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By Various (DC Comics)
ISBN 1-84023-969-7
2004’s big crossover event throughout the regularly published Batman family of titles was called War Games, which was collected almost before you knew it –Â as these things usually are. One of the major problems with these publishing events is they don’t start, occur, or finish in a vacuum. Many of the events leading up to War Games were published as disparate shorter stories from the aforementioned family canon of titles. One such bunch of these featuring stories from Robin #126-128 and Detective Comics #790-796 are gathered together in the prequel War Drums.
Anything I tell you about the events of these stories (which, if you’re chronologically asking, begin just after the end of the Hush storyline – Batman: Hush vol 1 ISBN: 1-84023-718-X and vol 2 ISBN: 1-84023-738-4) beyond the fact that Robin’s girlfriend Spoiler is groomed to take his place would in fact constitute a gross spoiler of the other kind. You wouldn’t need to read some rather well-written stories by Bill Willingham and Andersen Gabrych, drawn by the likes of Pete Woods, Damion Scott and Brad Walker with all the usual contributions from a whole lot of other people, which would be a shame.
This is standard Batman fare, which, if you’re a Batman fan, you would like. There are evil pop divas, kidnapped babies, loads of fighting and for a change, teen angst is kept to a minimum. There is however an inescapable feeling of characters treading water while waiting for a hammer to fall.
© 2005 DC Comics. All rights reserved.