Category Archives: Robin
Punishing Dick Grayson, and Why It Could Be a Good Thing
Dick Grayson can’t seem to catch a break. And I don’t just mean the murder of his parents when he was still a boy. I mean Dick Grayson as a comic book superhero can’t seem to catch a break in DC Comics’ New 52 universe. In less than two years, Dick found out that his childhood home, Haley’s Circus, was actually a front for the villainous Court of Owls secret society, and that Dick himself was in line to become one of their undead assassins (until the whole Batman and Robin thing happened instead). Then he found out his childhood sweetheart was a psychopath who betrayed him and tried to kill him, only for her to then be murdered by the Joker as a means of punishing Dick.
Then when he inherited Haley’s Circus and sunk all of his life savings into fixing it up, that too was destroyed by the Joker. Then Dick found out that Batman was keeping secrets from him, leading to an angry split between the two heroes. Then he found out the man who murdered his parents was still alive and hiding in Chicago!
And now Nightwing has been chosen as the sacrificial lamb for the new Forever Evil event.
So that’s why they put him in red
Don’t worry, he’s not dead…at least not yet.
But something almost as huge happened to Nightwing in this week’s Forever Evil #1. As a big Robin and Nightwing fan, I’m worried about any major change to one of my favorite characters. But I’m here to tell you that this change might not be all that bad. In fact, this could work out very well in Nightwing’s favor.
As long as DC manages to use it to tell some good stories. That part is questionable.
But this isn’t the end of the world. Join me after the jump for full SPOILERS and why I think this could be good for the character.
Review: Teen Titans #23
Just when I think Teen Titans has done everything in its power to mess with my head, here comes Teen Titans #23. On the one hand, it’s everything I’ve ever wanted from the comic. Here is an issue dedicated to the various members sitting down and talking to one another about themselves and their lives. Some of them even sound kind of like teenagers; you know, when they’re not utterly the most base, awkward expositional dialogue ever written. Oh yes, oh yes. The one thing I’ve been complaining about most since the start of the DCnU Titans, and Teen Titans #23 delivers in spades.
Teen Titans #23
But holy crap is this a weird, stunted and disappointing comic!
Comic Rating: 4/10 – Pretty Bad.
I don’t even think I should rate these Teen Titans issues anymore. I’ve lost all ability to be objective, or even recognize what is or isn’t a good or bad issue. There’s just the same dull ache of concern over whether what I’m reading is fine, or if it’s just as inane and misguided as it’s been since the beginning. Teen Titans is a bad comic book. The characters are paper thin and have zero depth. They have no reason for being a team. It’s just a collection of familiar characters garbled together into a team book, with sales presumably strong enough to keep it going, based probably entirely on the brand recognition. Their dialogue is some of the most stilted, exposition-heavy in all of comics. And their costumes just look stupid. There, I said it.
Teen Titans #23 starts off with one of the silliest moments yet as the team deals with Kid Flash being pulled into that vortex, which you can see on the cover. It’s one of the most openly comedic moments I have seen in comics in a long time, but it’s so broadly comedic that I’m not sure it’s actually happening in 2013. It seems like something you’d see in a 90s sitcom, complete with laugh track.
On top of that, for reasons I can’t quite fathom, writer Scott Lobdell spends the issue reintroducing every single member of the team, in the most awkward and obvious ways possible. One would think this is a ‘jumping on’ type of play, for any new readers (as if!), but then the next issues of Teen Titans in September are part of that Villains Month play. They won’t have anything to do with the Teen Titans. So why would anybody jump on for this issue, then be forced to read comics about Trigon and Deathstroke?
And the ending. God damn the ending of this comic. If it means what I think it means…
Join me after the jump for a full synopsis and more head-against-wall examination of this out-of-control comic book.
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.
Henchman-4-Hire 