Robin #176 review

Gathered Pieces (Batman RIP tie-in)

Last issue, Robin left a huge wad of cash with Penguin with the request that should the Penguin hear anything about Batman, Robin would be notified instantly. Robin is notified about some Chinese gang in Gotham having a couple of cell phone pics in their possession, so the Boy Wonder takes off after them to knock them around for their pics. Spoiler is along for the ride and actually comes into possession of said phone but, for whatever reason, deletes the pics. And...well, long story short, Robin confronts the Penguin to see if he's been bullshitting him, but the Penguin reveals that the reason he knows about these pics is cause they were emailed to him. Robin dials back the source to find the phone on Spoiler. Spoiler reveals that Batman wanted her to do...whatever she was asked to do...for Robin's own good so that he could be his own man. Or something.

This ends the RIP sequence in Robin and, honestly, it was pretty pointless. The story was basically characters talking in circles. Nothing relevent happens at all. It's mostly Time flashing back to their year off during 52, grasping for connections between his time in Nanda Parbat and his present state. There's some stuff with that female cop, One of the Black Glove folks named Swagman attacking Robin, a silhouette taking the Red Robin costume that Jason Todd abandoned at the end of Countdown.....nothing really interesting or substantial happens. Really, I thought after the end of the last issue something interesting would happen. They left it open. No real character work, nothing that adds to the RIP story...it's a filler story. Whether or not this has to do with Dixon leaving or if this was just a cheap way for DC to cash in, but either way these past two issues of Robin have been wasted space. (The Red Robin thing could be interesting, but we all know it's Jason Todd.)

There is one saving grace, though. Last week, I said that the stuff between Tim and Dick was pretty cool. Even though it's not given much play this issue, those scenes are still the most interesting. I still say a Nightwing & Robin book would kick ass. Cancel both and reboot. It would give writers a new angle to write both these characters. Cause, come on, Nightwing the whoremonger and Robin the angsty teenager get old eventually.