Red Robin issue #2 takes place twenty four hours after the end of the first issue, with Tim, looking like a small 16 year old boy on a plane, with Tim reminiscing over the events of this issue, confused, I am.
The issue really is all about Tim realizing that the life he led in Gotham is over, and now he has to start out all over again with a new partner, this partner being Ra’s Al Ghul. The issue takes Tim reliving the fight he had with Ra’s league of assassins who are not much older than him, Tim takes them on for half the issue, and finds out the girl of the group is called Prudence. Laughing yet? Yeah neither am I. We cut to the manor with Alfred going to comfort Tim on being fired from the dynamic duo, but finds Tim has left the manor to go out on his own. The issue rounds out with Tim’s friends from his Robin series all being left behind as Tim sets on his own, as his own man, that gives us a farewell scene between Tim with Stephanie “Spoiler” Brown. The issue ends with Tim realizing there’s only one person who can help him, so he puts on his cowl and calls Ra’s Al Ghul.
The best way to say what is going on here is that Yost is taking everything that made Tim Drake Robin away and turning Tim into something new, which works. Saying that, I did not pick this comic up to see Tim cleaning up house and reminiscing about how Bruce is not alive and he is not Robin anymore, I picked this up to see Red Robin taking care of some Ninjas as shown on the cover, something that is nowhere to be found in the issue.
The art for this issue is good, although the art is let down by the coloring in certain parts. These parts are when cutting between Tim in his hideout and Red Robin fighting the first page is given a gray tone, but then the next page the coloring is bright again. Over all the art is acceptable, but nothing special. My main problem with issue #1 was the fact Tim Drake looked like a 16 year old kid, and Red Robin looked like twice his size and build, this happens again here, with Tim looking nothing like Red Robin, maybe that is to help his anonymity, but to me it just doesn’t look right.
The cover shows Tim as Robin grappling with Spoiler on one side and Tim as Red Robin tackling league of assassin members. This was probably an attempt by DC to get people off of the trail of who Red Robin is, but this was just a stupid cover, it looks nice, but Robin doesn’t take on Spoiler in the issue, and the people who Red Robin fights in the issue look nothing like the assassins on the cover. It’s a nitpick, but if I was picking this comic off the shelf, I would be annoyed at the false advertising of a Tim as Robin scene, and Red Robin fighting the league of assassins. Issue #1 had such a great cover of just Red Robin flying towards us; issue #2’s cover just is a static image to me.
I’d say give this a flip through and read it in the comic shop, as this is just a set up issue for things to come.
Red Robin #2
Reviewed by Suavestar
