Red Robin #25 – Review

By: Fabian Nicieza (writer), Marcus To (penciller), Ray McCarthy (inker), Guy Major (colorist)

The Story: Anyone who says a figurative backstabbing is worse than a literal one talks crazy.

The Review: Most of us have at one time or another had a moment where we wondered how everyone else could be oblivious to what seems to be such an obvious conclusion.  Now imagine being in that position day-in, day-out, a constant bombardment of possible scenarios you see so clearly and no one else does.  It’s consuming, I imagine.  But what do I know?  The only hypothetical that consistently plagues my mind is what sort of sandwich I should get next.

For Tim Drake, his ever-ticking mind is a terrific asset, but as we see in this issue, it also poses a fairly gnarly risk.  Sure, the instant assessment of situational variables and the determination of the most logical response are handy virtues for a nerd who decides to take up vigilantism.  But give into that mindset a little too far and you, like Tim, will begin to weigh everything according to quantifiable values, a means-end philosophy that reduces humans to mere x’s and y’s.

Sure, when it comes outsmarting the ladies out to kill (and get preggers by) you, or gaining entrance to an ancient cabal of assassins that requires you die first—one heck of Catch-22, if you don’t mind me saying so—a Machiavellian mind can get the job done in stylish fashion.  And nothing ices that cake more than a slick, just ever-so-cocky explanation: “Collapsible katana blade.  Blood pack on my harness.  A pint of my blood mixed with glycerin water.”

Red Robin #24 – Review

By: Fabian Nicieza (writer), Marcus To (penciller), Ray McCarthy (inker), Guy Major (colorist)

The Story: I’m telling you, Tim, she wants you to put a baby inside her!

The Review: When people see a tightly woven, layered plot, they tend to wonder how the writer manages to foresee how little, early details can wind up playing a huge role in the final outcome of a story.  The truth is things usually work the other way around; when it comes time to figure out the big fat middle and ending, a strong writer will usually look to the details they already laid down to help them develop their story.

In this issue, Nicieza takes threads and characters he established from several previous story arcs (Red Robin’s escapade in Russia, his first encounter with Scarab, and most recently the threat on Lucius Fox’s life) and winds them all together into a cohesive storyline, and the twists never stop coming.  Crazy as it sounds, the Assassination Tournament merely serves as a cover for an even more intriguing plot, one with ancient, possibly supernatural roots.

Red Robin has largely been more of a down-to-earth kind of comic, with all its emphasis on technology and fighters using their wits, fists, and weapons to get the job done.  You’ll run into the occasional metahuman, but mostly Nicieza avoids any flashiness in the action department.  When he brings in this apparently otherworldly force to the table, the suspense feels that much tighter as you can’t imagine how Tim’s brains or martial artistry will get him out of this one.

The situation really calls attention to how much fun you get out of seeing Tim think his way through obstacles and enemies.  There’s definitely something very satisfying about seeing him take down an entire mob of Scarabs with the press of a well thought-out button.  But it’s also rather fun to how Tim can be a little too clever by half.  His own foresight winds up losing his target, as the flash mob he sets up to cover his escape actually covers Scarab’s instead.

It reminds us that Tim, for all his experience and prodigiousness, still hasn’t reached the peak of his prowess just yet.  With Batman, it takes a fairly substantial challenge to put him within believable danger, but almost every issue you feel Tim getting in just over his head.  It does credit to his opponents.  These are, after all, trained assassins; you wouldn’t take them too seriously if they can be taken down that easily by a kid whose martial artistry isn’t all there yet.