Robin War #2: Robin War Part 6 – Review
By Steve Lam
Robin War #2: Robin War Part 6 – “The Daring Young Man”
Writer: Tom King / Art: Khary Randolph, Alvaro Martinez, Raul Fernandez, Carmine Di Giandomenico, Steve Pugh, Scott McDaniel, Andy Owens / Colors: Tom Napolitano / Letters: Khary Randolph, Emilio Lopez / Cover: Lee Bermejo / Variant Cover: Rebecca Taylor
Robin War #2 concludes the month-long Robin War saga with another … you guessed it … cliffhanger. It seems that the overall Robin War story arc will be something that introduces the audience to a much larger conspiracy that will be on-going throughout other titles (Grayson, Robin: Son of Batman, etc.). Like all past chapters in Robin War, the writers and artists don’t disappoint in some mid-story action scenes.
Tom King keeps the action more cerebral by layering conspiracy revelations on his characters. It sometimes goes a bit far where you think that the the Robins are moreso anti-heroes now. Don’t get me wrong. I love a good Punisher-type character, but Robin is not that type of hero. However, King makes the stretch believable and stops short of going into jump-the-shark territory.
It isn’t all suspense and action as King was also able to squeeze in a bit of character arcing for both major and minor players. We get a small reward/pay-off at the end of the issue with some humorous bantering. I kind of hoped that, due to this being the final chapter, we’d get more of these types of development. Hey, we’ve stuck with these characters for a good month. It’s time we saw them grow a bit and change.
There were a lot of artists in this issue which made the story suffer a little. I’m not a big fan of having artists switch back and forth on pages, and this issue reaffirms those preferences. If the pencils were the slight pull that took me out of the story, the colors were the actual shove. The changes between muted colors, bold colors, and reddish hues didn’t help unify the overall action threads.
The artists are definitely talented on their own, and I would probably enjoy them more if they did their trade as solo endeavors. But the mash-up of all talents proves that you can have too much of a good thing. It’s a shame as this issue could’ve been that much stronger if this didn’t happen.
Next: Robin: Son Of Batman #7: Robin War Part 5 - Review
Robin War #2 is not so much a conclusion as it is a new beginning. You’ll just have to read the issue in order to understand what I mean. I’m serious. If I tell you anything more, I’ll be spoiling the ending for you. Was the last page a surprise then? Yes and no. The reader may be taken aback a bit, but deep down, you knew it was coming.