This issue,this whole arc, is stupid for several reasons. First it is just a repeat ofBatman loses everything and rises from the ashes stronger. Rinse lather repeat.

Second, the whole premise makes no sense. Crooks willing to be partipants in mass murder decide to become thieves and will be expected to be peaceful because why?

Third, the Bat family going along with crime? To quote Lana Kane , “Nnooppe.”

Fourth - Zur-an-that was and remains an uninteresting idea. Instead of allowing for character examination, it just acts a a macguffin for tedious stories.

When this is over, Bruce will have his fortune back, again. The family will say we’re a family again, let’s not fight again.

Bruce will say I will be nice again. I am guessing Cat and Bat will be dead as a couple, just like zMJ and Peter. Editors hate it, public loves it.

This really is just a terrible rehash of terrible ideas that have been run into the ground.

Or I could be wrong. more

I'm tired of Hal being a 40 years old child

this was a downright bad problem. Sorry, I don't want to be a hater, but there's a big problem here, jeremy addams writes Hal as a really stupid guy. this problem is basically Hal doing awkward things to win back a person who already has a partner and another life. I didn't like his behavior at all, except for the first scene, and it's basically the base of the number

This issue is supposed to set up the new status quo, but it was more tell than show. We are told that all the sidekicks asked Bruce how he was feeling, but we never see them talk to Bruce, or their reaction to his absence or return.

We do see that. Bruce has a magic hand that does everything his real hand did, so no angst there.we see a little Bruce at war with himself, but it is all old hat. We also see Bruce and Selina talk, but for the life of me I can’t say what that scene is supposed to be about or how it serves the story.

The art was there, neither bad or great. Your mileage may vary. All I can say is that this issue exists. It really doesn’t set anything in motion, except for maybe more Bruce is scared of losing his found family. But this family has all the makings of props, not characters with their own sparks of divine fire.

Not a good issue. Or I could be wrong. more

This issue reiterated points already made. The Omni verse needs a Batman. After defeating the enemy du jour, this earth’s Selina kicks one-handed Bruce through the portal and he meets all the other Bats in all the other earths. Even get shark repellant from Adam West Bats and later uses it against a laughing fish shark. Silly, but I give points for style.

In one of the trips, Bruce gets an artificial hand and eventually gets back to “our” Earth. Does he now have an artificial hand? Will we see it in other books? Don’t know but doubt it. So what does it matter? When Peter David gave Aquaman. Hook hand, that stuck until an entire reboot of the universe.

I guess I am disappointed. The theme of even without Batman monsters would exist was literally said out loud. No points for being subtle. Meantime, story opportunities were thrown away. We don’t see other characters react to no Bruce. We don’t see Bruce react to losing his family. No reaction to losing his hand. Is he afraid he won’t be as handy? Will he be more (h) armless (see what I did there). Supposedly earthshattering events didn’t matter to the characters, so why should it matter to me?

Didn’t like the arc, but I could be wrong. more

So absolutely boring and uninteresting.

The art is extremely lackluster.

If this is the best that DC has to offer then they should start saying their prayers.

Did Batman just lose a hand? In a story where Batman is fighting a foe we don’t know, one whose motives are unknown other than to be evil so Bats has someone to fight, Ghostmaker cuts off Bats’ hand.

So what the hell, dude. My reaction wasn’t how will he handle a life-altering injury. It was “no way this will stick, so who cares.” But that is just me. Your mileage may vary. But this whole arc just strikes me as none of this matters. We certainly haven’t seen such great world-building that we understand such things as motive, character or theme. We also don’t get any insight into Bruce. What does he think about this world? Does he ponder what this Selina means. Does he think this is my life if I failed? Does he miss his family, and desperately want to get back to them. Nope, he just goes through rote hero stuff with no context or insight. Pure plot.

Also, who cares about Ghostduster. Why not have a villain with real history cut off his hand instead of Tynion’s rip-off of a BTAS character. Not a good story. Plus, on the day Sony dropped its latest Spider-verse animated trailer, our next issue caption shows Bat-verse next issue. Be original DC. This is not good.

Or I could be wrong.

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This whole arc has been a real mixed bag. Some issues were good, others were not. This was a not. We finally meet the Mad Hatter and I get that the writer was going for creepy mad man, but the result was huh, this plan makes no sense.

That’s the problem with much of Batman’s Rogue’s Gallery. It madness al the way down, but to be an effective story telling device there has to be method and motive to the madness, otherwise it is just a gimmick. Hatter just collects serums and then invites people to his trap. Why? BTAS was great in giving villains motives for their madness. This issue not so much.

The trap is sprung and the Batgirls fight life-sized puppets of the Bat family. They are easily defeated but Steph is exposed To Manbat serum and converts. This is one of the serums Hatter collects. I guess his eBay-fu is strong. Cass goes after Steph and uses the power of friendship to calm her down. Babs shoots cure and it’s happiness all around. I get the point of this, to show Iove and trust and family, but I found it obvious and on the nose. A better example of this is Tombstone. Doc Holliday says he joins Wyatt Earp because Wyatt is his friend. The other guy says”I have lots of friends.” Doc says “I don’t.”

That is the whole explanation of one character’s motive. It is to the point and taken care of in four sentences. It says a lot in very few words, and is not obvious. Since the whole point of the book is the friendship between Cass and Steph, and to a certain point Babs, do more show and not tell. Subtext is not your enemy.

So overall, a mixed bag. Also, I hate it when one villain’s gimmick become public domain. Just a personal peeve.

Or I could be wrong. more

Zdarsky continues to pass off fan-fiction level wring as professional work.

This art is absolultey unacceptable quality for the flagship "Batman" title.

There is nothing wrong with this issue but I'm just not feeling it. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's because this story arc feels like an Elseworlds tale. The Selina scenes are good, as are the Alfred scenes. But Harvey "HULK" Dent is not working for me. He Hulks out much more than Bane ever did on venom. Same for this version of Riddler. Targeting kids left me shaking my head.

I want Bruce back in "our" Gotham. Get him out of this weird universe that feels like it's going nowhere. more

Whatever. Reads like an Elseworld’s story, and if they return Alfred to the book using this off-world Alfred, I will be disappointed.

I still hold to the idea that Fitzmartin never had any intention of honoring the concept and legacy of Tim Drake but instead seems to have taken this as her cue to write whatever fantasy ideas she has of him. This isn't about "trying to live up to the images of other people." When given a character like this, it's about making them the best version of who you can while still honoring the roots set down. You may not follow every single branch that stemmed from their initial creation, but there still remains that steady trunk of who they are as a character, and she seems intent on cutting that down as well.

The most glaring problem with this issue, as many others have already pointed out, is the idea that Tim wanted to be Batman. That he felt himself being set up for taking over the mantle, that his role as Robin was to one day step into Batman's role. He has stated on so many occasions that this is not something he has ever wanted, even if at times, he has donned the cowl. But Tim's whole point, one could argue, was to be the Robin who wanted to be Robin. It wasn't about being a cool sidekick and then taking on the name of Batman when it was time. Tim saw who Batman was without a Robin, what the loss of Jason was doing to Bruce, and he understood the real role of Robin. He approached Bruce with that very notion. It was not Bruce being unable to be Batman without a Robin, but what Batman was becoming without one. Bruce was still more than capable of acting as Batman, but the legacy of Batman, what he represented was in jeopardy, and Tim understood this. At least, this has been my understanding of their dynamic. And this is also why Tim has held a certain fear of becoming Batman. Because he knows himself and he understands what being Batman might do to him, who he might become, and that is not something he wants for himself. He's always had a level of calculated "fearlessness" when pushed, and it's partly why the role of Batman has registered as something he does not want for himself.

Which makes this whole notion of Tim not understanding himself in this series something of a joke. Yes, he has insecurities, but he also has some very clear ideas of himself and, most importantly, things he does not want, including the role of Batman and why. This tells us Tim has had some sense of himself, that he hasn't been completely lost. So, I find this idea that Tim has no clue who he is and that he's only finding himself with the marina and Bernard really reductive. Sure, he might not have it all together and still find himself plagued by uncertainty, but to act like he has had no sense of who he is as a person is rather insulting. The real issue with him may actually be in coming to terms with some of this, and a big part of that has been (despite kind of being answered already in a previous series) what becomes of him after Robin. Not knowing yourself and coming to terms with what you want and how that fits into the world can be two very separate things. But that probably requires a level of subtlety and understanding Fitzmartin seems incapable of managing.

That has probably been the biggest plague of this series. Fitzmartin's ideas remain all over the place. Take Moriarty. First, he wants Tim to be his ideal nemesis, then he talks about Tim joining him, which implies that rather than Tim taking him on as his main villain, they're working together to create this farce of an idea of them being better than Batman and Joker. Work with me or die. The level of villainy marriage proposals here was absolutely absurd in its execution. Again, nothing was really added to this story and this potential relationship between villain and hero. Rather, Fitzmartin continues to rely on tropes that she doesn't bother to dress up at all, and so they continue to fall flat in their execution. She hasn't given us any background to build upon as to why Moriarty is so set on having his Joker moment. What's his motivation here? Is it simply to be the next Joker? He's clearly not doing a great job of that. Is he supposed to be the next A-tier villain of the Batman world? Because he reads like a D-list one at best. Is the idea then that we haven't seen him at his worst, given the notion Tim threw out there about how he didn't do anything more than play with alchemic creations?

Am I excited to see him again? No.

Moriarty suffers from the same thing the marina itself suffers, that Bernard suffers, that Darcy suffers. Absolutely no build-up, no backstory, nothing at all to make a reader understand why we should care about any of this. He, along with all the others, made convenient plot devices for a plot that wasn't fully fleshed out. The whole final battle is just a repeat of the one Tim had with the fake Robins. There was nothing new there. Into the marina water you go, Moriarty. I still don't know how he got tangled in all that rope. He clearly falls on top of and slightly in front of it, untangled, in one panel, and then Tim kicks the anchor off, and suddenly the rope is twisted all around him. Not how kicking an anchor would go aside from the one hand shown pushed into a loop based upon his previous positioning. Maybe I missed something there, but I've looked at those panels multiple times and none of it makes sense. I suspect it's the writing not making clear what was going on. It looks like there was a missing scene here or a failure to understand how that mechanic might work and what would be needed to execute it properly. Again, it seems more of a moment where Fitzmartin probably thought it would be cool and didn't care about the reality of writing it.

I was also bothered by the idea that Moriarty put out there that the role of Robin has been keeping Tim down. It again reminds me of a lot of the other backhanded comments made throughout this series as far as Tim's past goes and this idea of having to put down his previous life in order to prop up his new one. Tim has loved being Robin. I do agree about him finding his next role like Dick and Jason have done, but to imply that Robin is somehow detrimental to him felt like a cheap shot, especially given the history of why he chose to take on that role. He's accomplished a lot as Robin, which led to other things for him, all of which it seems Fitzmartin is ignoring here. Maybe a smaller complaint in this issue, and only one I have, but that moment grated on me a bit.

She also contradicts her own idea of Tim in this issue, where she tells us on one page he's felt like nothing has been in control in his life, and then follows it a little later by saying he wants to be less structured and less careful about things. He talks about the deaths he couldn't prevent, which is juxtaposed by the one he could with Bernard at the last second. Again, this idea of using his past to support the "idealness" of his current life. It fell flat. The way everything here is written to show that what he has now is the best for him while ignoring all the good he's had in his life with the Batfam just registers as a really sad and hollow attempt to make us care about this current situation when in reality the absolute failure of the writing and story itself to convey that is what's truly at fault. But instead of addressing those issues, we're constantly being told over and over that this life is Tim's best life without any of the story actually supporting it. But part of who Tim is as a character is his ability to calculate and weigh the situation and the outcomes. It's what makes him a great detective (which again he clearly has not been in this story so far when you have a villain basically hand-feeding him the answers to the problems - which also makes this idea of Tim being "unable" to say no to the puzzle really hilarious). This reminded me once more of how Fitzmartin seems to be telling us her intent to change his character to who she thinks he should be rather than working with who he is and all that makes him great.

Bernard also remains incredibly flat as a character despite a little more page time here. The way Tim used "my Bernard" on that first page felt really weird and strangely possessive to me when we still have no idea why he cares so much about this guy. He's never acted like this before with him, and now suddenly, here we are with this "my" thing and then he's still not even sure they're actually boyfriends until they declare it in the last scene. It felt forced and out of place. And by the time I got to that last scene, instead of finding it cute, I found myself rolling my eyes at it all. I still don't understand how Bernard got chosen as the main love interest here given his actual history in Tim's life, but Fitzmartin has given me nothing to want to overlook that part and embrace the Bernard we have right now.

And the same thing goes for the marina (and these people just lost their supposed landlord - which no one seems to question since it doesn't seem like anyone knew James was our big baddie here - so what's going to happen now with that when you've got this supposed gentrification plot waiting to happen?) and all the people in it. And then you have Detective Williams just showing up to a major fight and having no backup at the start, just him and Darcy (and yes, I know Fitzmartin has painted EVERY other cop here aside from Detective Willams as the worst of the worst but still, protocols and civilian protection have to amount to something I would think). You don't even see these supposed other cops, only a bunch of civilians cheering Tim on, which again keeps painting this picture of how it's Tim's ideal life and setting, and it's just him against this outside world, asking us to ignore everything good that had happened to Tim before he knew Bernard and the marina. I honestly don't find a single thing about this setup intriguing anymore.
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A really solid issue. Character drove action, and for the first time in a long time we actually see the relationship between Steph and her father defined. Cluemaster has Steph tied up and goes back to his game show origins.

For those s who don’t know, Cluemaster was an obscure 1960s villain who hosted a game show and became a criminal. Largely forgotten until Chuck Dixon revived him in the 1990s, his compulsion to leave clues was cured and he became a “straight” criminal. End of history lesson.

Anyway, Arthur tries to get Steph to admit her best qualities came from him and that Batman sucks. Cass shows up and Steph gets shot, but that Lazarus juice found last issue saves Steph. We also learn the stuff was a prototype stolen by Mad Hatter and tested on Arthur. He is arrested and Cass and Steph reaffirm their friendship.

We also get, or at least I, get the sense that Mad Hatter and Lazarus juice is on the menu for the future.

This was a tight, well-plotted issue that was driven by character and characters’ history. It built on what came last issue. So well done, all said and done.

What I didn’t like? The colors. Still too neon for my tastes.

But I could be wrong. Still a strong issue.

And I’m not wrong. more

This story line just isn’t for me. I don’t buy the premise, so no matter how well it’s done, I remain unmoved. We see Bruce learn a bit about this world, but we don’t see him be smart and do actual deep dive research. He acts on minimal information and tries to contact a guy who is known for resisting this world’s police state. He meets “Selina” and they tussle.

He fights more cops. In the other story, we see Tim doing actual work to get Bruce back. It involves Toyman tech. Bruce also sees this world’s Alfred and we learn this world’s Bruce gave away his money and the world wasn’t saved.

I get what the writer is doing - answering critics who say “if Bruce gave away his money, Gotham would be saved.” No it wouldn’t., zdarsky replies. Chris Sims has answered that observation well in the past. One, it’s boring to watch a man cut checks for 22 pages. Two, the world is setup to support Batman. Third, fixing problems over a period of years is nice but the Joker is poisoning the reservoir right now.

I mean I get the point of this arc, Bruce with no allies, money, equipment or even information. So won’t it be great when he kicks ass and takes names. Batman refined to his most essential core, without all the detritus of years of stuff weighing him down. I get that, but the problem with that story is that we’ve it in the past and it really requires very smart writing to carry out. Plotting is hard, and frankly, most comic writers aren’t up to the challenge.

This story isn’t for me, but your mileage may vary. Also I don’t like Selina’s dress. It looks like a 13 year old boy’s idea of “classy and sexy.”

Or I could be wrong. more

This was a pretty good issue. Cass has never been what you would call verbal, so showing her investigate without talking works. More importantly, we are shown the work, and we see that she is smart. Non-verbal doesn’t mean dumb. (See what I did there.)

I also liked that we read the notes. Normally dialogue-less issues are a quick read, but reading coroner reports and the like to give us exposition is a nice work-around, so you get value for the money.

I did think that Cass guessing Steph’s location was a little too easy, but it’s. 22 page book, so there is a limit in terms of space, so this is a real nitpick.

This issue is much stronger than the Steph as Cass issue. The work flows we see real characterization and we are shown, not told. There is forward progress in the story and we learn how Cluemaster died and was revived. But not all questions have been answered, so there is something to look forward to in the next issue.

I liked the art, but found the Miami Vice colors a poor choice for the Bat-noir vibe of the story.

Overall a really solid issue and a better continuation of the annual than the previous issue.

I don’t think I’m wrong. more

This is just pure speculation on my part. I have no inside info, and many of my predictions have been wrong in the past, so take this with a giant grain of salt.

But I now believe that Mary Jane’s kids as seen in recent Amazing Spider-man issues are her biological, not step, kids. What makes me think that? In the latest MJ and Black Cat issue, Cat mentions MJ was gone for six months. MJ says yeah six months in such say that it leads me to believe she was in some dimension where time travels differently, so she had time to birth two kids. There may be some sort of variation on this, but you get my drift.

Why would Marvel do this? Reason one, the editors are tools and don’t want a married Peter because he is unrelatable. I guess that shows what they think of readers. We are incapable of having healthy relationships and live in relatives’ basements.

Two, by giving MJ real kids, they can kill any hope of MJ and Peter getting together. The call of motherhood will drag MJ away from Peter, and editors have a full proof way to kill the relationship.

They tried killing MJ In a plane crash. Didn’t take. They tried a deal with devil and could not kill the vibe. But give MJ real kids, and she can’t expose them to Peter’s dangerous life. She has to stay away and shame on the reader for downgrading motherhood. Are we going to kill or otherwise take her kids away? Who’ the tool now?

Like I said this is a guess. If I am right, you read it here first. If I am wrong? Well, I have always admitted to that possibility, but you have to give me points. Because when I am wrong, I am really wrong. more

Is it really time to have yet another redefining of what Batman is? With the Failsafe story and now this, it looks like it. Until the next time. This is the second dull storyline in a row and with the yawn fest that is Detective Comics, I’m sorely in need of a Batman story I don’t have to stop and count how many pages I have left to read before I can get to something more exciting.

It feels like we've already done this.

This issue felt like some half-assed mashup of Batman R.I.P./Final Crisis/Return of Bruce Wayne and JLA: Earth 2. But instead of Bruce getting sent back in time by Darkseid, he gets sent to some twisted alternate earth waking up all trashed in a dirty alleyway. As far as i can tell, Jim Gordon in this story is acting as the knockoff version of (Batman RIP's) Bat-Mite. It seems that "Jimbo" is just a figment of Bruce's imagination following him in this journey. This story also kind of smacks of the "Future State" Detective story we'd just gotten about a year ago by Mariko Tamaki. So far Zdarsky's Batman just feels like a mish-mosh of ideas we've seen from other writers. Just not done nearly as well as what had come before. more

So the Batbot sent Bruce to a world without Batman. This Gotham is basically the world of Judge Dredd. Harvey Dent isn’t Two-Face, but he is a venom-roided up enforcer of the law. Commissioner Gordon is a skeleton who walks, talks and has a mustache. Selina is some sort of thief with her own crew. Apparently, sending Bruce to a Batless Gotham is the machine’s idea of mercy.

Bruce fights the law, who is Dent, and Selina sees him on tv and recognizes Bruce.

Bruce now, to quote the Green Goblin, has a new world to conquer.

What I liked. Hard to say because I reject the premise of the story. This story takes the main Batman book and reduces it to a elseworlds story. Given that DC prints about 1332 Batman elseworld stories every week, we don’t need another. This reduces the stakes. We know that Bruce will eventually return home, so anything that happens will not matter, it’s just another elseworld story.

This story is just spinning wheels. Sound and fury signifying nothing. (You can never go wrong quoting Shakespeare).

Or I could be wrong. more

(*In old-timey announcer guy voice*)
Previously on “Thanks I hate it” Starring Timblr & Bernard as the “Manic Pixie Femboy”. Timblr acted so out of character, after taking down a squad of fake Robins. But Bernard is now Tim’s boyfriend so it makes it all better. Will SmartA55 be able to make it through this issue with all his hair attached to his head?

(We now return to your regularly scheduled smarminess)

Alright let's get all the usual complaints out of the way:

*Tim looks like Sid from Toy Story
*Ber-Nard, Ber-Nard, Dude looks like a lady!
*Tim is acting incredibly OOC & is acting like an idiot
*Narration boxes, over-narrating everything
*Bernard dressed up in a ridiculous outfit
*Tim being written as Gay not Bi
*Rossmo’s character designs are unpleasant to look at
*Blah, blah, blah, TUMBLR, blah blah

Positives first, I gotta say, the coloring in this series has been pretty good throughout. So thank you Loughridge, you have been the one consistently good thing throughout this book.

*sigh* And onto negatives:

Tim, CLOSE YOUR DAMN CURTAINS!!! Tim is supposed to be someone who takes every precaution to keep his identity safe, but he leaves his windows wide open where a drone can easily view him?! I remember during “Knightfall” when Bruce scolded him for eating in costume in a room filled with windows. Seriously, this is supposed to be the same guy who once faked an assassination attempt in order to keep his identity intact, yet he doesn’t even use any form of security measures on his boat?! I really don’t like this Marina setting, it makes zero sense for Tim, why a boat?! Then, Bernard gets all in a huff about that one guy getting fired and being called a degenerate, the same guy who in the last issue admitted to peeing in the Marina. Why would Tim want to live here of all places? Why did he ever leave Wayne Manor? Why doesn’t he go live with his friends? Why doesn’t he rebuild the place they used at the end of Red Robin?

Oh and then Bernard calls Tim “Superboy’s Biggest fan……..Alright that’s it!

*grabs keys, stomps out of the room, starts up car, screeching down the street.*

*About a half-hour later*

*Car comes screeching back, door slams, runs inside, stomps up the stairs* Okay! *takes off earrings of freshly pierced ears* ENOUGH WITH THE TIMKON QUEERBAITING!!!

It’s abundantly clear that this is the real reason why they decided to make Tim bisexual, not because of Bernard (and I’ll get to him soon) but because they just want to get to TimKon. It has been not so subtly teased ever since the Tim Drake Pride special, and it just continues here. If the plan was to have Tim admit his feelings for Conner, then why not do that in the first place?! I may think TimKon is the wrong route but it makes far more sense that his current relationship. It just makes Bernard all the more superfluous.

I really cannot stand Bernard. He serves no purpose to the plot but being a kind and supportive cute little boytoy to be Tim’s little cheerleader,, and someone for Tim to just fawn over and protect. I joked before, but Bernard is literally a “Manic Pixie Femboy” he serves no purpose. He’s just there to be cute, to boost Tim’s mood, and steer him in the right direction. He’s not even that cute! He doesn’t resemble the character he’s supposedly based off of in the slightest. Bernard used to be filled with personality, acting weird (albeit somewhat annoyingly), outgoing, and snarky. Here, he’s not a character, he’s a walking gay caricature. This isn’t even about Stephanie, I’m fine with Tim dating someone other than her (it’s not preferred but I can live with it) but all of his other previous relationships, while I wasn’t fond of most of them, all of them were characters that had characteristics beyond being a love interest. Take his first girlfriend Ariana. Ari was the daughter of immigrants, who lived with her aunt & uncle after her father was murdered, and had dreams of being a fashion designer. Now some of you may say “SmartA55, be fair they’re only 4 issues in” well all of those facts about Ariana were established in 3 issues of a 6-issue mini and the first issue of the Dixon “Robin” run.

If this were about two brand new gay characters, I would think it was cute but mediocre. However, these are two established characters who are now bisexual. Bernard is written like a precious little puppy dog that needs to be protected, and not someone who has already gone through traumatic events, like say, a gang war taking place in the very school where Tim & Bernard first met. We could have had a story about two guys reconnecting after years apart only to realize that there is a growing attraction between them, something that neither of them had expected and yet it felt right despite it being something that neither one of them considered an option. But no, instead of a nuanced portrayal of the complex situation of realizing one’s sexuality, we just get basic ass gay romance between a one-dimensional sack of cardboard and a beloved character reduced to a parody of his former glory. Tim’s identity is exposed, and instead of immediately jumping into action, he has to cuddle with Bernard. PRIORITIES TIM!!!

Then he goes to ask the Batgirls for help, and we don’t even get one awkward moment between him and Steph, not one?! That is a goldmine for character moments and you don’t use it!!!! Then they have to fight a giant goldfish. Which reminds me, that was part of the solicit for the previous issue and the solicit for this issue spoils the ending! What the heck DC?!

There’s so much more I could say, but honestly I’ve written enough as it is.

I know this sounds harsh, but it's just how I feel. If you guys like this, I’m happy for you, but I think you deserve better. Maybe it’s because I recently reread “Red Robin” before reading this, and let’s just say that’s kinda like watching the Nolan trilogy followed by the Shumacher movies. I really want Tim to have his own book, but this, this isn’t it. I wanna see this turn around,

I really do, but this direction is all wrong.

Now, we’ll just wait til next time when Tim faces off against Maximillian Pegasus….yay? more

Let me start by saying, having seen more comments about the matter, that Rossmo's art isn't the main issue here for me. While I do continue to agree that this style wasn't the best fit for a Tim Drake book, it's still a style that has its place in the industry. Part of the issue with the art, though, is that it gives us one sense of a story while the actual story itself provides another, and I feel that this disconnect remains. Again it begs the question — who is the target audience for this story? Is this supposed to be a YA-centric tale? A continuation of the Tim Drake we knew from before? If there is a specific audience in mind, then marketing has failed abysmally on this point (but I imagine they were hoping to capture that nostalgia crowd while also shooting for a brand new one), and I think that is, in part, why there is such a divisive, almost contentious air around this comic's reception. That being said, I don't think anyone at DC really knows who this story is for at this point. It feels a lot like they're fishing around for that audience and trying to see what lands and what doesn't, and in the process, it's hurting Tim Drake's reputation. But artwise, Loughridge continues to be fantastic on coloring, and starting with the last issue, Rossmo's art feels like has finally settled into itself for this story. (I don't know if this is a matter of "doing better work" on other comics or whether this is some stylistic adjustments made for this particular comic as some artists will shift their style, within their own style, to work with the setting/atmosphere a certain story is going for.) Rossmo, though, for me, is not the real problem with this comic. I can adjust to art style if the story is good, and the writing still remains horribly lackluster and disjointed, in my opinion.

I'm beginning to wonder if the Tim Drake we are seeing here isn't being treated as some sort of blank slate. This idea of "Tim had no direction" and "Tim doesn't know who he is" rings very hollow when you read his previous runs. Within the first issue of Red Robin, I got a very clear idea of Tim and his emotional state, how he was reacting to the world and situations around him, and that told me we have a very defined person here, even if he is now trying to define himself outside of Robin. So, now I am questioning whether or not I'm supposed to be taking into account any of his previous history other than the fact that he once dated Steph and Cassie (take what you will of that based on her interpretation of that relationship for her Dark Crisis YJ run) and he became Robin. This current series almost seems as though it's taking a completely different direction, and asking previous readers (or new ones like me just discovering his old series) to forget who he had been so a new Tim Drake can be reconstructed as Fitzmartin believes he, as a character, should be, and not building on who he had already been. In this sense, it feels as if Fitzmartin is treating Tim as her own OC. Slapping a love of detective stories, saying "who am I if I'm not Robin," and giving him the costume does not Tim Drake make. He's a wonderfully nuanced character, and I'm just not seeing that here with him.

Part of that being, as I've taken issue with before, is just how utterly stupid Tim seems here. You're talking about a guy who made plans for the plans he already had sometimes. There are things he picked up on from being with Batman. I do not understand why, when he knows he has this "stalker," he's leaving his windows clear open for anyone to look inside his boat, including while he is researching this case. (Or you know, for someone to snap pictures of him, because that was the drone there in that one shot, wasn't there?) You're telling me Tim knows this villain knows who he is, and he's just letting anyone and everyone peep into his boat? Also, why does he not have some sort of security system on this thing? The landlord just waltzed in. Villains break in. (Or maybe they waltzed in too!) He has done nothing to secure his place. Hell, why didn't he even have a tracker on Bernard if he was that concerned? Seems like something Tim might do and apologize later for if found out. Also, why not grill Bernard on "letting a superhero" onto his boat? Seems like a prime opportunity to bring home the fact that maybe you can't trust just anyone, Bernard, including vigilantes, even if they seem like the good guys, and maybe create some breathing room for his secret identity. Since that also seems to be a sticking point about keeping Bernard safe at this moment.

I'm also not clear on why Bernard called out to him with "Superboy's biggest fan" when he easily could have just called him "Boy wonder" and gotten Tim's attention that way. We haven't even seen why Bernard would call Tim this unless I missed some sort of interaction with Tim Drake (as Tim Drake and not Robin), Bernard, and Superboy that would explain why Bernard feels getting Tim's attention with that was the best way to go about it. Also, again, how is Tim so distracted walking about the marina, with its rampant murders, and ends up caught off guard yet again by Bernard? These constant lapses in his judgment, given this escalating situation, only make Tim seem stupider than we all know he is. This also brings back home for me again how Fitzmartin tends to make assumptions about her own story by putting things that lack the context to hold them as she hasn't done to story work to bring the readers the understanding they need to place these little moments. You can certainly build up these little character idiosyncrasies, but they have to be placed well and eventually given context to uphold them.

I do also think that instead of getting more insight into Bernard and building on his character, the scenes we got for him were only there to prop Tim up. Again, something that can be fine and well if Bernard were a better established character at this point, but right now, his only purpose in this comic seems to provide a counterpoint to Tim's old life rather than being someone who is just that important to Tim. We're once again told how important Bernard is and not really shown it. Even when saying he wants to protect Bernard, this is undermined by Tim then saying he can protect everyone almost immediately after. It diminished the importance of Bernard to me. Also, Tim's reaction to the kidnapping seemed to contain yet again little thought in interacting with this new villain (which would have been the prime place to put that internal monologue of Tim analytically dissecting this phone call and new voice!) and was far more reactionary than Tim Drake typically tends to be. Show us Tim saying one thing while breaking it all down in his head rapid fire! That would have been a great call back to his Red Robin series and how it worked there.

I would also like to know how many times Bernard is going to get kidnapped because while this plot point is not new and is very often used and used again, it was literally the point of their introduction as a couple as we got to see it in his Pride/UL story. Which we basically just got. I know Fitzmartin herself said Bernard is there to be Tim's damsel-in-distress, but could we not?

I did find the interactions with Steph very stilted, though, and not in that "we just broke up and are trying to figure our work relationship out now" sort of way. It was weirdly impersonal-personal. A few comments here and there that let you know Steph knows Tim better than an acquaintance but lacking any real warmth. Again, because we have so little to go on with these two since the breakup, you can argue this any number of ways as to why it plays out like that on the pages, but the one sticking point remains in that their situation was not handled well from the start. This was brought up back during the whole Pride event storyline, and it's showing itself again here.

In conclusion, I still think this is a hot mess of a series. There are far too many discrepancies and contradictions in this story for me to suspend my belief reasonably. Comics do ask you to do that to varying degrees (hello, Batman #130), but Fitzmartin clearly struggles with voice here and doesn't seem to have a clear idea of who Tim Drake is herself, despite all her talk about it. Her writing is playing out far differently for me, and the more I see of previous Tim Drake stories, the clearer this is starting to become. It's unfortunate a character as amazing as Tim Drake is falling prey to this level of writing. He's truly great, worthy of standing there with any of his fellow Robins. As others here have said, I also highly recommend tuning into the Red Robin run if you haven't yet. But as far as this story goes, with this big new villain reveal, I'm not impressed. It's been a poor set-up all the way through, and this is beginning to feel more like a circus than a detective story with any weight behind it.

(Apparently, my main review is way beyond the max here but you can read the whole thing over at https://leagueofcomicgeeks.com/comic/3709319/tim-drake-robin-4) more

I don’t want to be that guy, but duty calls. The bottom line is that DC rips off an old Daredevil plot where the children of Killgrave erased memories. So Lex uses Manchester Black to erase everyone’s memories of the Kent’s as Supes. If anyone finds out they have strokes. Media won’t be able to be read,etc.

That’s nice, but all the media hasn’t been erased, so children who grew up after the spell and thus not under the spell will eventually learn to read or how to YouTube, so they will get strokes, I guess. Lex uses his latest battle suit to zap Supes into another star system, but thanks to Warworld Supes is more powerful than powerful than than ever, and he can now cross vast distances in the blink of an eye.

My thoughts. They are basically “give me a break.” An overpowered hero that should win every fight without breaking a sweat is EVEN MORE POWERFUL. That means every time Supes fights someone, it actually becomes difficult to build in any suspense. DC will be forced to have aliens and magicians all the way down to build any tension. Magicians in a sci-fi book about aliens.

What really hurts is that DC just rebooted their universe for the 633,976,031 time in the past decade. They could have easily fixed everything in the reboot.

Points for having Bats point out that by revealing his identity to the world he reduced Lois Lane to Mrs. Superman and that’s not cool. Good point.

Overall, they fixed problems by creating other problems.

Or I could be wrong. more

I am conflicted about this issue. It had a great premise set up in the annual - Steph and Cass switch bodies due to a magic coin coin and their parents kidnap them.

But I feel the idea was wasted. On the one hand Lady Shiva figured out the switch, so points for not dragging out the idea. That is so old. But we really don’t see a satisfying payoff with the idea either. I really don’t get anymore idea of how Shiva feels about Cass.

Cluemaster only reveals he’s been dead for three days but somehow revived. We also see he has a Kurgan scar on his throat. (See movie Highlander for that reference. Any story that makes me think of Highlander has its pluses.) is Cluemaster a Zombie or a Highlander?

We also see Babs and Bruce figure out Madame Zanadu pulled the switch. Babs uses the latest Gotham Yellow Pages to track her down. Do they still print Yellow Pages anymore? I’m serious, do they? Since the spell was only for 24 hours, the detective work was something that could have been lifted and had no effect on the story. Wasted space that could have been used to strengthen the switch story better.

Ultimately I feel they didn’t use the premise to its advantage, resulting in a waste of a good setup. There is a new artist, while I like it more, it ultimately doesn’t work for me. Your mileage may vary and I won’t fight you on that. Just a preference on my part.

This wasn’t so much a terrible story as it was a disappointment after a pretty strong annual.

Or I could be wrong.

In the end, more

I'm sorry to say this, but this final issue was dissapointed. Batman falling fro m the space? I can tollerate a lot of things in comics, but this is ridiculous. And the final resolution, it just happens, it could have happened at any time, it makes the rest of the things that happened seem like filler. I expected much more.

We read most absurd self rescue in the history of the Batman! What're you doing Zdarsky? Stop writing absurd!

"Batman and Robin" is widely considered the worst Batman movie. in which tthe duo are launched into space and somehow glide back to Earth. So why not reprise it hete? Ridiculous. And aside from the ridiculous reentry, Batman calculates where the Fortress of Solitude is while the Earth is rotating. Asinine. More: Superman has a pressure point? A weapon pierced the otherwise invulnerable Failsafe to make a little hole? Failsafe, who anticipates all of Bats moves, never considers Batman and Robin? Oy-yi-yi. more

This issue is just silly. And I don’t mean in the fun Scooby Doo way. I mean in the makes no sense in terms of creating a fictional reality where there are rules that define what is possible and not possible.

Batman in space? No problem, his suit can handle re-entry heat and hitting the ground at great speeds. It took me 1 minute to find this info on “How Stuff Works.” “ Meteoroids enter the atmosphere at extremely high speeds -- 7 to 45 miles per second (11 to 72 kilometers per second). They can travel at this rate very easily in the vacuum of space because there's nothing to stop them. Earth's atmosphere, on the other hand, is full of matter, which creates a great deal of friction on a traveling object. This friction generates enough heat (up to 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit, or 1,649 degrees Celsius) to raise the meteoroid's surface to its boiling point, so the meteoroid is vaporized, layer by layer.”

That’s strike one. Urban crime fighter Batman has a suit that can survive re-entry. No, just no. Then he manages to guide his suit to the Fortress of Solitude? To quote Lana Kane from “Archer” Nope.

Then the robot beats Superman again, despite the fact that Bats and Supes had time to prepare? Lame heroes again. The robot then beats Batman and Robin even though Bats adds compassion to its programming. What? Also, Bats is shot and disappears and the robot believes it’s done it’s job and flies off. Bats turns up in an alley somewhere.

Did I miss something? Seriously, did I, because I don’t know what happened. Gabe Hernandez wrote in his review that the writer painted himself in a corner and got out by walking on the paint. You, sir, win the Internet today.

This arc showed that Bats is too dangerous to walk around and that Lex Luther is really lame because Bruce Wayne built the Superman killing robot that Lex Dreams of when his bald head hits the pillow at night. Also shows that Supes and Bats are incredibly lame as well. They have time to develop a plan and still get their heads handed to them. Does DC really hate its heroes?

Not a good issue or a good arc. Or I could be wrong. more

Ridiculous fantasy story pretending to be sci-fi, with another cray-cray ending. And "I fell from the moon." Do you remember the days when "sci-fi" was not simply another name for "fantasy," but actually had at least SOME elements of "science" in with the "fiction"? What Zdarsky left out were alien unicorns flying from an asteroid to guide The Batman back to Earth. That is the type of Batman that this Marvel Comics writer is giving us now. Surely Thor the God of Thunder could come to rescue Batman, right?

As to the ending, I knew what to expect. You know there will be some crazy sci-fi/fantasy follow-up. If not, DC Comics should make it the LAST issue of Batman. Oh wait, DC, you want too much $$$$$$$? See, and there is the problem.

If you like it, it is your $5. Spend it however you want. Dark Knight News (DKN) reviewer Max Byrne actually wrote in his review of this issue: "Zdarsky comes up with a method of survival that, whilst being a little far-fetched, is also rooted in physics and mathematical theory" - See? You could your comedy for free! You don't have to pay $5 for it. more

This issue surprised me. I haven’t been a big fan of the book. I don’t like the art. Too cartoony for my preference, but I concede that is pure taste and the art isn’t bad the way bad comic art can be. I also thought the stories were not good and the characters were not done right by.

But this annual handles a lot of my concerns. Through a freaky Friday coin, Steph and Cass trade bodies and they are kidnapped by their parents for different reasons. Lady Shiva grabs Steph in Cass’ body and Cluemaster grabs Cass in Steph’s body. Sets up issue 13, and we get actual sense of who these characters are.

I am looking forward to see what happens next. We also see Babs move back to the Clocktower. I never bought the three girls slumber party setup. Babs is older and deserves her own space. Now there is a college dorm vibe. Girls away from home but close enough to mom. Works better for characterization and opens up possibilities for all.

I liked this issue and feel it sets up a good story and does worldbuilding better than the first story arc did.

I could be wrong, but I hope not. more

I do not agree with this story. Failsafe is a robot capable of beating all the superheroes by himself!!! well in that case, why bother having a justice league if all Batman has to do is make a robot to be sure to win any victory. Why didn't he do it before (by programming it better)? It's going too far and it's not credible. I was bored which was not the case until now. There is a rhythm for sure and it is well drawn. But neither the dialogues nor the plot are convincing. It should have remained a human-sized problem and here it is a megalomaniacal delirium. So no.
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