DCU Comic Book Reviews

ROBIN #181

Search For A Hero, Part 5:  Pushing Buttons, Pulling Strings

February 2009

Written by Fabian Nicieza

Pencils by Freddie E. Williams II

Inks by Freddie E. Williams II

Cover by Freddie E. Williams II

Synopsis

As Anarky destroys the Iceberg Lounge, Robin realizes that he is not physically ready to confront him as he is still nursing his wounds from getting caught in an earlier explosion caused by Anarky.  Meanwhile, Spoiler does what she can to help Robin.  Elsewhere, Jason Bard looks for any dirt he can find on Detectives Cavallo and Wise, who were released from jail due to lack of evidence.  Robin gathers the information from Bard.  With information gathered from the fire that burned him, Robin is putting the pieces of the puzzle together.  Elsewhere, Ulysses Armstrong dons the Anarky gear and heads out.  However, Robin knows it is him under the mask and not Lonnie Machin.  Meanwhile, Spoiler interrupts a meeting of various factions waging war in the city.  They are interrupted by “Anarky,” who announces he set a bomb, which explodes.  Just then, despite the head injury from the explosion Tim Drake arrives to confront “Anarky”.  To cover his wounds, Tim is dressed as Red Robin!

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

You can’t claim that Nicieza is simply playing out the string until the book is cancelled and the Bat-universe gets re-tooled.  Nicieza is taking a few chances with this issue.  Whether or not these changes actually stick, I suppose, is a different type of debate, but at the very least, we are getting some jaw dropping moments.  I should add that these moments are not necessarily good, but Nicieza is swinging for the fences, I’ll grant him that much.  This story still feels too much like “War Games” and it is too cluttered for its own good, but Nicieza is trying what he can to make it memorable.  This is not a great story, but it does have my attention to see how it all ends. 

The first is the current state of Lonnie Machin.  There are a lot of fans and I think they will be upset to see what has happened to him.  Since his appearance about a decade ago, Lonnie has been used sparingly, so I am guessing that whatever happened to him will be revealed in some kind of flashback.  Strangely enough, I am more interested in learning Lonnie’s fate than I care about Ulysses taking over the role of Anarky.  Actually, I am not sure Ulysses is permanently taking over Anarky (although I could be wrong) so much as usurping the role to facilitate the gang wars and to toughen up Robin. 

The second is the final page, with Tim Drake donning the Red Robin costume.  As I have stated in previous issues of this story, it seemed as if Nicieza was pushing Tim into the direction of his brooding mentor.  There were references and actions (such as the use of the Scarecrow gas) of Tim acting more like Batman and, let’s face it, this arc plays upon Batman’s own “War Games.”  So, to see Tim sitting in the dark, before the bat computer, contemplating the events, using his sources and connections to gather data, and then putting all together to solve the mystery, was very much like the Dark Knight.  To then put him in the Red Robin costume seemed incongruous with where Nicieza was taking the character.  Plus, there is the baggage that comes with the character of “Red Robin” (from Kingdom Come as well as Countdown) that will cause debate amongst Batman fans.  My feeling is, like Lonnie, fans will not be happy if Tim becomes Red Robin mostly because it should be Dick Grayson who is Red Robin and if Tim is no longer Robin he should then be Batman, not Red Robin.  But I guess we’ll have to see what happens.