For an entirely functional story, Batman: Face the Face is rather good. It’s well-written, but somehow passionless. The mystery and the investigation of that mystery are not compelling, however, the scenic details are... if not compelling, at least thoughtful and showing evidence of character depth. Writer James Robinson cares about the characters and works real hard to present Batman in a way the reader can embrace. There’s a scene--a rather good scene--where the people of Gotham City cheer Batman’s return. This scene hasn’t been possible for quite a while in Batman comics, because of the idiotic approach DC Comics has dictacted toward Batman since... the mid-1990s (there are, of course, good Batman comics in that period, but the approach was still an insult to storytelling). For the first time in a long time, I’ve identified with Batman. It’s been the goal of the writer to make the reader identify with that character, instead of just with his supporting cast. Robinson doesn’t wholly succeed, however, but that failure is not in his approach, it’s in his way of keeping the reader in the dark about things Batman knows about in order surprise the reader, to create tension in scenes. While I can appreciate the reasons for it, it distances the reader from the story.
The more compelling story elements don’t involve Batman at all. The compelling character moments all do... and the compelling story elements do not. It’s a disconnect and it hurts the comic book. Robinson is visibly disinterested in the “mystery,” he gives up on it after a point. The big mystery becomes a small solution and a functional setup for future (non-Robinson written) comic books. Since Face the Face ran through two different Batman titles (Batman and Detective Comics) and had two different arts (Leonard Kirk and Don Kramer, Kirk is far better), Robinson eventually starts giving chapter (issue) time to a different narrator, a private eye hired by Batman to work during the day. These scenes, while they’re all involving that boring mystery, feature some of Robinson’s more interested work. These scenes have the most story content in all of Face the Face, but since Robinson’s not dealing with iconic and semi-iconic characters, they’re--though better written in many ways--a lot less effective.
James Robinson is considered--and his The Golden Age is an excellent comic book--one of the best superhero writers not currently working in comic books (he’s off writing bad movies). Taken from that standard, Face the Face is a disappointment. As a Batman comic book, however... it’s pretty damn good.
