“Red Robin” #2 Review

The Grail, Part 2

Writer: Chris Yost

Pencils: Ramon Bachs

Inks: Art Thibert

Colors: Guy Major

Cover Art: Francis Manapul

Tim Drake continues to scour the world for Bruce Wayne with an unlikely ally and a new attitude, prompting me to wonder just what in the hell they think they’re doing to Tim Drake.  Spoilers within!

Tim is still scouring the world for Bruce Wayne, using last issues established failure of logic that is “My life sucks, ergo he must be alive”.  Hope is nice and all, but Tim’s been through enough that he can admit this to himself.  The entire Bat-family has turned their back on himin his eyes (though one could gather from his brief interaction with Spoiler this issue that its the other way around), and his only ally is Ra’s al Ghul.

Tim’s entire logical progression of this and the book’s first issue consists of broken conclusions, leaps of faith, and horribly out of character moments, all with the apparent intention of pushing a costumed identity solely because it was featured in mega-hit epic Kingdom Come, despite the fan outcry at the identity being less than favorable.  And can you blame them?  Tim’s reasoning is that Red Robin can “cross lines Batman and Robin can’t”.  What the hell kind of idea is that?  Its an imaginary line that Tim has created so that he can wear the Red Robin costume and not sully the notion of Batman.  Oh, and those lines he speaks of?  The Tim Drake we’ve known for years would have never approached them.  When you get to the point that Tim is using machine gun spray to scare off opponents, you know its going too far.  And Tim allying himself with Ra’s al Ghul is an even bigger no-no; hell, that stunt was tried in “Resurrection of Ra’s al Ghul” a few years ago, and it didn’t work then.

The art looks decent, though whenever Tim is drawn in the Red Robin costume, he looks frumpy and hunched over, as if the costume was too big for him.  Which makes sense, considering its previous wearers were bigger, and Tim is portrayed on the cover as being smaller than Red Robin.  Coloring is good, but it feels dull and muted in places.

There’s just really not a lot of good going for this series.  I’ve been a huge fan of Tim Drake, and I always enjoy seeing him in action, but Red Robin takes almost 20 years of character development and throws them out the window.  Red Robin#2 gets a firm C, and that’s thanks to the Spoiler appearance.