Red Robin: Seven Days of Death/Fabian Nicieza

Red Robin:  Seven Days of Death by Fabian Nicieza and J. T. Krul; young adult, graphic novel; 208 pages

This is the final collection of Red Robin stories prior to the DC New 52 reboot.  While the reboot didn't affect the Batman family of titles as drastically as it did others, it ended this storyline, so sadly, this is my last collection I can review.

To be honest, the story here started to lose focus, so maybe that ending wasn't such a bad thing.  Rather than showing us one arc as the other collections have done, this volume instead collects several small one and two-issue arcs. The biggest of these is the one in which Tim Drake tries to take down the Unternet, a virtual reality network which uses brainwave manipulation to make super villains more evil.  I had the most trouble with this story--it's was difficult at times to tell what was going on in real life versus what was going on in the virtual environment.  The story also kind of stalled out on the character development front.  Tim's relationships with Tam, Lynx, and the rest of Wayne clan just sort of stagnate here, though there's apparently some kind of resolution from a Teen Titans storyline I know nothing about.  The ending here is also strange.  In the final issue collected here, Red Robin faces off against Captain Boomerang, the criminal who killed his father.  He arranges an elaborate scenario in which Captain Boomerang must *always* choose to do the more evil thing, and that series of choices ends with him near death.  At the last minute Tim relents and saves him, but Bruce is still quick to chastise him for putting Boomerang in that situation to begin with.  Tim's left pondering which route to take:  stick to Batman's moral code, or veer more towards the grey areas he's been flirting with for the whole series.  He doesn't make a decision, which is just frustrating.  Not a bad book, but certainly not on par with the first volume. 

I think I'll go back and read The Grail again so I can remember how awesome this series once was. 

Red Robin: The Hit List/Fabain Ncienza

Red Robin:  The Hit List by Fabian Ncieza (Red Robin 3); graphic novel; 128 pages

In the third Red Robin collection,Tim Drake is setting up shop as an independent crime fighter in Gotham.  He has a lot to figure out:  where to live, who his allies will be, and who to fight.  For the latter, he makes the titular hit list, a set of plans designed to set up a new villain's capture for each one Red Robin brings down. 

I'm still really enjoying this character, and was sad to learn that (a) there's only one more collection after this, and (b) it came out only a few months ago, so it's not eligible for ILL.  :(

This book sets up Red Robin as a proper superhero, not just a temporary persona for Tim to use while searching for Bruce Wayne.  He even starts to accumulate some bad guys of his own, including Anarky (a new one), and the mysterious Lynx (who, as Tim points out, has the potential to become his very own Catwoman).  I also had a lot of fun with the interactions between the Wayne family members--Bruce, Tim, Dick, and Damian. 

Red Robin: Collison/Christopher Yost

Red Robin:  Collision by Christopher Yost; graphic novel; 192 pages

In his quest to prove that Bruce Wayne is alive, Tim Drake has crossed some lines--most notably allying himself with Ra's al Ghul and the League of Assassins.  But Tim hasn't forgot Batman's ethics, and he uses his inside knowledge of the League to do serious damage to its worldwide operations.  Now Ra's al Ghul himself is out for Tim's blood, and he intends to get revenge by destroying everything Tim Drake and Red Robin hold dead. 

This is part three of the arc begun in The Grail (as far as I can tell, part two, Council of Spiders has not been collected).  This book is cool in that it manages to be a somewhat self-contained story (Red Robin angers the League, then fights them off all in this volume), while still providing a really satisfying conclusion to the story begun in Grail.  Tim really comes into his own here, managing to be both Batman's protege and his own brand of superhero (seriously, the way in which Tim *spoiler* wins *end spoiler* is so great I had to go back and read it a second time).  The ending hints at an interesting new direction for Drake, and I'm curious to see where it goes.  There's not a lot of this series, as it launched just shortly before the New 52 reboot, but I hope to track down at least one more collection. 

Bruce Wayne: The Road Home

Batman:  Bruce Wayne:  The Road Home by various authors; graphic novel, superheroes; 200 pages

This volume collects the arc Bruce Wayne:  The Road Home, which was run as single-issue chapters across nearly a dozen titles (See, DC?  You CAN collect a series with some amount of logic! Go you!).  Following Tim Drake's discovery of Bruce Wayne (alive, and now in possession of a suit that gives him near-super abilities), Bruce decides to test each of his former friends and colleagues.  Under the guise of "The Insider," he stages a series of fake crimes and attacks, and judges the fitness of each of his students, before finally revealing himself. 

I admit I was hoping for a little more plot and a little less punching in this collection.  I mean, a MAJOR character has just returned from the dead, and all he wants to do is play mind games with his friends?  He doesn't want to, I don't know, let them know that he's not dead so they can stop grieving??  I admit seeing Bruce's assessment of each hero is interesting, and the reveal is a little different each time (though in most cases, the test subject figures it out before Bruce ever reveals anything, which kind of takes the fun out of it).  My favorite chapters were, unsurprisingly, the Tim Drake and Catwoman stories; the weakest point involved an overlong story involving a group of minor superheroes that Batman worked with once or twice, and inexplicably felt the need to test during his reunion tour.  Strangely, though, Bruce never reveals himself to the (arguably) two most important heroes, Batman and Robin.  I can only assume that part will appear more in one of the other collections (possibly one that I have on hold?). 

Red Robin: The Grail/Christopher Yost

Red Robin:  The Grail by Christopher Yost (story) and Ramon Bachs (art); graphic novel, superheroes; 128 pages

Following the death of Bruce Wayne, every member of the Bat-family is grieving in their own way.  Perhaps the most visibly affected is Tim Drake, Batman's adopted son, and the person's who has held the title of Robin for the last few years.  However, with Dick Grayson's ascension to the role of Batman, everything in Tim's life has changed:  Dick had handed the role of Robin to Bruce's son, Damian, saying that he values Tim as an equal rather than a sidekick, but that doesn't help Tim adjust.  Then Tim becomes convinced that Bruce Wayne is still alive somewhere, and that it's up to Tim to find him.  He dons the Red Robin costume, and begins traveling the world in search of his mentor. 

Of the three Batman books I knocked back this weekend, this was probably my favorite.  That's probably due to the fact that Tim Drake is one of my favorite characters, and that this book builds a lot of sympathy for him (character backstory:  since his introduction in the 1980s, Tim has lost his mother, then his father, and now his adopted father/mentor, AND his role as Robin).  It's understandable that Dick Grayson wants Tim to take on less of a sidekick roll, but Damian's snotty remarks about being Bruce's *real* son don't make the transition any easier (and also pretty much take away any sympathy I might have developed for Damian in the Leviathan storyline).  Tim also does a lot of wrestling with his conscience:  in order to find Bruce Wayne, he has to compromise many of the values that Bruce taught him, including having to fight some of the good guys, and work with Ras Al Ghul, the only other person who believes "The Detective" is alive.  I tore through this, and am looking forward to reading the next collection. apparently there's a chunk of these that have not been collected, though, so I'll miss out on the middle part of the story.  :(