Spoilers Red Robin #9 Discussion Thread (with Preview)

[Superman One Million]

Good to see Conner.

Steph's appearance at the end made me laugh.

Looking forward to this.

I also find BA's strong dislike strange...I dislike a lot of characters, but not so much that I'll drop a title due to one appearance.

[CatsMeow]

Anyone else think Ra's and Hush are going to either team up or clash because of the Wayne Enterprises situation? I also have a funny feeling Vicki Vale will be Vesper Fairchild-ed before long.

[greenflameuk]

This was a really fun issue. It was good to see Tim finally realise that Bruce is lost in time and wondering were he could get a time machine from, i just hope we see him playing an active part in Bruce's return and it's not all left up to Dick in Batman and Robin.

And i liked the references to continuity to, things like Tim mentioning meeting Conner in Paris and Killer Moth wondering if Tim was going to torture him like the Atom did are nice little ways of keeping everything feeling like it's in the same universe.

[oddballuk]

Aside from the reference to heroes torturing villains from CFJ (I'd have rather have had Killer Moth trying to escape Black Mask than the other reference), this was a really good issue.

It was good seeing Tim losing a lot of the intense brooding he has been doing in recent years in this issue with him knowing Bruce is alive, having his friends back etc...

I loved the Dr. Midnite running joke too.

Great art from Marcus To and a cool ending to lead into next month's crossover made this a really enjoyable issue.

[curiouswanderer]

Again I say that I am really enjoying this series! Yost has more than surprised me with his writing and the grasp he has of Tim's character. I loved that this issue was much lighter than the previous issues have been.
My favorite scene in the entire book was the one panel with Tim grabbing Conner and hugging him (and Conner's expression was priceless!)
I love Marcus To's art. Hope he gets to stick around for a long time to come.

[SmilingKnight]

Good to see Conner. Steph's appearance at the end made me laugh. Looking forward to this. I also find BA's strong dislike strange...I dislike a lot of characters, but not so much that I'll drop a title due to one appearance.

neogod557

I don't think it's the character's appearance, it's the forced crossover. I've dropped books before when I was on the fence about them and thy crossed over with something I wasn't interested in

[CatsMeow]

This crossover isn't forced. Given Tim and Steph's history, it's actually one of DC's most organic crossovers in years.

[JRM]

This crossover isn't forced. Given Tim and Steph's history, it's actually one of DC's most organic crossovers in years.

CatsMeow

On this I agree, given the history between the two, if this monthly reached #12 without it being addressed in some form, there would be plenty of head scratching going on. I do think that the obligitory Bat-cross-overs have been well paced. They were not the focus till issue #5 and this addressed the relationships of all four characters in both pairings. Then a one & one crossover with Tim - what's the big deal? If the quality of BG was lacking, I could understand, but it's not.

Jim

[Jake1823]

So I'm caught up with Red Robin, and I can say that there are parts of this book that I love and parts that are just ok. Here are some various thoughts I have so far...

• I wish we could see more of the detective work behind Tim's deductions. How did he find the bat on the wall? In fact, how did he know to look for it? And how did he deduce that Bruce was lost in time from just that? There's a few leaps in logic like that in this book. I'm not saying Tim can't deduce these things (he definitely can), but it would have been nice to know how he did it.
  
• I don't see the point of Tam Fox, really. She's written as kind of ditzy, and that's not really appealing. And frankly, why would Lucius send an intern, especially his daughter, to find the son of the CEO?
  
• The dialogue is way too cheesy and forced at many points throughout this series. It reads like 90210-superhero style. And I just don't think that Chris Yost has Tim Drake's voice yet.
  
• The art in the beginning of the series was rough, but I'm glad they made the switch to Marcus To. Still, To needs to add some...pizzazz (not to get all technical on you all ) to his style. It's pretty much neat lines. So it's solid art, but not really very good or great art. But I'll credit To with this, he's very consistent, which is a big plus.
  
• LOVE the creation of the Council of Spiders. I hope these are recurring villains for Tim, as I think he needs better villains. And I actually hope that this White Ghost becomes a recurring villain, as well.
  
• I actually really like the Red Robin costume. And I like the rationalization for Tim using it.
  
• I like globetrotting, scheming Tim, and part of me hopes he continues to travel the world after Bruce comes back. Have him take down international terrorist organizations from the inside or whatever. Tim's a smart guy and giving him an espionage angle might work.
  
• Finally, I wonder if Yost is being forced to reference all of these other comics (JL:CFJ, Blackest Night, etc). If not, I wish he would stop, because it's kind of a distraction.

All in all, I kinda like this book, so I'll keep following it. Like I said in another thread, I can tolerate decent books in the Bat-universe more than anything else.

[SmilingKnight]

I meant forced crossover in the sense that to read the rest of the story, you are 'forced' to buy batgirl. I buy both anyway, so it doesn't affect me this time, but in general I don't like crossovers. Makes it difficult to re-read stories later when they might end up in different longboxes

[Black_Adamantium]

This crossover isn't forced. Given Tim and Steph's history, it's actually one of DC's most organic crossovers in years.

CatsMeow

I disagree. For one, I'm pretty sure Tim already knew that Dick and Damian had moved from the cave, so him going there made little sense. Second, we already had a Stephnie Brown cameo back in RR #4 I think. Now this crossover takes over the middle chapter of a four part arc. And for what? To push a boring character who never served any purpose besides making Batman look like even more of an irrational prick when she first appeared, and one with no security on his most sensitive files to boot?

Stephanie Brown should have stayed dead IMO. Cassandra Cain was a far more interesting Bat-girl.