Damian Wayne, now this is a character
with some history. Which I’m gonna briefly overview just to make things easier
Damian Wayne is the son of Bruce Wayne
and Talia al Ghul. After events Damian ends up rejecting his mother and joining
Batman’s side as Robin. Talia creates a clone of Damian called the Heretic that
ends up killing him in a bloody battle. In what I’ve got to confess I haven’t
read but sounds like the most ridiculous moment in comics Batman travels to
Apokolips to try and revive his fallen son. He does so, temporarily granting
him super-powers although though they wore off before this issue.
A lot has changed in the Batman books
recently. In a final battle with the Joker, Bruce died with his long-time
adversary. Whilst both will be back eventually we currently have Jim Gordon
Bat-Bot in Gotham (I’m currently not collecting any bat-titles aside this one
and Grayson until it’s resolved) and Robin off on his own. Let’s dig into
Robin: Son of Batman and see whether or not it’s worth keeping this book.
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| Huzzah, our main characters are standing near the edge of a snowy cliff. (Good thing Goliath can fly) |
Issue 1 opens with Robin standing before
a dictator in Bialya, trying to bargain for the release of his were-bat,
Goliath. If someone has a clue where this creature comes from, please feel free
to tell me, I haven’t got a clue. The dictator says that he will battle one of
his sons in an arena and take his place is survives. Robin is gonna have none
of it and attacks, knocking the guy’s teeth out.
We flash back to Damian training in the
batcave, he trips over his cat and falls into a hole, he wakes up and sees a
bat skeleton. Later he returns to his room to find a message from Bruce telling
him to take the night off. He gets an alert on his pager from an unknown guy
that Golliath is on the loose. At Gotham Harbour someone grabs Nobody’s helmet
and plays back the last known footage from it, showing Damian killing him. The
girl who retrieved the helmet is Nobody’s daughter who cries at her father’s
death before escaping from the police.
Damian lands on Al Ghul Island. Robin
wants the whistle to control the beast and it’s submerged in a submarine along
with the rest of the ‘year of blood.’ He descends into the submarine and grabs
the whistle. In the present he uses the whistle to make Golliath go on a
rampage before bursting out of the building, avoiding gunfire. He flies too
high and Robin passes out.
In his dream he’s talking with Dick
Grayson about how they both “died” and “came back to life” (for the record, Damian does not at this point know that Dick is alive, but chuck that one up to dream logic) Batman arrives and
Bruce Wayne holds Damian up by the shirt. Demanding what had happened in the
“Year of Blood.” The heretic soon kills both of them in a single strike as Dick
is killed by zombies or something. Damian is in the pits of hell with Ra’s
serving as the devil and dragging him into the lava below.
Robin wakes up back on Al Ghul Island,
the guy from the flashback, Ravi, offers Damian some food before he returns to
Gotham but Damian says he can’t go back until he fixes the year of blood. He
drops down into the submarine and opens the door, inside we see a shrine to the
year of blood. Containing various artefacts stolen over the year and a banner
reading Damian al Ghul.
He explains that the year of blood was a
series of tests conducted over a year. With each test there was a trophy, all
of which are collected here. His only way of cleansing himself of what he did
is to atone for the year of blood, starting now. Nobody’s daughter watches
behind saying that ‘we do’
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| Interesting looking image, just one question: WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH THE STORY?! |
Issue 2 opens with a flashback of Damian
thinking he has Talia defeated but because he’s slow to follow through Talia
eventually reverses his fortune. Talia tells Damian that he’s ready to face the
Year of Blood.
In the present day, in South America, Robin arrives with a head of a stone guardian. The cartel had taken over the
village in the guardian’s absence but Robin replaces the head. The guardian
attacks Damian saying he’s cursed forever. Damian calls Goliath to rescue him.
The guardian uses some sort of distortion to affect Robin’s perception. He
thinks he sees Nobody but soon dismisses it as an illusion.
Robin wants to move the action away from
the people but the guardian brings things crashing down and Nobody’s daughter
helps rescue the people. The guardian,
Goliath and Robin are in some sort of magic ball bouncing around. Nobody’s foot
ends up in the ball, scrambling her cloaking. The two fight but the guardian
grabs Damian again. Nobody doesn’t want Damian dead until he’s atoned for all
the lives he’s ruined, and by her hand.
We flash back to day one of the year of
blood. The League of Assassins attack the village as Damian steals a sword from
a stone. The guardian attacks the assassins until Damian decapitates it. He
takes the head as a trophy despite the people’s protest that the cartels will
return and they’ll be defenceless without it.
Back in the present the cartel have
summoned re-enforcements against the guardian. Nobody and Robin take them on as
the guardian and villagers declare Damian redeemed. Damian states he no longer
has the sword but the guardian doesn’t care, he protects a deeper treasure in
the temple. Nobody confronts Robin and says that he isn’t forgiven for killing
her father. She will join him on his atonement quest before she kills him.
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| A very busy cover, but doesn't say a lot, does it? |
Issue 3 opens with a flashback to Damian
working on some robotic stuff, it creates a noise agonising to the bats in the
room, causing them to bite each other. Robin’s teachers, Ravi and Red shirt
prepare for Robin’s departure. His task is to retrieve a crystal and seal off a
frozen cave. They have polluted the waters with their industrial biological
runoff (in a cave??) they say he may retrieve explosives, but Robin has already
made his own and heads off. The Red shirt is killed by 2 red assassins (there’s
a fondness for the colour red in this book)
In the present, Robin and Nobody are
desperately hanging onto Goliath as they try to return the crystal. One of the
arrows fired destroys Robin’s whistle so Robin decides to just hand them the
crystal. Nobody uses her own sonics to bring Goliath to land. They fight with
Nobody able to knock out one of Robin’s teeth but they’re interrupted as
Goliath begins to rampage. Robin tunes Nobody’s sonic devices to calm him down
and cause him to fall asleep
Robin remarks that Nobody is good at
rescuing people as she introduces her true name, Maya. They bond over similar
upbringings as Maya laughs at the thought that Robin still has baby teeth. A
boat arrives. Inside she finds messages intended for her father claiming that
the sender may have to come find her. Maya says she has to go to avoid this conflict
but Robin convinces her to do otherwise
We cut to somewhere else where a mystic
or something is helping heal Talia’s mind (she was revived at the same time as
Damian) she wants the name of her son and she eventually has to reveal it.
Talia knocks the mystic out or possibly kills her, I can’t tell finding one of
her mystic stones still uncracked and must find a way to get to Damian.
She holds the sword Damian used in issue
2 and discovers a green orb known as the Lazarus Heart, she screams out for
Ra’s. Nobody types ‘I quit’ to her partner who turns out to be Deathstroke
claiming nobody likes a quitter.
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| OK, where do I start with this cover. It's dynamic and actually tells you something about the comic, which is good. What is bad, well both Damian and Deathstroke are within point blank range of each other and yet both of their guns are missing, also spoiler alert: Robin does not use a gun in this issue! |
Issue 4 opens with Damian drawing a
painting during his time in the Year of Blood, Ravi commends his work and sees
that his mission in Egypt was successful. He enters the temple but does so
whilst Ra’s is doing something and his fate is sealed. He is bound by the League and Damian must decide his fate. He leaves the assassins to blow green powder into his eyes, blinding him.
In the present, several guards are
knocked out by Robin and Nobody as they seek to return the items to their
rightful place. Nobody has no idea why they’re here. Robin hands Goliath some
crabs which Goliath seems confused about. They head inside the tomb and I hear the dumbest thing in the comic
‘Alexandria doesn’t sound Egyptian’
Lots of exposition later Goliath crashes
into the building, being clawed by the crabs. Nobody says she’ll stay with him
whilst Robin completes the mission. As Nobody begins hacking a computer down
there (???) a grenade lands nearby. Deathstroke is here. Deathstroke ties her
up and quickly realises that she’s not Morgan Ducard (the original Nobody) but his daughter, Goliath intervenes with the fight. As Deathstroke’s about to finish them off
Robin intervenes
Robin is no match for Deathstroke hand-to-hand but manages to cover him in snakes. Deathstroke easily dispatches them but
Robin offers a different solution. He knows Deathstroke’s account numbers and
offers to transfer money into it for him to back off. Deathstroke demands
$5 million and Robin obliges. Deathstroke leaves but not before telling Nobody
to avenge her father.
They head to where a secret passage
opened when Damian replaced the totems, revealing a lazarus pit in the depths.
So that was Robin: Son of Batman. How
does it hold up, let’s take a look.
This maybe more a personal thing but I’m
not keen on Batman characters being too heavily involved in mysticism. This
book is mostly based in that area which means I’m not crazy about it. Patrick
Gleason has both writing and pencilling duty on this book and I commend him
that there hasn’t been any delays to the title in spite of this.
He has the voice for Damian pretty much
down, most likely from his experience doing the art duties for Batman and
Robin. Still, I’m not fond of the overall arc to this story. Since the new 52,
Damian Wayne’s growing up has been a complete confusing mess and this year of
blood is another addition to this. Batman has only been operation in Gotham for
about 6 years but Damian’s grown to be 12 despite in the new 52 having lived a
full life.
Because of the nature of this title, this
book is heavy on exposition. I found this particularly with issue 4 and I
glossed over most of it in the summary.
I do like the love-hate relationship
between Damian and Nobody, their conflicts and resolutions provide some decent
humanity within the pair of them and humour. The section with Talia felt out of place but
was clearly setting something up for a later story.
But it does bring up another problem, there's no clear villain to the story, which really does make you wonder what the point of this particular series even is.
The artwork is competent, there are some
elements of great art but it suffers from the freaking red filters over
everything. Seriously, every other scene is in a red filter. CUT IT OUT!!
I liked the battle with Deathstroke and
their riddance of his was good, although his dialogue was terrible. Deathstroke doesn't make puns every other sentence
Rating:
#1 5/10
#2 5/10
#3 6/10
#4 5.5/10
Rating 5.375/10
Recommendation: With regret, I will not
be continuing to purchase this title. It was pretty clear that this was not a
book that was designed to appeal to me. If you don’t mind a classic super-hero
in a mystic tale, this one will be fine, otherwise I’d skip this title.
Images/clips used in this review are from Robin: Son of Batman and Ratchet and Clank and belong to their respective owners. All images in this review are subject to fair use
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