans l’imaginaire, mais c’est vraiment plaisant de voir Batman devenir plus « souple » avec ses acolytes!

Après l’arc Jason Todd, le personnage de Batman est devenue vraiment très bourru.. Ici, on voit qu’il est capable de jour en équipe à nouveau!

J’ai bien aimé les 2 dernières histoires, où Batman prend sous son aile une nouvelle recrue!

[William Thomas · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are a white writer, please refrain from writing cringey “gangsta” nonsense based on outdated MTV tropes and whatever other preconceived notions you have in your head bc you’ve never interacted with the types of people you’re writing. Just, like, write white people doing crimes instead. Very easy and sound advice.

This starts strong, gets weak as hell, gets sappy and then has those same ups and downs throughout. It’s not a seminal Batman text, you can skip it altogether.

Grade: C-

[Dr Rashmit Mishra · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this is a prequel story to War Games and as prequels go this wasn't all that bad , it involved one major story involving a new crime lord of the hill gang, attached to it was a decent story about a pregnant woman who was shot but with no bullet were ever found . The detective work involved was fantastic , the art work decent but the overall stort at times got convoluted. This book also had the tale of Stephanie Brown's short run as Robin, which was again Okay.

[Jake · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

I've been meaning to read this storyline for awhile now, and the set up itself even requires some prior knowledge (which I thankfully had). Good Leslie and Bruce dynamics, but the writing of the gangsters was rough. The Stephanie storyline was nice, she was much more impulsive in her earlier days here than she is now. Which does not bode well for her in this event as we know.

[Kathryn Houghton · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of the contents felt unrelated to the plot, and Stephanie showed up out of nowhere a little after halfway through. I enjoyed seeing her as Robin, and interacting with Batman in a positive way, but the over-sexualization is clear.

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent bunch of story from a variety of Gotham-related titles.

[Connor · Rating 2 out of 5]

It did fill in some back story from the next volume and gave me more info about some charactes, but I probably didn't need to read this.

[Spencer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fun but nothing particularly special, although it apparently sets the stage for the following arc War Games which looks to be a lot more interesting.

[ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

the second half was significantly better than the first half but overall the storylines were underdeveloped. marketing this as a prequel to war games makes little sense

[Jason Rico · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[mayleh · Rating 3 out of 5]

⭐️3.5

[Liz.Loki · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars.

Oh the misogyny of it all... I'm so sorry Stephbin you deserved better writers :(

[Keegan Schueler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really nice job at setting up war games but there isn’t a substantial story that makes this worthwhile on its own.

[Dan Prestwich · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sorry kids, I don't care how much you like Stephanie Brown, apparently Robins aren't allowed to be girls in DC continuity. I don't make the rules, I just enforce them.

C-

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a bittersweet book for me. On it’s own it’s great collection of Gotham stories showcasing some of the lesser known DC heroes: Batgirl Cassandra Cain, Onyx, Orpheus, and of course making fan favorite Stephanie Brown aka The Spoiler into DC’s first in-continuity female Robin. The stories themselves are fun coupled with some great art however the “bitter” part has to do with how this is a lead-up to “War Games” and well… there’s problems there but this isn’t a War Games review so I will just say plenty of what goes down in War Games makes you read War Drums with a feeling of dread knowing this is meant to set up a mess of a storyline that kills off some characters and drags others through the mud. Not to mention the fact DC let Stephanie Brown become Robin so killing her off would create more of a hype. There’s that too at least Stephanie got better like most comic characters do. There’s also the gripe of having the female Tarantula featured in this as she’s basically gotten away with sexual assault on Nightwing and is never brought up. Which is a shame as the character had potential as well before that garbage.

Negativity about how DC handles its characters aside, War Drums is an interesting collection of stories and important for its showcase on a female Robin and other great though ultimately abused characters. It reads as a bit disjointed as they are a collection of mostly episodic Batman books with intent on leading up to a big Batman crossover event making that a bit of a problem. Best way is think of it bit as a loosely connected anthology book of Gotham heroes.

[Sophia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Batman: War Drums is a prequel to the Batman series War Games but this felt like its own series! So many things happened in this comic, all these new characters appeared and even another superhero showed up! (but for only a couple of pages :/). As prequels do, most of the stories here felt like they were all leading us through a twisted road that would lead us to the same place, like they were all connected but we just can't see the connection yet. We are introduced to the new Robin in this comic and it is interesting to see the difference this Robin is compared to the last ones. I felt like this comic showed Batman having a more dry sense of humour rather than him being completely serious like in the other comics. There are also a couple of interesting villains in this comic and I wonder if their story lines will be explored more in the actual series. Overall, I felt this comic did a good job in getting me interested in the story line and what was going to happen next. I can't wait to read the first part of the main series, War Games and see what unfolds!

[Indika de Silva · Rating 3 out of 5]

The following graphic novel deals with the new Robin after Tim Drake's voluntary resignation.

Some of the graphics were very manga-like. The storyline has no continuation. At first the story deals with Batman and his rapport with Doctor Leslie Thompkins. Then the story suddenly jumps to Orpheus and Onyx. Then it completely shifts to the New Robin aka former Spoiler aka Stephanie Brown. There is no clear bridging between the story lines.

I purchased this book last year (2012) in Malaysia. I did not read it until I had the remaining 4 books in my hand. I hope they are not disappointing as this book.

[Roybot · Rating 3 out of 5]

After reading the, frankly disappointing, No Man's Land arc, I dove into this.

I've got really mixed feelings about this one. On the one hand, it was nice to see a story about Batman being a detective again, and Spoiler/New Robin was pretty fun.

Unfortunately, the whole thing is a con, and Batman fires her after she disobeys him once. How many times have the other Robins flat-out ignored Batman's orders? Come on! Much like his treatment of Huntress in No Man's Land, this Batman seems to be a jerk just for the sake of being a jerk.

Despite my complaints about that aspect of the plot, this is still a pretty engaging storyline.

[Victor Orozco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Awesome.

I knew that there was a time where Tim Drake was no longer Robin and that Stephanie Brown would become Robin. I just didn't realize that her presence was so, so cool. Finally nice that her entry as the first female Robin is so good. Some of the basic crime elements of the stories are a little dry and boring. Still I love Steph.

B-

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm torn about this one. I could not stand the pop-star story line. Gangsters are not my thing. But I enjoyed the other stories, especially the robin bit. But no profound momments and no big surprises.