You all know that Robin’s being replaced. That’s common knowledge. If you don’t, one only needs to go here and find out.
At the risk of “spoiling” everything, I’m going to tell you that no, Robin doesn’t die. He quits. There you go; no need to buy this comic…
In all seriousness, however, the means of forcing Tim Drake to retire the Robin mantle is rather interesting, but the fact that no one has made an effort to hide what is to come doesn’t help the stock of this issue. I’m guessing the “retirement” of Tim Drake was the big consequence of last issue’s “unveiling”… and even though I haven’t read that last issue, I did read this issue. It peaked my interest even though I knew what was going to happen in a sense, so it worked on that level. The cover is rather bland and doesn’t really relate much to what’s in the issue, but it’s a good thing. The art in this issue is okay, but it really doesn’t do much for me. It’s not that it’s bad, but on the other hand, it’s really uninteresting and it doesn’t try to suck me into the story. Then again, that’s just me.
On the up side however, we’re getting a new Robin… again. And it’s a girl… again. This is the history of the Robin persona, a position that had been filled in by a young kid raised in a circus who had the nasty tendency of saying “Holy-this” and “Holy-that”, a snot-nosed kid whose rebellious nature got him killed by readers, and a “bland, whitebread kid” (thanks, Brian)… Whoever this new kid is (I know who, but I’m not going to “spoil” it for you) has some pretty small shoes to fill, but she should glad that she isn’t going to be wearing those god-awful pixie boots from the early days of the Robin legacy.
Under a different time, the 125th issue of Robin would have been a good book because it has the title character, through circumstances out of his control, forcibly step down from his career as a superhero. That alone would have been an unexpected move. But today, with DC’s own website and Previews basically spoiling the surprise by posting images of future issue covers, this comes off as nothing more than an average book with nothing to sell it on. Whether it’s worth the asking price is up to the customer (as with… everything), but I’d skip this one and wait for the next issue… which has the girl Robin debuting.
dtm666 