December
5 Crossing the Line 2 — Batman: The Resurrection of Ra’s al Ghul

Books and creators: Batman #670, written by Grant Morrison, art by Tony Daniel and Jonathan Glapion; Robin #168, written by Peter Milligan, art by Freddie E. Williams II; Nightwing #138, written by Fabian Nicieza, art by Don Kramer and Wayne Faucher; Detective Comics #838, written by Paul Dini, art by Ryan Benjamin and Saleem Crawford.

DC Comics, color, 32 pages and $2.99 each

So? Focus again helps make the first Batman crossover in quite a while, “The Resurrection of Ra’s al Ghul,” work as a reasonably entertaining crossover.

This shorter event — running one prologue and seven chapters through Batman, Detective Comics, Robin and Nightwing — begins with the return of the nominal villain, whose consciousness has been residing in a rapidly decaying alternative body since his “death” in Batman and the Maidens. Ra’s is looking for a new permanent vessel, and has his eyes set on his grandson, Damion, the child of his daughter Talia and Batman. Throw Batman’s current Robin and adopted son, Tim Drake, as well as Dick Grayson’s Nightwing into the mix, and you’ve got a pretty good setup, which is no surprise with the likes of Grant Morrison and Paul Dini each writing a book.

Now about halfway through its run, “Resurrection” has kept up a good pace, features fine artwork and has been quite easy to keep track of as it moves from character to character and book to book. Those basics covered, however, this lacks the kind of scope demanded by a story deemed worthy of a crossover. While X-Men: Messiah Complex is about saving mutants from extinction, the conflicts here are internal and again seem to rotate around Damion, Tim and how Batman should feel toward them or choose between them. Damion, as a fairly new character, hasn’t earned enough audience sympathy for his death to be a loss anyone would care much about. In fact, his whiny obnoxiousness so far recalls Jason Todd, whose stint as Robin was so reviled that he was killed off by fans in a high profile phone-poll event almost 20 years ago.

While entertaining, this doesn’t feel special enough for a crossover and likely would have benefited by playing out in a single title, where a writer would have had more room and time to turn it into a compelling story. Grade: B-