Red Robin #24 is a sour issue for me. Not because the writing is bad, because it’s not. Not because Marcus To, and inker Ray McCarthy aren’t doing a damn fine job on art, because they are. No, the thing that sours me on this book is knowing that DC has decided that come September, this book will be cancelled, and for the time being, won’t be coming back, and the only way we are going to see Tim Drake as Red Robin is if you read the new Teen Titans series. Arguably one of DC’s best on-goings at the moment, it’s sad to read this book, and notice “No matter what they do, it will all be wiped out in three months.”
Having your stories wiped out could be freeing for a writer, in a sense, they can do stuff with the character unavailable to them before, such as here, where Tim is told that he will be forced to have a child with a crazy woman at the end of the issue, a lot like Bruce did with Talia Al Ghul when he had Damian. It’s a nice idea, but when you close the comic, you can’t help but notice, it’ll just be wiped out.
The issue opens strong with Tim taking on a legion of Iron Man rip-offs known as Scarabs, and of course, the original Scarab we met about ten issues ago, all in the space of two pages, and Tim has taken care of the Scarabs and going after his number one opponent, the main female Scarab who tried to kill him all those months ago. Scarab escapes through a series of Indiana Jones-esque tunnels.
Tim then meets up with Promise, who tells Tim she has no beef with him, but her sister wants Tim, in more ways than one, by the issue's end and by the look of things.
This was a solid issue, incredibly short feeling, you could probably finish this on your walk from the counter of your comic shop to the front door. However, it may be short, it was still enjoyable, but the last page reveal was let down, not by the pacing of the book, but just the knowledge that in three months, everything we know about Red Robin, will change in a Flash….
Oh, and his new costume looks stupid.
Red Robin #24:
Reviewed by Austen Beattie
