Red Robin #26 & Teen Titans #99

Let's switch gears and head over to the DCU with two titles featuring Red Robin. First up is the final issue of the Red Robin series, as well as the penultimate issue of Teen Titans before the reboot. For the first time in ages I'm looking forward to Teen Titans, which means it'll probably be painfully bad...

Red Robin #26:

Summary: Wanting to get revenge for the death of his father at the hands of Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang, Red Robin concocts a somewhat convoluted plan that leads Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang into direct odds with Mr. Freeze. Ultimately Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang and Freeze do meet up and are about to come to blows(with Freeze undoubtedly winning), but Red Robin can't allow somebody else(Freeze) to kill Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang. With that, Red Robin enters the room and knocks Freeze out, which gives Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang the opportunity to escape to the rooftops. Red Robin confronts Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang on the rooftops and winds up winging the villain with a boomerang, which knocks Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang off of the roof. Instead of letting Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang fall to his death, Red Robin snares Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang with his grappling line and ends up turning him over to the cops. From there, Batman(Dick Grayson) and Robin arrive on the scene with Bats complementing Red Robin for not allowing the man who killed his father to fall to his death. After Bats and Robin leave, Batman(Bruce Wayne) emerges from the shadows and tells Red Robin that he knew the truth(of course he does...), and that he knew that it was Red Robin who drew Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang to Gotham in order to kill Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang. Bats tells Red Robin that he should never have gotten himself involved with Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang in the first place, before leaving. With that, Red Robin stands on a rooftop and contemplates his next move.

Thoughts: I actually enjoyed this comic a lot. I'd have enjoyed it more if Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang somehow died, be it due to Red Robin or even a pure accident, but I guess I should have known better. As long as Chairman Johns is living and breathing, his beloved Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang will NEVER be harmed again. With the exception of Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang surviving this issue, I can't think of anything to complain about... Tim's plan was solid, and he should have simply allowed Freeze to ice(heh) Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang. So yeah, the story was good, the pacing was fast, the art was good, my only problem was with the outcome. Instead of this issue ending with Bats berating Tim, I'd have preferred it if it ended in a cliffhanger sort of way, with Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang falling off of the roof and Tim moving towards the ledge, but ending before we saw what he did. That way we'd get both outcomes, one for people like me, who felt Tim should have allowed Not Old, Not Bald, Not Fat, Captain Boomerang to die, while people on the other side of the fence could have envisioned Tim saving the formerly old, fat and bald bastard.

Score: 9 out of 10.I agree, just let him fall!!!


Teen Titans #99:

Summary: We get things underway with the Teen Titans facing off against Superboy Prime and his Evil Teen Titans, complete with not one, not two, but THREE Superboy clones(which we learn were all cloned from Superboy's old enemy, Match). The two sides battle to a stalemate for a while before Prime suddenly leads his team away from the battle and towards Titans Tower... And I mean “suddenly” literally! One page everybody was fighting and the next the villains were flying towards the tower! One of Prime's teammates, Headcase, tears apart the Golden Gate Bridge and uses his telekinesis to turn it into a giant metal monster. The angry bridge heads for Titans Tower to destroy it while the Titans themselves are busy saving the people who had been on the bridge when it was pulled apart. Prime and his team(and the angry bridge) head for the Tower, but luckily, a who's who of former Teen Titans are standing in front of the Tower ready to defend it.

Thoughts: This actually wasn't that bad of a comic. I really enjoyed the first few pages... At least until the villains suddenly headed towards Titans Tower... I seriously thought that maybe I was missing a page or something, because we go for the Titans battling against Prime and company to the villains flying towards the Tower, with NO explanation between scenes. That hurt the flow of this issue for me, but the more I think about it, I do understand why it happened like that. Maybe JT Krul had planned for this storyline to run longer than just three issues and had to cut some stuff out due to the reboot? Besides that, and this is a REALLY small gripe, but worth pointing out, there was no title for this issue... Usually you'll have the credits along with a story title on a page somewhere in the book. This issue gave us the credits, but no title... Weird. With only one more issue of this series to go, and something like 3 issues of Teen Titans released in a matter of 4 or 5 weeks, I guess that explains the little mistakes that I found here and there.

Score: 8 out of 10.Well, it's not the real Inertia, but it's something... I guess...