Review: Battle for the Cowl #3

Creative team: Story/Pencils by Tony S. Daniel; inked by Sandu Forea

Well, it’s official. Nightwing is the new Batman.

And, if you think about it, that makes Jason Todd the new Joker.

Think about it. The mechanism that made the Batman / Joker pairing so fascinating was they were always two sides of the same coin. They were both born of tragedy — but each chose radically different paths from that point.

In the same way, Nightwing and Todd share similar origins: Both became Robin. Both were separated from Batman. And both had to react to Batman’s departure.

In respect to that last point, Nightwing chose to react to the absence of a Batman by carrying on the best of what the Dark Knight stood for. Todd chose to pervert the very worst.

Battle for the Cowl #3, aptly so, features a climactic face-off between the two erstwhile boys wonder.

The first of many.