Category Archives: Robin
So Scott Lobdell Went and Changed Tim Drake’s Origin a Bit More, and Nobody Noticed or Cared
Three years later, I’m comfortable in saying I don’t care for the New 52 at DC Comics. There are a few good comics at the company – though only Wonder Woman really springs to mind – but for the most part, everything is kind of crummy, and there is no indication that DC has any long term plans. They’re just throwing whatever they can at any walls they can find. But I’m not here to mock DC Comics. I’m here to pound more nails into the coffin of Tim Drake, one of my most favorite comic book characters of all time.
Suffice to say, Tim Drake, otherwise known as Red Robin, is a character who suffered a great deal in the New 52 change. Before the reboot, Tim was Robin was nearly 20 years (in real time). He was great in the role, and quite honestly, he was the greatest Robin of all time. Hands down.
But DC isn’t done screwing with or retconning his origin, apparently.
Never is not enough!
In the New 52, DC and writer Scott Lobdell rewrote Tim’s origin story and they altered his entire history as Batman’s partner. No longer was Tim ever ‘Robin’, instead calling himself ‘Red Robin’ from the very beginning. And he was only Batman’s partner for a short while, seeing it more as a stepping stone in his career than anything permanent or worthwhile. Tim suddenly became a gymnastics prodigy. And instead of having a long, complex story involving his parents, particularly his dad, Lobdell shuffled them off into ‘Witness Protection’ before Tim ever even became Red Robin.
Also, New 52 Tim Drake is kind of an asshole, especially to Batman.
Most of these changes were laid out in Teen Titans #0, the flashback issue that first told us the new origin of Tim Drake. Among the changes, we learned that Lobdell also took away the fact that pre-reboot Tim Drake had figured out Batman’s secret identity all on his own. That was Tim’s thing. That’s one of the things that made him so special.
Batman has a bunch of creepy old man masks at the ready
That was nearly two years ago, after which Teen Titans became a terrible wreck that nobody read, prompting cancellation.
Well it seems DC wasn’t done letting Lobdell mess around with Tim Drake. Apparently everyone involved wanted to re-retcon a few things, so they put out Secret Origins #3 this week. I didn’t even know Tim Drake was going to be part of the issue until I saw a brief mention of it online. And further searching the web, I couldn’t find anyone who seemed to care about any of the new changes made to Tim’s origin. So perhaps it falls to me, of all people, to at least document that these changes have happened.
For example, guess who really did figure out Batman’s secret identity?
Fixed a mistake?
And Lobdell tried to fix that weird, unexplained part where his name wasn’t really Tim Drake.
Because this makes it better, I guess?
I dunno. I guess I just wanted to write this article for posterity. Somebody has to pretend to still care about Tim Drake, right? He still has fans somewhere…right?
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Please Allow Me a Moment to Freak Out Prematurely About Nightwing
We don’t yet know whether or not Nightwing will be in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. We know that Wonder Woman, Aquaman and Cyborg are all going to appear, and possibly more. But there is no confirmation yet on Nightwing (or Robin, for that matter). I’m not panicking yet. There were rumors about Nightwing, but nothing for sure.
Until now…maybe…probably not. But darn it, I’m going to get my hopes up! Because they’ve cast an actor named Scoot McNairy, and he looks like Dick Grayson!
Boy Wonder?
Not that Dick Grayson has a particular look. But he could definitely play Dick Grayson!
A lot of people are making guesses. Joker? Flash? Green Lantern? Warner Bros. is apparently keeping McNairy’s role super secret. Not even reliable scoopsters on the web have a solid answer.
I have no idea who Scoot McNairy is going to play. But until we know otherwise, I’m just going to assume it’s Nightwing! Because I’m a sucker.
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 6/28/14
Don’t look now, but I’m apparently in a crummy mood this week. I feel fine, personally. But going through these reviews, it began to dawn on me that I just didn’t feel all that excited about any of the books that were released. Last week was killer, but this week was kind of a bummer, even though we’ve got new issues of Batman, Amazing Spider-Man, Ms. Marvel, Justice League, and the debut of Geoff Johns and John Romita Jr.’s Superman. I thought I’d be happy!
Kind of by default, Ms. Marvel wins Comic Book of the Week. It’s one of my favorite titles these days, and it’s going to take a heck of a lot to knock it off its pedestal. Maybe I’ll get a week where Ms. Marvel, Saga, Hawkeye, Silver Surfer and a brand new Multiple Man #1 all come out at the same time. Then I’ll be in Heaven.
Though Amazing Spider-Man #3 wins moment of the week for the greatest J. Jonah Jameson panel of all time, courtesy of Humberto Ramos.
That needs to be on T-shirts!
Comic Reviews: Amazing Spider-Man #3, Batman #32, Batman Eternal #12, Justice League #31, Ms. Marvel #5 and Superman #32.
Hench-Sized Comic Book Reviews – 5/31/14
Whether it’s to make up for the massive pile of reviews last week, or maybe just plain old laziness, my stack was a bit shorter this week. Less work for me, right gang? Who doesn’t love to slack off a little bit during the week. Maybe kick up the heels and watch that new Axe Cop cartoon? I know I do!
Though I was apparently hard at work elsewhere on the Internet. You can check out my reviews for Inhuman #2 and Deadpool #29 by clicking those links. Both comics were pretty bad. I just can’t get into Deadpool‘s humor, and Inhuman continues to be a spectacularly worthless comic. If all of Marvel’s hopes and dreams depend on turning Inhumans into the new mutants, they are pretty screwed – or maybe we’re pretty screwed, because there’s probably nothing stopping Marvel from just bulldozing over what we want in favor of what they want. Did you hear about the Fantastic Four?
Bad comics continue over at DC this week, with the worst issue of Batman Eternal yet. If there’s anyone else out there in comic book land who also can’t stand what they’re doing with the Gotham Police in Batman Eternal, please let me know. I hope I’m not the only one pulling their hair out.
Fortunately, this week also saw a new issue of Ms. Marvel, and that fills me with overwhelming joy. Kamala Khan is just too awesome. Ms. Marvel #4 easily wins Comic Book of the Week for its humor, its heart and, finally, its superheroics. Our little Kamala is growing up!
The look on her face brings me nothing but joy
Comic Reviews: Avengers #30, Batman #31, Batman Eternal #8, Ms. Marvel #4 and Nightwing #30.
Review: Teen Titans Annual #3
Holy crap, you guys, I actually liked Teen Titans Annual #3! I fully expected an explosion of horror and bad writing. But damn if Scott Lobdell doesn’t pull one out in the end. I would like to think, that over all these long years of me writing Teen Titans reviews, that you readers have come to trust my judgement. Or maybe you’re finding my blog for the first time and don’t know what to believe. Perhaps you, like the rest of us, just wanted to see how the final issue of Lobdell’s Teen Titans would turn out. I’m happy to say–no, ‘happy’ isn’t the right word. I’m…comfortable saying that Teen Titans Annual #3 isn’t the train wreck I thought it was going to be.
Teen Titans Annual #3
In his final issue on the series he introduced to the New 52, Lobdell manages to go out on a high note, so he’s got that going for him, which is nice.
Comic Rating: 6/10 – Pretty Good.
Two things make this final issue pretty good: focus and teenagers. This Annual features the return of Harvest, the villain that technically brought the Teen Titans together at the start of the series. He was a bad character then and he’s a bad character now. But it’s clear from this issue that Lobdell had intended to stretch this story out across several issues. I would bet dollars to donuts that he had always expected to get around to this story, and he never intended it to be only one issue long. But time makes fools of us all, and here is is cramming everything into a single, oversized issue. On the one hand, it sucks, because there are a lot of themes and moments here that would have benefited from a little room to breath, like his attempts to flesh out Harvest’s character and motivation. Predictably, they’re terrible. But maybe Lobdell could have done something more with them. Of course, that’s a big maybe.
On the other hand, forcing Lobdell to rush through this story keeps the focus of the issue tight. I can’t say that the story is all that good, but at least it doesn’t meander and he doesn’t have time for all of his worst traits, like he did in the recent space story. The whole adventure is over and done with in a single issue, and, again, it wasn’t half bad.
As for the teenagers, Lobdell actually takes the time to treat his characters like real people. The first half of the issue, or at least the first few pages, are the Titans out of costume talking to one another about the future of the team and their duty to try and stop Harvest. This was the #1 thing lacking from Lobdell’s Teen Titans: real, human interaction. Had this series regularly contained even an iota of what we see in this issue, maybe it would have been good. Of course, this is still Lobdell’s Teen Titans, and we quickly leave that human stuff behind, but while it’s there, it’s enjoyable. I can say that with conviction.
We also get our first look at what Kenneth Rocafort will be like on art duties. There are times it looks good and times it looks bad, so I guess we’ll just have to wait and see what he really brings to the table.
Teen Titans Annual #3 finally brings to an end Scott Lobdell’s horrendous comic. It was all mostly bad, but in his final issue, he wraps the comic up nicely, fixes a few mistakes and hopefully hands the thing off to some much better creators. Join me after the jump to finally put a cork in this sucker.
Henchman-4-Hire 