After two issues worth of crossovers and one that was largely filler,
RED ROBIN finally stops playing second fiddle to outside forces this month and starts a brand new arc, “7 Days of Death.” Right off the bat, I have to say that I loved this issue. If you haven’t picked up
RED ROBIN in a while, this is a great issue to start back with.
The story opens as Red Robin and Batman (Bruce Wayne) uncover a mysterious worldwide assassination tournament. One of their leads instigates a confrontation between Tim and gang leader/possible undercover cop Lynx. Nicieza has been building up this character as Tim’s “Catwoman” counterpart for some time, and it works brilliantly. Lynx provides Tim some information that allows him to form a plan to bring these assassins out into the open.
While parts of the plan itself borrow some situations from THE DARK KNIGHT (complete with a “Lau”), it fits right along with Tim’s recent “get the job done even if it’s illegal” attitude. Although the target escapes, Tim notices the similarities between his armor and Scarab, an Egyptian assassin. Then, Red Robin gets Scarab out of jail and makes her take him to their secret hideaway in Cairo. The story in this issue is definitely one of my favorite setups for an arc so far. The writing is tight and fast paced, while plenty of things are set up for the issues to come. Ever since DC cut their comics to 20 pages, I’ve usually noticed the shorter stories -- but not here. This month, everything flowed well and I felt like there was enough content for the price.
Beyond the narrative itself, Fabian Nicieza’s characterizations in this issue should be commended. He really gets the voice of the individual members of the Bat-family. For example, look at Gordon’s current assessment of Red Robin:
“You can find shadows in broad daylight. You’re getting to be more like him every day.”
And here’s what Tim thinks about Batman (Dick Grayson)’s pursuit of the assassin:
“Pursuit would be useless. Well…useless for those of us who accept the laws of gravity…”
On the art side of things, Marcus To continues to do a fantastic job. Seriously, DC, keep this guy around as long as you can. He has an incredible sense of action and composition. He always does a good job selling hard-to-depict villains. And most of all, the way he renders his characters in terms of proportion and emotion are fantastic -- which is extremely important when you have more than one “Batman” in an issue. Bruce Wayne looks like Bruce Wayne. Dick Grayson looks like Dick Grayson. And of course, Red Robin himself has never looked better.
This issue was a brilliant return to form for the title, and I hope it stays that way. It was an engrossing story from start to finish without crossovers or filler. In a recent interview, Fabian Nicieza stated that next month’s cliffhanger is the best one he’s ever written. I can’t wait to see what he comes up with next
SYNOPSIS: The "7 Days of Death" begin with assassination attempts on Bruce Wayne and Lucius Fox by the international assassin Scarab – but isn't she in jail? To find the killer, Red Robin may have to spring the real Scarab from prison! Is this an assault on Wayne Enterprises, or do the first two days of death signal the start of a deeper conspiracy?