Robin #141

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Robin - No. 141

DC Comics Script: Bill Willingham Pencils: Scott McDaniel Inks: Andy Owens Colors: Guy Major Letters: Phil Balsman Cover: Scott McDaniel & Andy Owens Editor: Michael Wright

Review:
Written by Eric Barrett

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Anyone reading comic books within the last 6 months knows that the world of anyone even remotely associated with Batman is in turmoil. Nightwing doesn’t know if he’s a good guy or bad guy, Batman is alone for the first time in years, Batgirl is off on her own, and Robin is, well…busy. In fact, out of all the Bat characters, I’d argue that Robin is going through the most changes.

He’s witnessed a classmate die (then come back), his girlfriend and replacement die, lost his family, moved to a new town, had an uncle – who wasn’t his uncle, and now he’s been asked to join a super-secret military group.

I’d say that qualifies for a lot of change.

Personally I’ve been a little disappointed in the last few issues of Robin. Don’t get me wrong, Willingham is writing excellent stories, but they haven’t felt very relevant to the things that have recently happened to Tim Drake.

But with Issue 141, I think that is all beginning to change. Robin has suddenly been confronted with Darla (a classmate who was killed during War Games) – who has miraculously come back from the dead. Unfortunately for Tim, the price she paid for life was to agree to kill Robin.

Fortunately Tim has a plan – which involves proving there have been multiple Robin’s and enlisting Superboy to play one more version. Naturally when things don’t work out as planned Tim must confront Darla, possibly for the last time. And if that’s not enough, while all of this is going on, the super-secret military organization that is trying to recruit Tim finds out that they have “lost” a group of super powered villains. But who took them and why they were taken, and how they were taken are all still mysteries.

It really seems as if Robin is going to have to make some “hard” decisions soon. This suggests that the Robin timeline is following the timeline for Infinite Crisis. It would be a nice fit if Tim’s world was rocked at the same time as Batman’s.

Once again, Willingham shows what great writing can do for a title. In this issue we really get to see Tim Drake use all of his abilities - and I’m not talking about his fighting ability. We see him use the logic and reason that Batman taught him. But he also uses some of the other skills that Batman isn’t quite as successful at using – namely friendship and empathy. Tim uses his bond of friendship in recruiting Superboy for his plan, and without Superboy, Robin would be dead. More importantly however, he showed his empathy for others – in this case Darla. Admittedly that empathy gets him into trouble, but it’s what separates Tim Drake from the rest of the Bat Family. And in my opinion it may be Tim’s greatest strength.

Overall this was an excellent book that seems to start drawing the loose ends together. Hopefully the next few issues will show some of the changes that have to come in Tim’s life, both personally and professionally. I’m looking forward to issue 142.

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Rating (out of 5):

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