With the announcement of
Batman, Inc. launching after
The Return of Bruce Wayne, Gotham City's status quo has been set with
Dick Grayson and
Damian Wayne as the new
Batman & Robin,
Stephanie Brown as the new
Batgirl, and
Tim Drake as
Red Robin. The Bat comics have had more freedom in writing stories that aren't just filler before (what we presumed would be) Bruce Wayne returning and resetting the status quo back to what it used to be before
Final Crisis. In Tim Drake's case, he has never wanted to be the one to take over as Batman, being perfectly content in being Robin forever. With him becoming Red Robin, he has continued to be "Robin," but has also made the transition that Dick Grayson made in becoming Nightwing. Although he is (technically) the 3rd person to be Red Robin, neither Dick Grayson nor Jason Todd made any sense as a grown-up Robin. Tim Drake makes perfect sense as Red Robin, an in-between of Robin and Batman, yet he is not Nightwing.
Starting with
Red Robin #13, Fabian Nicieza has taken over as the regular writer, hopefully, for an extended period. Nicieza is best known as being the co-creator of Deadpool, the infamous superhero version of 4chan. He is also known for being extremely hit and miss with his writing, either being one of the best or one of the laziest writers in the industry. If anything can be indicated by his writing on
Red Robin #13-16, Nicieza is in full kick-ass mode. Nicieza was the final writer of
Robin, so he clearly knows the character of Tim Drake and how the change in status quo has affected him. For his first 4 issues, Nicieza starts his run with "The Hit List," a story of Tim Drake (finally) establishing his own status quo in Gotham City after spending the first 12 issues mostly moping about how he is no longer Robin and traveling the world searching for clues that Bruce Wayne is still alive. "The Hit List" explores Tim Drake's M.O., taking down various super-villains and criminals in an order that will cause them to be toppled in a domino effect.
While a pretty simple premise, the story-writing and insight is just plain stellar, not much else can be said to describe it other than
Red Robin is now a must-read series after its previous irrelevancy. If there is anything negative to say about this series, it's the cover artwork. While I would love to blame Marcus To and/or Ray McCarthy on coloring or off-model errors, it's really the editor's fault for not giving them a strict model to follow. As you can see in the 4 covers posted, Red Robin's utility belt has
three different designs and his gloves magically gain 2 scallops a la Batman in the 4th cover. The reason I don't blame the penciller or the inker for the off-model wackiness is because in-comic he
does have a strict model that they follow. Red Robin's canon model is not surprisingly, closest to the final cover's appearance, only differing in the color of the utility belt; it should be yellow, not gray or black.
Minor nitpicking aside,
RED ROBIN IS
AWESOME. I look forward to Nicieza's continuing run on this series and I hope it runs for as long as possible. While I wasn't confident Tim Drake could stay as Red Robin forever, Fabian Nicieza has convinced me that Red Robin is to Tim Drake as Nightwing is to Dick Grayson. Will Tim Drake eventually become Batman? Who cares, he kicks ass right now as Red Robin!
RR #13: 4/5
RR #14: 4/5
RR #15: 5/5
RR #16: 4/5
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