DCU Comic Book Reviews

ROBIN #142

Officer Candidate

November 2005

Written by Bill Willingham

Pencils by Scott McDaniel

Inks by Andy Owens

Cover by Scott McDaniel & Andy Owens

Synopsis

Insertion...Robin has joined the Veteran and his team on a mission to capture a team of meta-human commandos.  After several hours flying on a plane, they parachute into the compound, but find it empty.  Investigation...the team finds unhatched demon eggs.  Robin is told the hatchlings are dangerous as their bite turns humans into mutated, savage things.  Elsewhere, the Veteran finds a number of eggs that have already hatched.  Trapped...the team’s extraction is several hours away and the demon hatchlings are still within the area.  The team destroys all of the buildings in the compound except one, where they make their stand.  Swarm...the hatchling attacks.  Robin is given a gun, but he refuses to use it, so he uses gas grenades and then hand-to-hand combat.  The Kill Box...eventually, the rescue plane arrives and is able to kill the remaining demons.  Aftermath...the hatching demons have been defeated.  The team finds the mother demon and kill her.  And Robin receives a kiss from Lieutenant Ilsa Von Hammer. 

Review

This issue was a mixed bag for me.  The idea of Robin in the military is not the best of ideas (really, superheroes should stay away from the military), but at least the mission was not dragged out beyond this one issue.  Even though the story is part of the larger whole of the book, this issue did essentially have a beginning, middle, and end as the team successfully completes its mission.  Unfortunately, fighting demons in the middle of the desert does not lend itself to a gritty urban street fight like Robin (and more like Shadowpact, the team from Willingham’s Day of Vengeance mini-series); he is out of his element and while this may be intended because of the military team he is with, I also thought the military team were out of their element as well.  Magic, the military, and Robin are three things that do not belong together. 

There are a couple of small things that unfortunately took me out of the story, so that I started looking critically at things rather than actually enjoying the story.  The first is Robin’s costume, which he continues to wear during this military exercise.  I am sorry, but seeing him wearing the brightly colored red and yellow outfit amongst soldiers wearing dark colors just does not work.  I cannot buy for one minute any soldier would allow him to wear that in the middle of an operation.  The mask I am willing to accept, but even that is silly.  The second is Robin’s reluctance to use the gun.  while I understand and respect Robin’s stance on taking human life, the thing to keep in mind is that the demons are not human.  Robin mentions this in the story, but I did not accept his rationalization which assumes killing demons might lead to killing others.  This suggests that Robin does not have the control to stop himself.  He is one of the most dedicated, trained vigilantes in the DCU and he is afraid he lacks control!  I would think he would understand the difference between demons and humans, between spawns of the dead and the truly living.  Or understand that in order to kill someone with a gun, one would have to own a gun. -- Review by MRB 

 

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.