DCU Comic Book Reviews

RED ROBIN #5

Council Of Spiders, Part One of Four

December 2009

Written by Chris Yost

Pencils by Ramon Bachs

Digital Inks by Guy Major

Cover by Francis Manapul

Synopsis

In Brazil, 19 years ago, a young girl named Victoria ran into the jungle to get away from some bad men.  She stumbled and fell into a spider’s nest.  Despite getting stung, she managed to live, although the mass spider bites changed her.  She then searched out and found her pursuers, killing them in revenge.  She then returned home, but due to her condition, she killed her family.  She became a legend of the girl whose touch meant death.  Now, in Iraq, Tam Fox is having trouble finding Tim Wayne.  When she returns to her hotel, Tim (dressed as Red Robin) and assassin Prudence are sprawled on her bed, bloody and beaten.  She attempts to call for help, but she is stopped by ninjas.  Later, Tim wakes up in the midst of Ra’s Al Ghul’s League of Assassins who saved his life when the Widower attacked him.  Later, Tim joins a meeting of the League of Assassins to discuss the attack against and other members of the League.  It seems the Council of Spiders is targeting their group.  Ra’s al Ghul wants Tim to lead the League in eradicating the Council.  Tim agrees to help, hoping to tear down the League from the inside out.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

After finishing this issue I had an “Ah-Ha!” moment.  Everything that Yost has been working on in this series has been leading to this moment, the story of Tim trying to take down the League from the inside.  The basic idea is not a new one, but in terms of the DC universe, I don’t think we have seen any writer attempt to take such a detailed look at the inner workings of the League or attempt to find a way to destroy the League.  Most of the time the focus is on Ra’s al Ghul rather than the ninjas and/or assassins that he employs.  In fact, I think this is the first time we have seen any high level officers besides the White Ghost.  The League kinda operates as Ra’s on call fighters rather than a working team.  Even when Ra’s was killed in Death and the Maidens, the League continued on, with Talia or someone else taking over for Ra’s.  So, yeah, I think this story has the possibility to be an interesting look into the inner workings of the League and with Tim playing both sides there is the potential for tension and conflict to drive the story.

The problem, however, is that this book was created and promoted as Tim’s search for Bruce Wayne and taking the League down from the inside has nothing to do with Bruce.  Now, one could argue that perhaps Ra’s knows more than he has let on so therefore Tim might gain some insight by using League resources, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here.  By all accounts it feels as if Tim’s search has been forgotten.  Not that it really began.  Most of what Yost was doing with Tim’s search was half-hearted and ill-formed, lacking motivation and evidence to make us believe in what Tim was doing.  To compound the problem with Tim’s search is the recent issue of Adventure Comics in which Tim interacts with Superboy.  You can read my review if you wish, be essentially the gist is that in one issue Geoff Johns was able to capture a lot more of Tim and who he is and what he believes at this point in his life than Yost has managed to do in 4 issues.  It makes me think that Yost had very little interest in that plot point and only did it because editorial wanted him to.  Now, given the chance, he is going to abandon it and write the story he wants to tell. 

I have said it before, but Yost’s structure and method of storytelling does not help and in fact can hinder how one reads the story.  The constant back and forth between now and then is not useful.  Plus, I am not sure why we needed so much information regarding the little girl, or why we needed to “hear” Tim tell the story based on what he heard from someone else, or why these scenes are intercut with the rest of the issue.  Why not tell it in one sitting for a page or two, then get to the main story. 

One minor quibble:  if Tim is supposed to be such a great detective, why would he think he had been resurrected in a Lazarus Pit.  He should be able to feel the injury and/or bandages.  At the very least he should have the presence of mind to take stock of his situation before acting, thus alerting him to the injury and/or bandages.  It seemed awfully stupid to have Tim  immediately jump to the conclusion he reached (especially since it is not a cliffhanger). 

 

ïPREVIOUS	Main		Page	NEXTð

Home ●  Blog ● Who Are We? ● Site News
Alive and Well since April 16, 2006

 DC Universe Reviews.  All Rights Reserved
  Characters, trademarks, brands are property of DC Comics

For problems or questions regarding this website, please contact our kindly webmaster.
Last updated: 08/06/11.