Red Robin #23 – Review

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

The Story: Seriously, Tim—what is up with all these women who want you dead?

The Review: The detective aspect in a lot of comics has faded in recent years, having become much harder to write on a lot of levels.  One: science and technology have advanced to the point where you need to put in some serious research to put out a credible mystery.  Two: a true-blooded mystery requires a fairly intense commitment to thoughtful and farsighted plotting.  Three: it’s just plain difficult creating suspense out of detective work in a comic.

In Detective Comics, Scott Snyder generates that suspense by instilling a sense of horror to Dick Grayson’s CSI-type work.  Here in Red Robin, Nicieza goes for a more action-thriller feel, building up the layers of Tim’s more FBI-like operations until they reach Mission Impossible proportions.  Tim’s a one-man unit out to take down whole networks of crime—that’s about as impossible as it gets.

Red Robin’s preference for going it alone really allows us to enjoy how meticulously he plans out everything.  With Batman, you take it for granted that a lot of prep-time is involved, but you actually get to see Tim’s thought processes, a fun mix of gumshoe narration and his own dry sense of humor (“So when I hit the apartment of Jimmy Li…the leader of the Golden Dragons took exception.  And then she took me out the window.”).  He lacks the physicality of the other Bat-guys (as he himself notes looking at Dick’s aerial acrobatics), but his clipping brainwork brings its own kind of excitement.

Tim does tend to handle his dirty work solo most of the time, but that doesn’t prevent Nicieza from using recurring characters as a revolving supporting cast.  As great as it is to see Bruce and Dick following Tim’s lead, even despite their doubts over his questionable decisions, it’s Lynx and her inscrutable loyalties that really spices up Tim’s life: tackling him out a multi-story window and then making out during the free-fall—talk about having it all.

The strength of Red Robin comes mostly from Nicieza’s crafty plotting.  He has a great handle on technology, or at least he makes it seem so to someone as technologically ignorant as me, and can use it to create and develop leads and clues for his story: the issue starts with a website giving backdoor access for kill orders; it ends with the revival of the Assassins Tournament, a kind of hit man’s Iron Chef with international CEOs being the theme ingredient of choice.