By: Fabian Nicienza (writer), Marcus To (penciller), Ray McCarthy and Mark McKenna (inkers), Guy Major (colors)
The Story: The Hitlist, Part One: The Domino Effect: This tale opens on three brothers, Dick, Tim and Damian, who have reconciled and become family again. However, their chosen vocations pull them apart once more, Batman and Robin after one set of criminals, Red Robin after the Lynx. Tim struggles, not only with first contact with the Lynx and some weird coincidences, but with his whole life. He’s got five questions to ask: Where to live, what to do, how to do it, who to do it with and who to do it against. Red Robin #13 answers three of those questions.
What’s Good: Chris Yost steered the first twelve issues of Red Robin through a roller coaster of adventure as Tim Drake sough to prove himself. Fabian Nicienza, with issue #13, assumes the role of worthy successor. The dialogue is crisp, the characters vibrant, the situations fun (Tim is engaged!) and the hero has a plan. Actually, that last part is not new. Red Robin, if nothing else, has proven himself to be the one superhero that walks around with pockets stuffed with plans. This is what makes him so successful and engaging as a character. Tim is driven, not by something so amorphous as crime, but by specific, strategic plans. And he’s obviously cooking up a big one now, thanks to some fine plotting and writing by Nicienza.
To, McCarthy, McKenna and Major turn in some fine artwork. The facial expressions and level of textural detail are a bit understated for my tastes, but To picks the camera angles, panel compositions and postures that make this story materialize. The quick shift in camera angles, whether watching Tim shake down one of the golden dragons, or when following Tim manage his fiancé, make the panels breeze along. The double splash page is dynamic, and even Tam’s ridiculed humiliation is penciled into a life that is moving and happening. That dynamism counts just as much in the fight scenes, and the color work, whether dark and sharp or blurred and surreal, give the panels an extra dimension.
What’s Not So Good: Alright, bear with me. I’m going to go a little free-thinking here. Technically, this issue is problem-free and gets itself into C+ or B- territory without too much trouble. I think though, that the Red Robin series, like the Batgirl series, will be limited by the fundamentals of the character and what he’s about. Tim, like Stephanie, is an upbeat, cheerful person. You can contrast that against Dick and Damian, who, at their cores, are very much darker. That means that the kind of deeply creepy Batman and Robin stories that Morrison wrote wouldn’t fit the mood, not without Tim (or Stephanie) losing their essential charm and innocence. Tim (and Stephanie) is also a creature of Gotham. He will never be someone you can profitably move around too much without losing something important (Gotham produces the Bat-family), so the real range of the stories seems limited. So where can a writer be ambitious on Red Robin (or Batgirl)? I think Nicienza has found a useful vein of story ore in Tim’s new plan, but I’m wondering how long it will take before it becomes old hat and the entertaining variations on Red Robin (and Batgirl) are done.
Don’t get me wrong, this issue is good, but coming off of reviewing Brightest Day and The Thanos Imperative, I wonder if the canvas on this series isn’t a bit too small. I do have one idea… If you’re still with me. Tolkein created a fantasy landscape. Gene Roddenberry created a science fictional landscape. Abnett and Lanning in The Thanos Imperative have modeled a biological-cosmological landscape (the Cancerverse amid the multiverse). Various writers working on Batman have created a deep and broad psychological landscape. Dante, in the Divine Comedy, created a moral landscape. Maybe, given the brightness of both Tim’s and Stephanie’s characters, the dimension to be plumbed and mined in this series is a similarly moral landscape.
Conclusion: This is a fun issue with a dynamic hero who’s taking control. It’s also the first book in a new arc. Pick it up. It’s definitively worth the cover price.
Grade: B-
-DS Arsenault