DCU Comic Book Reviews

RED ROBIN #2

The Grail, Part Two Of Four

September 2009

Written by Chris Yost

Pencils by Ramon Bachs

Inks by Art Thibert

Covers by Francis Manapul

Synopsis

On an airplane, Tim Wayne (aka Red Robin) holds a cell phone and debates whether he should keep it or throw it away and continue the search for Bruce Wayne.  Earlier, in Paris, three assassins set their sights on Tim, who is able to avoid the sniper fire and then turn the tables on them.  Before, all of Tim’s friends search high and low for him with little luck.  Now, Red Robin defeats the assassins, but they are able to get away.  However, they leave behind a cell phone.  Red Robin picks it up.  Ra’s al Ghul is on the other line.  In South Africa, an assassin completes his assignment, but is then killed.  Before, Stephanie Brown (aka Spoiler) finds him.  She tells him that everyone is worried about him.  He tells her if “everyone” cared, they would leave him alone.  Now, in Berlin, Tim picks up the phone and calls Ra’s al Ghul.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

Somewhere, there is an interesting story about Tim’s grief over the death of Bruce Wayne and his stubborn refusal to believe his mentor and father-figure has died.  Tim has been through a lot in the past few years of comic book time and the manner in which he deals with his grief can lend itself to some interesting stories.  Unfortunately, we are not really seeing it here.  Part of the problem is the constant shift backward and forwards in time.  I don’t think it adds much to the story and certainly the opening section with the phone didn’t make the issue any more suspenseful.  The shifts in time are also confusing because we don’t know when is the “present” and when is the past or the future.  Hell, we get a shift to Tim and Stephanie, but there is not time stamp to indicate when it happened.   We get specific “twenty-fours from now” followed by vague “before” time. 

What it comes down to is that the stylistic structure of the comic just does not help in terms of telling the story that Yost wants to tell.  We’ve got random scenes of Tim doing different things at the different times, but it doesn’t really help to explain the central conflict.  The conflict in the story isn’t the assassins or what to do with the phone.  The actual conflict is Tim’s own inner demons.  It is an internal conflict and while this may manifest as external forces (such as Ra’s al Ghul and the Spoiler) it still comes down to what Tim is thinking or feeling.  But we don’t get that in the midst of fights or flashbacks or teases.  There should’ve been something in there about why Tim would be hesitant to call Ra’s al Ghul, what it means to Tim and who he is and what he believes by taking that step to call him.  By contacting the man who owns Lazarus’ pits, is he admitting Bruce is dead?  By contacting Bruce’s arch-enemy, is he admitting that the search for Bruce is a step towards evil?  Frankly, we don’t really know what he is thinking and that is part of the problem. 

For the ending, Tim talks about being alone.  The whole thing about being alone (being the only one to believe Bruce is dead) is, I think, an important aspect of the story, but one that has not been dealt with all that much.  We see that Dick disagrees with Tim’s decision, but basically all we see is Tim deciding to search for Bruce.  I don’t think he actually talked to anyone about it or discussed how he felt.  It feels like Tim made a decision, but why he feels alone is not clearly defined.  Granted, I get it, no one else thinks Bruce is alive, but as a reader we need to see it, not to be told. 

Ultimately, what it comes down to is that Yost has not been able to provide solid evidence on why Tim is searching for Bruce Wayne.  No matter how good the fight sequence might be (and I really enjoyed the one in this issue), it can’t take the place of a good characterization and internal conflict.

 

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