DCU Comic Book Reviews

ROBIN #143

Rock The Haven

December 2005

Written by Bill Willingham

Pencils by Scott McDaniel

Inks by Andy Owens

Cover by Scott McDaniel & Andy Owens

Synopsis

In Blüdhaven, Johnny Warlock comes to tell Darla Aquista that it is time to come home.  Elsewhere, OMACs are chasing down the Junkyard Dog, who is able to escape briefly before running into Gasbag.  The OMACs find them and are able to terminate Gasbag, but not before his gases kill the OMAC, allowing the Junkyard Dog to get away.  Meanwhile, Johnny and Darla are leaving when the OMACs attack them.  As they are fighting back, Robin, the Veteran and the rest of the team parachute right into the middle of the battle.  At first, the Veteran and the others are killing the OMACS, until Lieutenant Ilsa Von Hammer realizes there are people inside the OMAC shells.  Elsewhere, Tarantula and Rising Sun Archer are also battling OMACs when suddenly they revert to human.  This happens all over the city, forcing the Veteran and team to start catching falling humans.  However, without the OMACs to fight, Johnny turns his attention to Robin, who decides to use psychology to defeat Johnny.  Robin mocks him, telling Johnny that he does not have enough power, and Johnny believes it, eventually falling and then gassed by Robin.  Later, Ragman and Nightshade arrive in Blüdhaven to take Johnny to a prison for magic-users.  Although Johnny has been defeated, there is still a lot of work to be done in Blüdhaven.

Review

This was a good issue and certainly an improvement over the previous issue as it is always good to see Robin in action, saving people and kicking ass the way that he should.  Unfortunately, all of that is marred by the sorry excuse for a fight between Johnny and Robin. 

When Willingham first came aboard on Robin, he created Johnny Warren, then Warlock as an adversary worthy of Robin.  It looked as if we were going to get a titanic clash, but instead we get the whimper of false bravado.  Essentially Robin told him he could not win and Johnny believed it and that was it.  I am disappointed.  I don’t know.  Maybe I was let down because I had high expectations for a good issue-long, intense battle between the two.  Or maybe it really was extremely anti-climatic.  Or maybe Willingham had to adjust his story because he had to, you know, somehow make this related to the current crisis and to his own mini-series Day Of Vengeance.  Regardless of the reason, I was disappointed. 

The sudden appearance of Tarantula and the Rising Sun Archer was very odd, especially when you consider they accomplished nothing.  I will make a guess that these two will appear in future issues, otherwise it didn’t make much sense to see them in this issue.  However, it is nice that Willingham admits that Robin really is in Blüdhaven by including Tarantula, who is, after all, supposed to be the hometown hero. 

I will make an assumption that Robin knows Ragman because they both operate out of Gotham.  Of course, I don’t think we have ever seen Ragman recently in any of the Bat-titles, but otherwise I can’t imagine how Robin would know any of the members of Shadowpact.-- Review by MRB