ROBIN ROUNDUP: #s 158-160
Author: Ryan Hoss
Sunday, April 8, 2006

At Jett’s request, I’ll be doing Robin reviews quarterly; about every three issues or every story arc, whichever works best at the time. Anyway, let’s get on with the issues:

ROBIN #158 picks up directly where #157 left off. My review of that issue was a bit harsh, but this issue redeems the story as a whole. Here, we learn more of Klarion’s back story and what’s actually happening in the plot. Klarion and Robin work together to bring down Uriah, who is trying to combine mystical Draaga (magical animals) to create a gigantic Judgment Beast that is capable of destroying anything. Yeah, it sounds a bit out there, but it’s actually a really good issue. For some reason, I enjoyed Frazer Irving’s art a lot more as well.

ROBIN #159 is now one of my favorite issues of this title. Why? It captures everything that should be in an issue of this comic book. Tim finally goes on a date with Zoanne, his tutor at school. They’re having a nice dinner at a fancy restaurant, but then, all of a sudden, Batman appears in one of the windows! Everyone is stunned; Tim pretends to be. He goes to the restroom, and has a chat with the Dark Knight. Batman asks Tim for help with a new villain. The old, “a-hole” Batman would get pretty angry if Tim refused, but this “new” Batman understands when Tim wants to continue his date. All seems fine and dandy, but then Batman crashes through the restaurant with Jitter, the new villain. Tim ends up helping defeat him in the end. Like I said, this issue of ROBIN is excellent. The art is the best of the run so far. Beechen’s writing is superb. We got to see Tim trying to have a normal life, and the interaction with Batman was a very nice addition to the issue.

Finally, there’s ROBIN #160. This turned out to be a great issue as well. It starts off with Dodge (a kid superhero wannabe from previous issues) disappearing (or vanishing) from the hospital. This will probably play a part in future issues. Then, there’s some wrap-up between Tim and Zoanne from their date in the last issue. Now we get into the real plot of this arc. Someone is supplying one of Gotham’s gangs with a drug that gives them almost meta-human abilities. Strangely, Robin makes some connections between the drug and Strader Pharmaceuticals, where Zoanne’s father works. The issue ends abruptly after Robin encounters members from the gang. Beechen has started to include some nice Batman-like traits into Robin’s personality/crime-fighting style; the way Robin interacts with the hospital at the beginning of the issue, and the scene in the middle where he interrogates someone are priceless. I can’t wait to see how this arc continues!