After the stalling pace of
RED ROBIN #9 and the needless crossover with
#8, the current arc of this title finally picks up the pace with this month’s issue. And although I just said that the BATGIRL crossover was needless, it actually did have some good character moments between Tim and Stephanie, both of whom have new identities to cope with.
Still, that’s beside the point. Essentially, the crossover was needless because RED ROBIN #10 recaps the entire BATGIRL issue in one page. Setting events in motion that have been brewing for the past couple of issues, Ra’s al Ghul has returned to Gotham to eliminate everyone close to Bruce Wayne and his alter-ego.
The issue opens with Tim and Stephanie fighting side-by-side to thwart an assassination attempt on Leslie Thompkins. After that’s taken care of, Tim and Stephanie—now Red Robin and Batgirl -- team up with former (?) League of Assassins member Pru to prevent the rest of the potential murders from occurring.
The rest of the issue placed Vicki Vale and Tommy Elliot in some intriguing situations. Vale is extremely suspicious about Tim Drake’s whereabouts and is pretty darn close to discovering his secret -- especially now that she’s questioning Tam Fox (Lucius’ daughter). Meanwhile, Hush makes a deal with Ra’s that I’m very excited to see play out over the rest of the arc. It’s honestly a breath of fresh air to see these characters contribute to the story in a Bat-title that isn’t one of the headliners.
There are a lot of reasons I was pleased with RED ROBIN this month. There were no flashbacks. There were no random DCU continuity plugs or awkward Superboy-hug moments. Marcus To’s artwork continues to impress.
However, the title is still far from perfect. The “shocking” way that Pru initially confronts Red Robin and Batgirl had me rolling my eyes. Towards the end of the issue, we get a full-page spread of the assassins sent by Ra’s to eliminate the heroes—and they’re extremely goofy looking. Come to think of it, that’s happened quite a bit in this title. Red Robin gets to a certain point in his adventure, and then -- BAM! -- out of nowhere, there’s a full-page spread of odd, uninspired enemies ready to take him out, right at the end of the issue!
I’m also worried about the long-term goals for RED ROBIN -- even more for the character than the title itself.
When this arc is over and everyone discovers that the REAL Batman is alive, where does Tim go from there? What then is his purpose? Why is he still Red Robin? Where will his character “fit?”
I’m afraid of the character and the comic losing focus, similar to how Nightwing didn’t seem to “fit” in recent years. It got so bad that Dan Didio heavily considered killing off the character -- but we all saw how that turned out.
