Red Robin #22 – Review

By: Fabian Nicieza (writer), Freddie Williams II (artist), Guy Major (colorist)

The Story: People complain Gotham’s a God-forsaken city—wait till they see what happens when He starts paying attention.

The Review: Religion can be a dicey subject for any medium of serial fiction, comics included.  It’s no coincidence people say to avoid talking about politics and religion in the same breath.  Like political matters, the subtleties of many faiths are generally lost on most people, comics writers included.  What you end up getting much of the time falls somewhere between offensive at worst and oversimplified at best.

This issue has the distinction of being both at the same time, although Nicieza handles the subject as tastefully as can be hoped for.  His writing of Red Robin’s agnosticism (you can’t really call it atheism as he emphasizes he wants to believe) rings very true.  Tim’s narration is full of anger and confusion, as anyone who can’t equate a loving god with multiple personal tragedies would be.

Even so, Robin’s distaste of God for the struggles he’s experienced is still a very limited perspective on God’s role in people’s lives—which is surprising, since Tim usually has such a broader outlook on things.  But that’s what makes him part of the Batman family: when things get really personal, a lot of his better qualities wind up shelved.  It reminds us that as intelligent as he is, he’s still a kid in some ways; crises of faith come with the job.

It’s the portrayal of the antagonists that gets really iffy.  Now, Azrael falls in the tradition of DC’s overtly Christian characters, nearly all of whom (Huntress, the Spectre, etc.) come off strident, zealous, and fixated on punishment.  It’s not really their fault; if you fight crime on God’s behalf, it probably requires more of His vengeful qualities.  But these characters offer a very limited view of the religion, pointedly avoiding the New Testament altogether.

The Crusader takes things to a whole new level, flippantly quoting from the Gospels (with little reflection on their holistic themes of mercy) to justify his judgment and destruction of Gotham.  He’s the worst (or best, depending on how you look at it) example of Christian radicalism, which may be a sly comment on the current paranoia regarding extremism from other religions.

It can be very easy to dismiss the plot as theologically ignorant, but the story’s not over yet, and Nicieza is too qualified a writer to underestimate his grasp on something as nuanced as matters of faith.  The quality of this issue drastically depends on how things conclude next time: how Red Robin resolves his faith issues, how the Crusader and Azrael carry themselves, how the other, more tender side of Christianity may or may not be addressed.

Williams apes To’s style in his focus on the characters and the action happening in the foreground.  His lines, like To’s, are very slick and youthful, but they’re a bit rougher and a little less refined, so sometimes his figures get distorted and lose depth when the action or perspective gets more complicated.  Major does an adequate job coloring, but nothing terribly outstanding.

Conclusion: Smart plotting and sensitive narration balances out some otherwise shady religious elements.  I’m predicting Nicieza’s going to redeem those elements in the next issue, so stand by.

Grade: B

– Minhquan Nguyen

Some Musings: – While we’re on the subject, why can’t DC’s Christian superheroes be more like the Jewish Ragman?  At least his powers, grim as they are, offer the souls he captures redemption.

– In what context would an immortal, genius martial artist master like Ra’s al Ghul ever play dominoes?  In fact, how many ordinary people play dominoes?