ROBIN WAR #1: Part 1 of the ROBIN WAR crossover. One of the Robins tries to break up a robbery that results in the death of the perp and a police officer. This leads to Councilwoman Noctua to get the council to pass the Robin Laws. This leads to numerous arrests throughout Gotham. Damiam shows up at the Robin’s cell where he brawls with Duke, Dre, Dax and Izzy. Batman shows up and gets shocked, literally, by Robin. Red Hood and Red Robin and Grayson is making his way here too. Travis, the kid who was the Robin involved in the beginning of the book, gets killed by a Talon and we see that Noctua is in cahoots with the Court of the Owls. They are happy this war has begun as it means Nightwing will soon rise again.
And so the ROBIN WAR begins, courtesy of Tom King with art by Khary Randolph, Alain Mauricet, Jorge Corona, Andres Guinaldo and Walden Wong(yes…all of them!). This seems to be going into a weird place, as it is rumored to all be leading up to the GRAYSON book going away and being replaced by a new NIGHTWING book. Either way, check out this book which is just the first of five parts this month PLUS three tie-in issues
GRAYSON #15: Part 2 of the ROBIN WAR crossover. Red Robin, Robin, Red Hood and Grayson meet with Duke Thomas and all the other Robins in the Gotham Underground and tells them that they are now a part of Robin School. They all spend the entire issue training until Grayson betrays them all and GCPD and Batman arrest them. It seems it’s all about taking care of family and this time, the family may be the Court of Owls.
Well, that certainly amps up what began in the first part of the story! Tim Selley, Tom King and Mikel Janin totally gives us a killer second chapter. Actually, it’s the ending that puts this book over the top. Throughout the rest of the book, it’s a lot of training and monologuing, with some nice exposition between characters. That cliffhanger ending just sends this tale into a new place. Between what is happening in BATMAN AND ROBIN ETERNAL and this, it looks like the Batman family is in a states of major chaos.
DETECTIVE COMICS #47: Part 3 of the ROBIN WAR crossover. We begin with Grayson standing on Batman’s throat. Flashing back to an hour earlier, we see that Gordon and Bullock are not happy about having to lock up all these Robins in “The Cage”. Gordon starts to suspect that Councilwoman Noctura is involved with some underhanded stuff involving all of this while Damian comes up with a plan to get the Robins out. Batman heads to Officer Darrell’s place and runs into Grayson, leading to the battle that started the issue. During the fight, Gordon's cowl comes off Dick’s suspicions are justified. Back at “The Cage”, the Robins get a visit from the Court of the Owls and the Talons.
Ray Fawkes and Steve Pugh bring us the third chapter in the ROBIN WAR saga and, while it is not as good as the first two chapters, it does make a nice effort to push the story along. The whole thing inside The Cage is interesting although having the Owl and Talons show up was predictable. The art looked great, as it’s always a joy to see Pugh’s work. It should be interesting to see what the next installment has to offer.
WE ARE ROBIN #7: Part 4 of the ROBIN WAR crossover. Dick and Jim are digging into Council Woman Noctura and find out that she is working with the Talons from the Court of The Owls and is deeply involved with The Cage. At the cage, Damian and Duke verbally spar until The Court brings in Jason and Tim and orders them to fight to the death or else. Luckily, Tim and Jason have a plan that results in them freeing the Robins and taking down the Talons. Well…not ALL of the Talons as more arrive.
Lee Bermejo and Carmine Di Giandomenico give us a nice but slightly uneven paced chapter in the ROBIN WAR. I felt the whole Damian/Duke conversation was a little too long and too heavy handed.. I also found that the whole “fake fight” between Jason and Tim was too predictable, although it was cool to see Tim doing some acrobatics. Over all, it was an okay issue that was able to step away from the main storyline that has been going on in the first six issues and tie in with this seemingly epic story of the new Gray Son.
ROBIN, SON OF BATMAN #7: Part 5 of the ROBIN WAR crossover. Robin, Red Robin, and the freed Robins fight a group of Talons from the Court of Owls. After defeating the Talons, the teams split up with Red Robin leading his group to Gotham Academy, where they find the Owls preparing to hatch new Talons. Meanwhile, Council woman Noctua meets with a mysterious figure who demands that she position the police as he orders. Then Batman arrives to stop the Elite Talons from hatching and orders the Robins to flee. Nightwing makes his way through the Labyrinth of the Court of Owls and meets with Lincoln March, while Red Robin’s crew runs afoul of the nee Gray Son-Damian
Patrick Gleason, Ray Fawkes and Scott McDaniel combine to throw one major twist into this story. Okay-so Damian has just recently returned from the dead, reconnected with his mother and his father and now he has turned to the Dark Side? Yeah-really didn’t see that coming! How this is going to lead to Dick becoming Nightwing again is anyone’s guess. This has been a fun mini-series, even though the tie-in series have been a waste of time, as they only tie in one or two pages at best.
GOTHAM ACADEMY #13: A ROBIN WAR tie-in. Olive introduces her classmates to Riko Sheridan, who is on loan from WE ARE ROBIN. That only means that, while the team investigates the monster on campus, Maps gets to go all fan-girl on her. When they all confront the creature, known as Efram, they discover that he may be as old as two centuries. Plus, there are Owls on campus and the police arrive and arrest Riko. And Damian shows up in his Robin gear to tell Maps that she needs to keep her secret identity hidden.
Maps has a secret identity? Cool! This was another great issue, even if it’s actual connection to the ROBIN WAR was a slight one that involved Riko Sheridan coming on campus. Brenden Fletcher writes a fun story, which is constant for this title, even is writing partner Becky Cloonan is missing. Artist Karl Kerschl is gone and has been replaced with Adam Archer. Archer’s work is good, but he’s no Kerschl. Overall: we get a fun issue that leads into the YEARBOOK storyline that begins next issue.
RED HOOD/ARSENAL #7: A ROBIN WAR tie-in. Roy is still teamed up with Joker’s Daughter while Tim meets Jason and tells him about the wholesale capturing of the Robins. Roy and Joker’s Daughter get a job to rescue some orphan kids from the Circus of the Strange. They make a pretty good team but the decision is made that she is safest back in Arkham Asylum. On the way back, they run into lava zombies. When Roy arrives, all that is left is a tangled motorcycle.
This issue is listed as a ROBIN WAR tie-in, but actually that’s kind of a rip-off because the actual time spent on that story is barely two pages. In fact, it pretty much amounts to a handful of panels, plus some flashback stuff by Jason and Tim. Scott Lobdell writes a fun story and Javier Fernandez does a cool job on the illustrations. But to call this a tie-in is insulting to the fans. It’s the continuing Joker’s Daughter/Arsenal team-up with a BRIEF MENTION of the ROBIN WAR. Shame on you, DC!
TEEN TITANS #15: A ROBIN WAR tie-in. While Cassie and Reiser are hanging out in a mansion outside of Gotham, the rest of the team goes to Gotham, where they discover that Professor Pyg is back to his old tricks. His zombie victims proceed to attack them, leaving them in a tough predicament, as they don’t want to harm them. They get captured and Pyg begins to use Beast Boy for his experiments and a girl in captivity is transformed from his blood, causing Power Girl to have to grow and subdue her. Pyg escapes and delivers the heroes’ blood to the Cult of Blood. Meanwhile, Red Hood and Red Robin lead the Robin team to Gotham Academy.
Scott Lobdell and Will Pfeifer turn in another average issue with a whopping two pages devoted to the ROBIN WAR, complete with art from Miguel Mendonca. The highlight of the issue is the always-spectacular artwork of Ian Churchill. What I especially didn’t like, outside of putting Red Robin on the cover with his team, in a scene that never appears in the book, was sticking Cassie and Reiser in a one page throw-away that gets them out of the story. It also allows Churchill to draw Cassie in a skimpy bikini, which is never a bad thing! As of February, Greg Pak and Noel Rodriguez become the creative team. Hopefully, their first issue will be better than this last issue.
ROBIN WAR #2: The conclusion of the ROBIN WAR crossover. Damian Wayne has joined the Court of the Owls so that he could save all the other Robins and all of Gotham from the wrath of the Elite Talons. He takes down Red Robin and Red Hood, which leads to a confrontation with Duke Thomas. The Robins then band together with the police to take out the Elite Talons. Marsh tells Dick that he needs to become Nightwing or else he will trigger a nano tech bomb in Damian’s owl mask. In the end, Duke visits Travis’ grave and tells the rest of the team that they aren't ready to be Robins yet. Jason, Tim and Damian confront Dick about the way he betrayed them and he says it’s what Batman would have done. He goes off and joins the worldwide initiation, where he rejects his Robin past and dons his owl mask.
And so the status quo changes as Dick Grayson truly becomes the Gray Son and joins the Court of the Owls. While we are told this will continue on in GRAYSON, I wonder how long before the title gets renamed NIGHTWING. Written by Tom King with art by Khary Randolph, Alvaro Martinez, Raul Fernandez, Carmine Di Giandomenico, Steve Pugh, Scott McDaniel and Andy Owens, this story sets events in motion that will obviously play out in future issues of WE ARE ROBIN and ROBIN SON OF BATMAN, plus everything else these characters touch. I hope that DC doesn’t just let what happened in this series fall by the wayside six months from now. A change should at least be semi-permanent.
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