Spoilers Red Robin #7 Discussion Thread (with Preview)

[oddballuk]

Out Dec 9th, Tim's battle against the Council of Spiders has left Tam Fox in danger. Can she be saved?

PDF preview available at DC Comics.com

Here: http://www.dccomics.com/media/excerpts/13606_x.pdf

Cool preview, I'm liking Marcus To's art a lot.

[stephbarton v.2]

Didn't enjoy this issue, everything felt flat. Tam Fox just doesn't sing enough as a character for me yet for me to want to see her narrate almost an entire issue. And the line about self-defense, yeah I buy that, most young women have taken self-defense, but when she said "Krav Maga, kickboxing, you name it" it just seemed absurd. She's really taken that many styles of self-defense? I thought she was supposed to be the average young woman in the story, I don't know that many young women who have studied multiple versions of fighting, maybe if she said she had some lessons here and there from some more common styles, but there it just sounded completely ridiculous.

And speaking of flat characters, wow, I'm board with the League of Assassins and the Council of Spiders. I'm hoping we won't see them again for a looooong time. Vitrolae (whatever her name is) was only marginally interesting in the last few issues, but her as the ring-leader of the council just doesn't work for me.

The other assassins also seem very bland. Spider guy was creepy (I mean, it's spiders) but he just didn't work as a character for me, came across as bland and getting punked by Tam didn't help (again, she's supposed to be the "average girl" from what I can tell, scene would have worked better if she had merely distracted him but he had blocked the main blow it would have conveyed her courage but also his skill). Then the others just looked like the 90's reject for one-note characters.

Also, I really really hate seeing people double-fist firearms. It's utterly ridiculous and so freakin overused now. So seeing Pru do it (another character who comes across as bland and uninteresting, even with her obeying Tim's command, still hope she gets dropped) but then the guy with six arms, ugh.

However, Yost can write Tim Drake, and Tim's internal dialogue singed. I also liked Tam's faith in Tim, that was a nice touch. So the issue isn't as bad as I'm making it out to sound, it just wasn't as strong as previous issues and I am tiring of the League and their conflict. Hopefully next issue ends this story and Tim moves forward in his story.

[oddballuk]

I liked the action for the most part, the Alfred/Lucious chat and the Spider assassins but I also felt that Tam Fox came over pretty weak this issue. All the Krav Maga stuff sounded silly and then became pretty irrelevant given how she chose to attack the assassin fighting Tim.

The cliffhanger seemed a little weak too. I'm doubting that was really Ra's considering how easy he went down.