Review: Batwing Vol. 4- Welcome to the Family

Quick Summary

Pros: The main storyline has plenty of fun action scenes. Luke Fox is a compelling character with a great personal story. The visuals suit this series well.

Cons: The opening chapter is a mediocre close to the previous Batwing’s adventure.

Overall: This is a solid read on its own and an optimistic start to the next era in the Batwing series. This volume has plenty of action, a great personal story, and visuals to back it all up. Luke Fox has just started his tenure as Batwing but is already proving to be a worthwhile shift for the series. Readers interested in good Batwing stories may want to check this volume out.

Story

Batwing Vol. 4: Welcome to the Family, by Jimmy Palmiotti and Justin Gray, is a promising start to a new take on Batwing. Luke Fox steps into the limelight as a different version of Batwing. His adventures are incredibly exciting and contain some really engaging fight scenes. However, they also contain some solid moments from his personal life, as he juggles his family commitments with his role as a hero. The only real problem is that the volume gets off to an awkward start, as it quickly wraps up the previous Batwing’s story in order to introduce Luke. Overall though, this is a solid start to a new chapter in this series.  

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The opening chapter of Welcome to the Family isn’t the best. It wraps up David Zavimbe’s story but does the bare minimum in doing so. I appreciated the fact that it actually gives him a sendoff, instead of simply dropping him completely, but the actual wrap-up is pretty generic.

Luckily, from this point onward, the book gets a lot better. The focus switches over to Luke Fox and the complications that have arisen from him taking on the Batwing mantle. This is great to see, as Luke’s personal situation is really interesting. He grew up in a family where a lot is expected of him and, in many ways, he is living up to this potential, as he is turning out to be an effective crimefighter and is even innovating on the Batwing design. However, the secrecy shrouding his identity prevents him from sharing this with his family. I’m really looking forward to seeing how he will balance these two sides of his life as this series progresses.

This portion of Welcome to the Family also achieves real success when it comes to action and excitement. Luke has some awesome battles against villains in mech suits, a mutant half-human/half-lion, and a powerful assassin. These battles are exciting to see play out and highlight Luke’s abilities as a hero.

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Art

The artwork in Welcome to the Family looks good and suits this comic well. Eduardo Pansica’s work is visually appealing and well-structured. This is particularly true when it comes to the fight scenes, one of the best parts of this book. These portions of the read look great and really add to the action and excitement already coming from the narrative. Plus, plenty of creativity comes from the designs behind this book’s villains, all of whom stand out as being different from the villain coming before them. Altogether, this makes for a book that looks good and enhances the reading experience.

Continuity

Batwing Vol. 4: Welcome to the Family continues the story from Batwing Vol. 3: Enemy of the State (Review).

The story here continues in Batwing Vol. 5: Into the Dark (Review).

This volume also references another comic book, detailed below:

• Batwing #25 is a tie-in to the Batman: Zero Year event. This references events that took place across the first half of Batman: Zero Year (Review).