DCU Comic Book Reviews

ROBIN #180

Search For A Hero, Part 4:  Gray Knights

January 2009

Written by Fabian Nicieza

Pencils by Freddie E. Williams II

Inks by Freddie E. Williams II

Cover by Freddie E. Williams II

Synopsis

In the midst of an escalating gang war, Robin battles against the mysterious Red Robin, who decides to put innocent bystanders at risk in order to make his getaway.  Robin saves the people, and then finds Spoiler before returning to the batcave.  There, Alfred tends to her wound while Robin gathers more evidence to track down who is the mastermind behind the gang war.  Later, Robin tracks down Red Robin as he talks to Scarab.  Robin gets the jump on Red Robin and unmasks him to reveal Ulysses Armstrong.  Before Robin get learn anything, Robin overhears the police radio and is forced to flee.  As he leaves, Armstrong tells him that Spoiler will know where to find.  Later, Robin retraces Spoilers tracks to a warehouse, which is rigged with explosives by Anarky, designed to explode the moment Robin walked in the door. 

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

Well, that was just anticlimactic.  Don’t get me wrong, I liked this issue, despite the fact that this is a lot of exposition to explain to the reader who all of the different pieces of the puzzle go together.  But it was done well enough that it didn’t bother me.  The flow of the story is swift, moving from one scene to another to the next until the final panels.  So, in that sense it worked, but the unmasking of Red Robin sank like a stone.  Nicieza spent several issues exploring the mystery of the Red Robin and it turns out to be a non-event, a moment swept under the rug to move onto the next step.  It is not so much who it was as how unimportant the moment seemed to be.  Think about it.  It is a character we’ve seen before, a character we know wants to challenge Robin. And then to top it off, it happens in the middle of the issue and almost as soon as Robin does the unmasking, he is forced to depart, leaving the conversation between the two unfinished.  I wonder if there was a different plan for Red Robin, but it had to be switched around and Ulysses was the choice at the moment.  Frankly, the best choice would’ve been Anarky.  Now, that would’ve made sense.  In fact, the whole idea of Anarky being the character behind the chaos in Gotham City makes perfect sense, especially in light of the disappearance of Batman.  But, wouldn’t it have made much more sense for Anarky to be under the mask, to spread more, well, anarchy while remaining inconspicuous?

Of course, the entire Red Robin thing is just a feint anyway since he was just part of a group of different masked characters all working for the Spoiler.  Or at least that is the way we are supposed to think.  I am thinking there is something else going on; something that will be revealed a little later.  Maybe Spoiler is not involved at all and it is all Anarky.  Or Anarky really is working for Spoiler, but he doesn’t know it, so, therefore, Tim will never know who it was.  I guess we will just have to wait and see.