Overall: This comic (kind of) continues from the Batman & Robin one-shot I reviewed earlier tonight. Red Robin and Bruce Wayne(in the guise of the mystery man)have headed to Amsterdam to infiltrate and take down a group of assassins called the Council of Spiders. While Tim creates trouble for the Spiders as an interfering outside super-hero, Bruce will join the team. For the most part everything goes according to plan, with Bruce saving a few of the Spiders from Tim's attack, and being offered a spot on their team. However, one of Tim's operatives, Prudence, unexpectedly arrives on the scene to help out, which wasn't in Tim's plans. Tim improvises, and in the end, he manages to take down the Spiders, fend off Bruce(who was still playing the part of the villain in case he ever needs to work with the Spiders again) and get Prudence to assist him while keeping her from killing anybody. So it's all good then? Not quite. It turns out that Prudence hasn't been loyal to Tim and instead was still in cahoots with Ra's Al Ghul, who upon hearing Prudence's reports about Tim and the mystery man puts two and two together and figures out that Bruce must have returned to life. This information actually seems to upset Ra's, who seems to think that Bruce should have contacted him and informed him of his rebirth(HA!). Poor Ra's and his hurt feelings close out this one.
First off, I'm sorry, but Ra's acting like a jealous lover definitely gave me a chuckle. What the hell did Ra's expect, his Detective to stroll up to one of Ra's bases, sit down, have a cup if tea and reminisce about the good old days?? Methinks Talia isn't the only Al Ghul infatuated with Brucie... I enjoyed this comic, although once again, Fabian made sure to play up Vicki Vale's story in this comic, as now she was accosting Alfred for answers about Bruce being Batman. I already had myself one rant about Vicki tonight, so if you want to know how I feel about her and her story, go and check out my review of the Batman and Robin one shot. The bottom line was that this was a good, if somewhat convoluted comic.
Score: 8 out of 10.
The yellow utility belt is a bit on the nose, no?
The yellow utility belt is a bit on the nose, no?
I read this one first and haven't read the other two yet but I agree completely, you beat my review by a .5 since you're such a EASY grader :P Haha kidding, but yeah, I'm interested in the other two issues now, especially Batgirl since you gave it a ten, I can only imagine how much I'll enjoy it.
ReplyDeleteI was kind of annoyed that DC didn't give us any direction as to what order to read these comics in. After reading the three that I did, I think it goes: Batman & Robin, Red Robin, Outsiders, Batgirl. I read Batgirl first, then Batman & Robin, and then Red Robin.
ReplyDeleteSo wait, you only gave this one a 7 1/2? I'm kind of surprised by that actually. Now I can't wait to read your review if this comic! I thought for sure you'd give it an 8 or higher, especially with how much you've enjoyed Fabian's RR work.
Yeah that's how I was, I read it and saw who the Mystery Man is and I'm thinking "I hope this isn't the plot of Batman & Robin." So yeah, that annoyed me, but I'll follow your order at least with B&R and then Batgirl.
ReplyDeleteYeah, you'll see what I thought soon enough buddy. I think one of the reasons was me reading it out of "order" and that may have brought it down a tad in my eyes. You're right, they really should've given us a damn order.
Right?? I mean, it would have made sense if DC put SOME kind of # on these comics, like they sometimes do with the Superman books. Now when the next batch comes out I'll be playing Comic Book Roulette again!
ReplyDeleteWell at least we know the first one is gonna be the Catwoman one, but unless they tell us where he's going next it'll be a crapshoot.
ReplyDelete