Category Archives: Robin
Honest Trailers Tackles the Big One
I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve seen from the Screen Junkies team, and now they up the ante by giving the Honest Trailers treatment to the worst superhero movie ever made. I’m talking, of course, about Batman and Robin.
I can’t believe young, teenage Sean loved this movie, and Batman Forever. I’m fairly certain I was just blind and dumb as a kid. High school straightened me right out. Now I dislike and giggle at these films with the appropriate amount of disdain.
Robin and Multiplayer in Batman: Arkham Origins!
I’m still not sure I understand how this is going to work, but IGN revealed today that Batman: Arkham Origins is not only going to have a multiplayer segment, but that multiplayer is going to have Robin! I’m over the moon here! Watch this video and try and understand what’s happening.
So OK, read that article on IGN and try to figure it out with me. It seems that there will two teams of 3 player-controlled henchmen, one team for Joker and one team for Bane. The two teams fight each other for control of territory and spawn points in a map. Sounds typical. The cool part, it seems, is that there will also be two other players in the map playing Batman and Robin. And it will be up to Batman and Robin to sneak around and subdue henchmen on both teams, kind of like flies in the ointment.
That sounds really cool.
Unfortunately, it seems that Robin won’t be a part of the actual main game, which is sad. But still, there is some Robin! And based on that video, it doesn’t look like the same Robin from Batman: Arkham City. So it looks like we’ll have a Dick Grayson version of Robin teaming up with Batman in multiplayer mode. I hope you all won’t hold it against me too much if I keep picking Robin when we play multiplayer matches together.
Review: Teen Titans #22
I think Teen Titans #22 is where the series finally loses its mind. It’s jumped the shark. There is only the insane ramblings of a madman who has too much else to worry about, and can no longer be bothered to tell an even partially coherent story. Scott Lobdell is off writing both Superman comics. He’s got a lot on his plate. So clearly when it came time to write Teen Titans #22, he simply went off the deep end. Everything he may have learned in story-telling school has gone right out the window.
Teen Titans #22
Unprecedented recap page. The Deus ex Machina Squad. Trigon quitting. Evil Red Robin defeated off-panel. It’s all just so…so…lame.
Comic Rating: 2/10 – Very Bad.
On the one hand, the comic is comprehensible. I know what’s happening, I can understand what’s intended. But on the other hand, every other aspect of this comic is a wreck. It’s given up all pretense of being about the characters, and is instead just a rambling befuddlement of stuff that’s happening to a random, somewhat familiar group of superheroes. There’s no cohesion anymore. Issues don’t flow together. Characters are nothing more than colorful bodies who spout painful dialogue, and do what is required of them by the writer. Plot threads are dropped or dismissed seemingly at random, with only a little hand-waving to explain them away. While other plot threads just pop up out of nowhere and make no sense in the larger series.
Nothing matters anymore. Nothing. No friendships, no relationships, no idea of teamwork or why they’re even doing this. The Teen Titans are a train wreck. And the worst part is that they will now always be a train wreck.
Remember, there are no previous versions of the Titans. There is no long legacy of Teen Titans to fall back on anymore, not in the New 52 universe. It’s just Red Robin and this band of idiot misfits grouped together for the sake of hanging a series on. And it’s garbage, pure garbage. I’m pretty sure this book is surviving on name recognition alone at this point. But if it keeps going like this, Teen Titans isn’t going to have a name to bank on anymore.
Robin Watch: Damian Returns!?
I did not see this one coming! Damian Wayne is coming back! Just…not back to life. An interesting twist in the search for the new Robin is an upcoming Elseworlds mini-series starring Damian Wayne. Revealed today in the pages of USA Today, the series will be called Damian: Son of Batman, and will take place in an alternate future where Damian grew up to become Batman.
Possibly by killing Batman?
Alternate futures are a staple of comic books, and Damian has already been the subject of at least one.
The 4-issue mini-series will be written and drawn by comic book legend Andy Kubert, who was the artist on Batman #666, which was itself a futuristic story about Damian as Batman in a post-apocalyptic Gotham City. The first issue of the new mini-series will be released on Oct. 30.
Kubert had this to say:
“I had a big affinity for Damian when I drew Batman issue #666 (in 2007). I really liked that Batman and always wanted to revisit him. Damian is a bit different than the ‘Bruce Wayne’ Batman. Grant Morrison tweaked his character in a way that made it very endearing for me to draw. And to write. Basically, what I’m doing is exploring the path that Damian has taken to become Batman. I think readers will see him in a different light than before.”
This sounds like a pretty cool story to me. I’m sure everybody will tell you that DC killed Damian long before his character wore out his welcome. I didn’t like Damian at first, like pretty much everybody else, but the little twerp grew on me over the years. I never particularly liked him as Robin, but as Damian, he was a pretty cool character. He still had a lot of potential. But Grant Morrison is Grant Morrison, and if he wants to kill off his own creation, then he’s allowed. Being a legendary comic book writer holds that kind of power.
So I don’t really know what to expect from his upcoming mini-series. Andy Kubert is great, and I’m sure he’ll tell an exciting story. This doesn’t reveal anything in terms of who is going to become the new Robin, but it’s definitely something to keep our eye on here at Robin Watch!
Review: Teen Titans #21
Teen Titans should be a comic about teamwork and camaraderie. It should be built on a foundation of strong characters who actively want to spend time with one another because they are legitimately friends. They’re not the Justice League or the Avengers. The Teen Titans are not Earth’s greatest heroes, joined together to fight the threats that one hero alone cannot handle. They’re teenagers, and they just want to hang out and be friends. That they also use their powers to save the world should just be icing on the cake.
Teen Titans #21
This is why I hate the current Teen Titans comic so much.
Comic Rating: 3/5 – Alright.
I say this all the time: I like comics where the characters are people first, superheroes second. In Scott Lobdell’s Teen Titans, they are only superheroes, randomly grouped together because that was the decided cast list of this series. There is nothing deeper or meaningful about the team. They’re friends because we’re told they’re friends. They’re a team because we’re told they’re a team. Their friendships and relationships are barely skin deep. Lobdell and his fellow writers are far more interested in writing generic superhero stories than they are in character interaction. We’re 21 issues into this series, and I don’t think any of the characters have dealt with anything all that emotional or personally important. There’s been no drama. There’s been very little done with any romantic relationships or personal friendships. Nothing memorable has happened at all.
The current Teen Titans is a concept-driven comic. DC knew they wanted a ‘Teen Titans’ book in their reboot, so Lobdell slapped one together. He picked a bunch of characters, created a few new ones, and then has just been kind of coasting from one issue to the next. The threat that pulled them all together in the first place – N.O.W.H.E.R.E. – was a dud, and is now long gone. Since then, he hasn’t touched upon any reason why the team should stay together, or why they even want to do so. They stay together because that’s the comic. If they didn’t stay together, there wouldn’t be a series. And it’s frustrating, because so much more could be done. I want to read stories about these essentially orphaned teenagers actually expressing what they get out of the Teen Titans and why they stick around. I want to see some real friendships blossom, or better yet, some real relationships and the drama that comes with those. I want to see these kids understand their place in the DC Universe. How do they see themselves compared to the Justice League? Why are they superheroes? Sure they have powers, but what is it that drives them to dress up in costume and throw themselves at dangerous situations?
These are all plot points that I think could make for a great Teen Titans comic, but we don’t get any of that. Instead, in this issue, the Teen Titans fight Trigon’s three sons in a generic, mildly entertaining superhero slugfest. It’s just mindless, mostly boring superhero fights. Not only that, but still the Titans treat Raven like she’s been their friend since the beginning. I must have missed a scene where Raven even went so far as to introduce herself to them. But this is how weak the camaraderie is: Raven and Beast Boy pretty much just glom onto the Titans and are treated like total members just because that’s what the plot has dictated. It’s maddening.
Henchman-4-Hire 