Top 5

This month’s “Top 5″ list are my top 5 Robins.  It might be cheating a bit in that there have only been 5 different Robins in main continuity, but shut up.  This is the order that I rank them.  If you disagree, state your case.

5.	Stephanie Brown	Stephanie Brown started as Spoiler, and was mostly known as being the romantic interest of Tim Drake.  When Tim resigned as Robin, Stephanie volunteered to fill his role.  However, she quickly failed as Robin and was fired.  To redeem herself, she stole and implemented some of Batman’s plans, which started a cluster&@$%, and resulted in her “death.”  (War Drums, War Games)  But everything was revealed to be a-okay when Chuck Dixon returned to write Robin, and didn’t want to believe that anything had changed between now and when he left.  She’d later go on to Batgirl, until the New 52 relaunch sent her to limbo.
4.	Jason Todd	Jason Todd was so well liked that people voted for him to die.  At least, that’s how the story goes.  And really, the most memorable thing about him is that Joker killed him with a crowbar.  Well, brutally injured him with a crowbar, and killed him with an explosion.  Realistically, he probably wasn’t that bad of a Robin.  He just had the rotten luck of following Dick Grayson’s 40+ years of being Robin.  We’ll call him the George Lazenby of Robin’s.  He’d later go on to be brought back from the dead.  At first it was unknown how, and the Under the Red Hood storyline was actually pretty good.  Unfortunately, they revealed how he was brought back to life, and it involved Superboy Prime punching the time wall.  Yeah, some things should remain mysteries.
3.	Damien Wayne	Damien Wayne is the son of Talia Al Ghul and Bruce Wayne, and is the current Robin.  Damien was introduced early on in Grant Morrison’s run on Batman, and has been a thorn in the Bat Family’s side ever sense.  But, that’s the charm of Damien.  He’s not like any of the previous Robins.  He’s not haunted by his past.  He’s not trying to prove anything.  He may not even really want to be a hero.  He’s just an arrogant brat that believes he’s better than everyone else.   He’s there because he’s Bruce Wayne’s son, and therefore the heir to Bruce Wayne, which means, to him, being the heir to Batman.
2.	Dick Grayson	Ah, the original Robin.  He lasted quite some time as Robin, and I’ll admit that I haven’t read a lot of those older comics.  But from what I have read, it seemed like the best things done with Dick Grayson were near the end of his run as Robin.  This would be when he started to venture away from Batman, and was leader of the Teen Titans.  Otherwise, he was really just nothing more than Batman’s sidekick.  Of course, Dick Grayson did essentially establish the sidekick.  (Go ahead, show me the list of earlier sidekicks that you think I’m overlooking.)
1.	Tim Drake	I might be biased because this is the Robin I was introduced with, but I do believe that Tim Drake is the greatest of the Robins.  First, he used his detective skills to figure out who Batman and Nightwing were.  He then believed in Batman so much, that he volunteered to be Robin because it needed to be done.  He believed that Batman needed to have a Robin.  He had no reason to do this, other than it was the right thing to do.  He didn’t have a broken childhood.  Well, until his father was killed during Identity Crisis.  But, Bruce Wayne did end up adopting him, making him his son, instead of his ward.  Tim Drake would go on to become Red Robin after the events of Battle for the Cowl, and work solo.  On the publishing side of things, Tim Drake was the star of his solo title for 209 issues, if you combine Robin and Red Robin.  This run was stopped with the launch of the New 52.

Fun stuff in Batman, Inc. #1

While I didn’t make any of this stuff the “Panel of the Month,” there was some fun in Batman, Inc. #1.  The first panel has a nice little Easter egg.  Well, I find it neat, and I like when artists throw in these little things.  See if you can spot it.  The answer, and more, after the break.

Red Robin #14

After an enjoyable 12-issue run by writer Chris Yost, Fabian Nicieza returned to Tim Drake with issue #13.  You may recall that Nicieza was the last writer on the Robin on-going title, after taking over for the departing (or sent away) Chuck Dixon.  While I don’t want to get into a full discussion about the circumstances surrounding the switch, I will touch upon my opinion of the title itself.

When Dixon took over writing Robin, it was clear that he did not like what had happened in the book since his initial run had ended.  He immediately reintroduced old school friends of Tim Drake, brought back Spoiler, and reverted Tim’s character back to what it had been years before.  As a reader, this was very jarring experience.  I’m sure some people liked it, but I could not get into Dixon’s return because of his ignoring developments that I personally didn’t mind.  So, while I had been eagerly anticipating his return, I was not sad to see him leave.

In came Nicieza to replace him.  Personally, I really enjoyed his run on Robin.  I’ve read some complaints about what he did with the character Anarky, but more important than what he did with villains is that he helped get Robin to the point of being viewed as a credible solo hero, instead of the side-kick (or Teen Titans member), taking on only minor enemies.  With the switch to Red Robin, Chris Yost came in and cemented Tim Drake as a solo force, with him battling, and beating Ra’s Al Ghul in a battle of minds.

With the end of Yost’s run, Nicieza came back to Drake, telling a story about how Drake has a plan to take down his own group of villains.  The parallels between Bruce Wayne and Tim Drake have been growing over the years, but here, Nicieza really pushes that forward.  Drake’s plan can be compared to a plan Batman had that appeared in the War Drums/War Games story (where Stephanie Brown tries to impress Batman by setting a plan in motion without realizing he is the vital piece of that plan).  Each piece of Drake’s plan sets up the next step in taking down each villain.

However, with the favorable strategy parallels to Batman, also come the less favorable strategy parallels.  In this issue, the new-ish Robin, Damien Wayne, discovers that Robin also has a strategy to take down some of the heroes should the need arise, just like Batman had in the JLA story “Tower of Babylon.”  As you would expect, Damien is pissed off by this.  So, he convinces Tim to allow him to go on patrol with him.  While out, Damien confronts Tim in the only way he knows how to, by fighting him.  The fight is broken up by Batman/Dick, who basically tells them to get along, and later, tells Tim to better hide his secrets.  It’s also pointed out between the two that Dick is not on the list.

I’m greatly interested to see how the story progresses with both of Tim’s lists.  Will one plan blow up in his face, and which one, or will they both blow up, leaving Tim to find a way out of his mess on his own?  How much of a nuisance is Vicki Vale going to become for Tim?  What is going to happen with Tim’s fake engagement?

I would also like to point out that Marcus To’s art is pretty, and works well with the book.  I hope he stays around for a while.