Review – Future State: Robin Eternal #1 – Tim Drake’s Last Stand

Future State: Robin Eternal #1 – Meghan Fitzmartin, Writer; Eddy Barrows, Penciller; Eber Ferreira, Inker; Adriano Lucas, Colorist

Ray – 8.5/10

Ray: This miniseries spins directly out of the other Bat-books in Future State, but its roots are actually somewhere else—in James Tynion IV’s Detective Comics run. The main players—Tim Drake and Stephanie Brown—are the same, and it even has artist Eddy Barrows on board for a consistent visual feel. With all the Bat-family incapacitated or missing in action one way or another, Tim Drake is one of the few still fighting. I find the title amusing, because the character keeps getting tossed back into the role of Robin after already leaving it, but he’s at his best here. Writer Meghan Fitzmartin isn’t familiar to me, but it feels like she’s a veteran with these characters. As the issue opens, Tim is fending off Magistrate goons and gets an assist from Spoiler—who is ending a temporary retirement and seems to be missing one eye—but the enemy isn’t just armored cops anymore. The Magistrate seems to be using super-powered techno-organic soldiers to back up his army.

That leads Tim to try to infiltrate the masked villain’s tech headquarters, with an assist from one of the most intriguing new characters in the Future State event. Darcy, a tech genius and former We Are Robin member, might be the first hearing-impaired hero in DC’s stable and I’m hoping this isn’t the only place we’re going to see her coming up. The three heroes make an ascent into the most closely guarded place in Gotham and discover a shocking secret about how the Cybers are being powered—that links them to one of the most powerful villains in Batman’s history. This issue doesn’t stop, packing twist and action scene one after another until the last-page swerve that features a shocking status-quo change for a major player. It’s been a while since Tim had a main title spotlight, and I’m hoping Meghan Fitzmartin gets the chance to write him and Stephanie more in the future.

To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.

GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.