Batman: The Rise and Fall of the Batmen Omnibus

by James Tynion IV

When Batman alone isn't strong enough to save the world...could a team of heroes-in-training help?

Batman: Detective Comics Omnibus collects together the stories of your favorite heroes from the Batman Universe! With Batman, Batwoman, and Nightwing fighting to defend it, is Gotham safe from any potential threat? ...Or is there a monster still lurking that would be able to take them down?

Batman decides to recruit young vigilantes and train them to be a team worthy to face any evil that may come to Gotham--will this vision for a team of Bat-Heroes be able to take flight or will it go down in flames? And what would Batman consider threatening enough to require a team?

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics, Batman, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Book, Comics Manga

1280 pages, Hardcover

First published December 29, 2020

About the author

Prior to his first professional work, Tynion was a student of Scott Snyder's at Sarah Lawrence College. A few years later, he worked as for Vertigo as Fables editor Shelly Bond's intern. In late 2011, with DC deciding to give Batman (written by Snyder) a back up feature, Tynion was brought in by request of Snyder to script the back ups he had plotted. Tynion would later do the same with the Batman Annual #1, which was also co-plotted by Snyder. Beginning in September 2012, with DC's 0 issue month for the New 52, Tynion will be writing Talon, with art by Guillem March. In early 2013 it was announced that he'd take over writing duties for Red Hood and the Outlaws in April.

Tynion is also currently one of the writers in a rotating team in the weekly Batman Eternal series.

Reviews

[Lukas Sumper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Why do we need Kaijus in Gotham, I get that batman is targeted towards kids but batman was fine without that crap. Honestly I liked the second half much more although it still suffered from repeating the same threats over and over again.
Barely a 3 out of 5!

[OmniBen · Rating 2 out of 5]

(Zero spoiler review) 1.5/5
Do not believe the score currently listed for this book (4.31). I do not read modern DC or Marvel comics, although someone recommended me this when it was cheap, and I foolishly, trusting Tynions' name at the time, thought surely he couldn't mess up Batman that badly. Alas, I was wrong. Confession time! I read one issue of this. That's right, one! One was all it took, given my now more significant knowledge of Tynion, his tropes and his agenda's, to see this for what it was. Tynion's let's have Batman play third fiddle in his own book, whilst elevating the more diverse aspect's of Gotham. I challenge you to read the first ten pages of this, and not roll your eyes, or possibly throw the book across the room. God knows I almost did. We get Batman telling Batwoman how awesome she is (yawn). We get Z list characters being told how awesome they are, surprise surprise, they were women. Also, can someone please tell me when Cassandra Cain became a a reject from a My Chemical Romance music video. Seriously, why does she look like a pasty, goth transvestite?
I really can't even summon the energy to be articulate or witty about this dreck, assuming I could be if I was trying. I flicked through many pages after finishing the first issue, desperately hoping to see something different. To convince myself I should keep reading. But everything I saw only further hardened my resolve against this monumental garbage. Any remaining ambivalence I had towards Tynion has thoroughly evaporated. I won't be buying or reading anything this guy does again. He isn't that good of a writer and he couldn't separate himself from his tropes and agenda with a crowbar.
If you want Batman cucked out of his own story, diversity and representation forced down your throat and half baked writing, then you've got yourself a big ol book to read. For everyone else, I recommend steering as far away from this shite as possible. The art seemed decent enough, though. 1.5/5

[Lukáš Kudela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yes, it’s a Batman story. But it’s so much more than that. First and foremost, it’s a Bat-Family story. Tynion clearly grew up on 90s and early 2000s Batman comics, and this run is his heartfelt tribute to everything he loved about them.

We have Batwoman, whose storyline dives deeply into her family background, military upbringing, and personal traumas. We also have Spoiler, whose arc is a delightful surprise for me. I was never a big fan of Stephanie Brown, but Tynion’s work with her character is outstanding. By the finale of the run, she becomes an essential, badass character!

Bringing Clayface into the team was also a bold move, and his tragic redemption arc is absolutely brilliant. And then there’s Cassandra Cain—my favorite Bat-Family character of all time! Sure, I prefer her Batgirl costume over her Orphan persona, but even as Orphan, Cassandra remains the character I love.

I also need to give credit to Tynion for including a relatively minor and underappreciated character from the Knightfall prelude: Ulysses, aka The General. I always thought he was an intriguing character who deserved more attention, and the fact that Tynion elevated him to essentially being the main villain of this run was so satisfying.

And of course, Tynion’s run is also the story of Red Robin—Tim Drake. While I personally tend to root for the first and last Robins, Dick Grayson and Damian Wayne, Tynion made me truly appreciate why Tim is so beloved by fans. After all, long before Tynion became a professional comic book writer, he started out writing Reddit fanfiction about Tim! Tynion’s love for these characters pours out of every single panel, and it’s impossible to miss.

This is, without a doubt, his best mainstream superhero comic.

[Bryson Grenfell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I super love the Bat-family. I super love Robin. Tim Drake is my favourite Robin. I adore Cassandra Cain, and I love the ways in which this book explores her relationships with certain characters.
We get action, intrigue, crazy sci-fi stuff and a metric f#%k tonne of emotion.
Dig it.



Found the Colony kinda boring though.

[Rumi Bossche · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars.

A book full of Batmans allies, something i am not the biggest fan of. But in this book it totally works. One of the most fun Batman runs in recent memory. And really just killer stuff.

[Rahul Nadella · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a Bat Family story, focusing on Batwoman and Tim Drake as the protagonists though Bruce is still prominent in the series. But each arc primarily focuses on one of the characters of the Bat Family and eventually all the themes and ideas from the previous arcs form together to make an overarching statement. Tynion spins a story of family, of war, of tragedy. Of becoming who you were meant to be, and how your identity and your future are shaped by your actions, you choices, not some pre-set destination. Any number of times Tynion zags where precedent would have told him to zig, creating something that's not simply reminiscent of the past but rather an improvement on it. Bat Family characters I never read get a chance to shine here, like Batwoman. I wouldn't call it an all-time classic but it's in the conversation for best Bat run of the last 10 years.

[Cynthia · Rating 3 out of 5]

James Tynion IV odia a Batman. Convertirlo en el verdadero villano principal de toda la historia y hacerlo pasar en las últimas páginas por "desarrollo de personaje" es diabólico. Al menos la temática de esta historia (la batifamilia y sus nuevos miembros) vuelve su odio funcional, pero vaya ataque al murciélago.

[Joshua · Rating 5 out of 5]

This freaking ruled. I read it more or less month to month as it came out in individual issues but reading it all in one fell swoop like a giant Batman novel I think it’s probably one of my favorite Batman stories. And Cassandra Cain/Orphan is low-key a favorite comic book character of mine now. Her story in Detective Comics #950 (collected here) is so damn good. Really glad I picked this up.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding. A 50+ issue story that gets at the heart of the mythos, adds to it, then sticks the landing. Just amazing.

[Dianna Soule · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really exciting to see a Cassandra Cain again who resembles pre-One Year Later but the plot of this book is less inspiring and gets really repetitive/boring in the middle.

[Jo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was surely an intense reading... I'm not used to devour in short times such big comic book runs, so I took my time to deal with this massive volume of Tynion IV writing Detective Comics. And, like almost every series, it had some great things, and some meh things... but overall, I really liked it.

First, the art is thoroughly great in the whole volume. And, even though I'm not going to talk with detail about every narrative and plot, I have to say Tynion got me interested for the most part. I've always preferred other members of the Batfamily over Batman, and that's precisely what this comic offers: your not reading about Batman, but about a team where Batman is only one more piece (and arguably a small one) alongside Red Robin, Batwoman, Orphan, Spoiler, Batwing, Azrael, AND CLAYFACE (and, ocasionally, Batgirl, Nightwing, Robin...). This makes up for some great scenes, but also some bland or uninteresting ones.

For the most part, I like the way Tynion deals with his characters. For example, EVERYTHING surrounding Clayface (and mostly the friendship between Clayface and Orphan), or the relationship between Bruce and Tim / Cassandra, is amazing. He also writes a compelling friendship in Jean Paul and Luke Fox, and mostly I can only complain about the way he writes Spoiler and Batwoman (where they sometimes seem out of character... in a way that feels like he's forcing you to antagonize them. That was... terrible). As for the specific stories, I kind of forgot about a few of them, but others, such as the Future Tim one, where amazing. For the most part, Tynion IV excels when dealing with the subplots that lurk in the background for it's whole run, where he has a lot of time to deal with them (as I already said, the way he deals with Clayface, but also the role of the Colony or Tim's obsessions). There are also quite a few tragic moments that made me shed more than one tear, and the way Tynion's run concludes feels absolutely natural and in connection with everything he's ben telling for 50 issues.

Overall, a good and really enjoyable DC comic, that I would recommend to Batfamily fans with a lot of time in their hands. It won't change your life, but it can entertain you for a while.

[Evan · Rating 3 out of 5]

“I can live in a world with no easy way out. Can’t you?”

Kind of the definition of a “pretty good” comic run - there are really cool ideas and images here, and it tells a well-woven story… but it doesn’t dazzle. It doesn’t impress. It pleases but it doesn’t provoke.

I know that feels like a neg. It’s solid stuff though - I just feel like it’s the baseline level of quality I want for me to invest in a series. It’s a little overwritten but very capable, but I have very little to say about the artists - it’s adept work but mostly unfussy. The Clayface lettering is terrific stuff, though.

Of course this is a Bat-family book (here dubbed “Gotham Knights” due to plot circumstances - for the first time?), but it’s at its best when Tim is at the center of the story, trying to figure out his responsibility to his allies and to himself. That’s not to say I don’t love Cass and Steph - and, honestly, Basil Karlo’s delightful foray into the family.

The whole arc’s kind of about people questioning Batman’s role in Gotham at this juncture, and what it would mean to expand the Batman project. This mostly manifests as a bunch of different approaches to “fixing” the city, usually by replacing and/or subverting Bruce and his collateral damage. It’s good - it coheres - but it’s one-note. Maybe it’s just that all the tech stuff and the paramilitary stuff just doesn’t excite me. Ascalon, the Neuralink Army, Ulysses Hadrian, Brother Eye… I get it but I vastly prefer the Victim Syndicate plot, Clayface’s growth, Zatanna’s appearances, etc… although I’m not sure this needed the “future timelines” bit.

I liked it! And I’m glad I read it, which isn’t always the same thing. I appreciate Tynion for trying and I think he mostly pulled it off. Long live the Bat-family!

“He’s a monster, Batman.”
“So am I. Stay out of our way.”

[Hugo Emanuel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not the biggest fan of Batfamily books. I find slightly annoying that there are so many Bat-affiliated characters. Batman should really get a patent on his name and logos, as every tom, dick and harry can pick it up, and become a hero, apparently.
I also feel that the stories in the Detective Comics title should be made up of grittier, detectivy-ish stories, with a smaller scale, and small supporting cast, instead of big, loud, stories, like the ones that make up this volume. However, these were actually pretty engaging for the most part.

There were some twists I did not see coming, the characters were given some interesting arcs, and there were a few new interesting villains. The middle portion of this book does lag a bit, and loses some of its steam. It does, however, make up for it with a strong ending that ties everything up in a satisfying and pretty finite way, which is somethingthat is sometimes hard to get from mainstream super-hero comics.

Batman's characterization in these arcs was very positive and refreshing. Instead of the brooding, unapproachable, and ill tempered characterization he is sometimes given, Tynion writes Batman as having a much healthier relationship with his surrogate family and allies. He is, however, strangely off his game at times, but that's a minor gripe.

Overall, this is a fun set of arcs, that have enougth scale and scope to give it some stakes, while not going overboard.

The artwork is strong throughout, especially the issues by Eddy Barrows and Alvaro Martinez.

Altough I'd rate it more with a 3.5/5, I'll round it up to 4 stars, as it was mostly a very enjoyable and complete read.

[Nicky · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had some expectations for the run after hearing great things about it and I think they were met.

What I liked most about this run is that it gives a lot of members of Batman's extended family a good spotlight. The members of the team each had stories that dove into their character and enabled me to gain some insight into them; this was particularly useful as someone who isn't a regular DC reader.

I also really liked how the series really delved into them idea of Batman: what he stands for and his methods.

The negatives for me were the Night of the Monsters story that I had read years ago, when I had read the start of Tom King's Batman run, and some of the Azrael stories. The first was silly and boring: fighting Kaiju? The over the top aspect of it and in the early Tom King run wasn't to my taste. However, admittedly the creation of Monster Town was interesting and served as a good backdrop for later stories. The second was just a bit boring, I don't have any connection to Azrael and perhaps that might have helped.

The artwork throughout this series is superb.

Overall I thought this was an excellent read and I'm really interested in how things evolved in the universe between this point and the later Tom Taylor Nightwing and Kelly Thompson Birds of Prey periods that I've read.

[Zachary Blake · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is more of a bat family story than a Batman story. Yes Batman is involved but James Tynion lets the other characters really shine. This is a story about family with giant monsters, robots, military covert ops that is balanced out with one shot issues with one particular about a certain classic villain that was fantastic. Eddy Barrows art when he is on a story arc is great in the oversized format. I love his varying and unique take on some of the panel layouts. When other artists roll on, the quality never dips. I don’t usually mention the back-matter of the omnibus collections but this contains the variant covers that were done by Rafael Albuquerque which are worth flipping through. The reader will get more out of this if you have read the Batman and Robin Eternal run but it’s not required reading. A reader could pick this up blind and have a great time as long as you know who Batman is and have some idea about the larger bat family characters that have been around for decades. This is a a must read for a Batman fan especially those looking for stories not centered on just Batman.

[Jacob Klimoski · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a fun story and had so many things going on. This was definitely a Bat-Family book. The focus seemed more on them than Batman, but there is still plenty of Batman. This just helped those other characters shine which was fun and we got to learn more about them. Had some heart in there, especially with one character that was cool to see, but heartbreaking at the same time. A good, fun read.

[Hugh · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is definitely more then just a Batman book and heads up Batman is not the main focus here for you wanting to buy this

Everyone gets to shine here and my personal favourites from this are Cassandra and Clayface this is just great stuff with those characters

One thing did not love though was the actual writing of Batman I think James nails everyone else in this book but I don’t know his Batman just does not jel with me

[TheMadReader · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to not like this. A lot of Bat-Family related stuff and backstories regarding Batwoman but in reality, it all tied in together nicely.

The ending was a bit cheesy and predictable so I would have hoped for something a bit more groundbreaking but it is what it is. I feel like James writes better with Snyder than he does alone.

[Xroldx · Rating 3 out of 5]

This starts out as an interesting Batteam book especially because it's a bit lighter in tone than the extreme dark Batman tales of recent years. But when a time travelling Tim Drake turned into an even more depressive version of Batman than Batman the book goes way over the rails and never gets back it's earlier tone of voice.

[Thezachespinoza · Rating 5 out of 5]

My first omnibus, and therefore my favorite. James Tynion was starting to rise the ranks in DC throughout various titles in the New 52. But, this magical, dark, and groundbreaking run during DC Rebirth was a new step for Batman and the Bat-Family. If you are a Bat-Family person, then this is your new holy Grail.

[Petrit Kabashi · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this one omnibus a lot. A good leading thread throughout the whole omnibus. Tim Drake, Batwoman and Clay face take the lead in this omni. That was quite fine by me. Not a lot of pre knowledge is necessary to stary reading this one.

[Haley Pippins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genuinely one of the most underrated and spectacular modern Batman stories.

[Jack T · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5

[Omni Theus · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 out of 5 stars.

Rogues gallery killed this for me. And some of the creative choices. Art is excellent as you'd expect on a AAA Bats title at DC.

[Emma · Rating 4 out of 5]

what a squaaadd

[Ysuf Shari · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.9/5

some incredibly strong arcs.

but also some really dull ones that bring it down.

the highs are ridiculously high and I absolutely love the dynamic of the bat family thoughh

[Robbs · Rating 4 out of 5]

[3.5/5]
I really liked the Tim Drake stuff. Everything else didn't hit for me. The one part of the book I genuinely hated the most was the night of the monster men arc. It just felt really boring and lackluster to me. But everything to do with Tim was simply amazing. I'm glad Tynion was able to breathe life into this character that has been down in the dumps for years.

[Michael Torres · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mixed bag of Batman stories. Starts off strong, but the middle story arcs tended to be weaker. Finishes strong, but cleans the slate for the next writing team as well. Could be a great starting point for newer Batman fans, and has its own beginning and ending within this one omnibus.

Not an overly memorable Batman run, but not a bad one either.