The Fabian Nicieza-written “Search for a Hero” powers on this month with part four of six (ending in January’s
Robin #182). The issue picks up right where the last one left off, with Robin dueling the still-mysterious Red Robin figure in the midst of the still-ongoing cop protests and gang riots. During the fight, Robin begins to see that Red Robin isn’t as tactful or strong as he thought.
After Red Robin gets away, Robin takes the injured Spoiler to safety. Wanna know how he does it? If having the large, Batman ’89-style machine guns on the Batmobile for “riot purposes” wasn’t enough for you, Robin uses some newly-installed gas pellets that have been laced with a distilled version of Scarecrow’s fear gas to escape the rioting mass. Yes, you read that right: Batman is apparently using his own enemies’ weapons for his own purposes. Sheesh, will we discover next month that Batman has also equipped his vehicle with Joker-toxin or Two-Face acid?
Ridiculous Batmobile aside, the rest of the issue follows pretty nicely. Red Robin’s identity is revealed (unfortunately it was quite lame and I expected something more), and the end of the issue forshadows the return of one of the 90’s most interesting Batman villains. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, but it’s a perfect character to bring back with all of the chaos in Gotham after Batman’s dissapearance. Fortunately, that’s enough to carry this arc through to completion.
And speaking of completion, Robin, Nightwing, and Birds of Prey will all end in February (for Robin, that’s one more issue after this storyline ends), while Batman and Detective Comics goes on hiatus. Don’t worry about them though, apparently they will return later in the year with their original numbering. With “Batman, R.I.P.” and Final Crisis ending, and with “Battle for the Cowl” coming up, it looks like there will be serious changes to the status quo across the entire DC universe. I’ll say one thing though: I hope they get it right this time.
Think about this: for the past few years, DC has continually forced its characters into stories where they’ve either disappeared, gone crazy, or something of that nature. Through Identity Crisis, 52, One Year Later, Countdown, Trinity, Final Crisis, and beyond, isn’t anyone else tired of stories that take away your favorite characters just to show you how important they are and how much things suck without them? I think we all get the point, DC. I hope it all works out in the end.
