Future State: Robin Eternal #2 – Meghan Fitzmartin, Writer; Eddy Barrows, Penciller; Eber Ferreira, Inker; Adriano Lucas, Colorist
Ray – 8.5/10
Ray: Last issue set Tim Drake on a mission against the Magistrate with the help of Spoiler and a new character, Darcy from the We Are Robin team. They were trying to investigate the power source of new cybernetic Magistrate soldiers—but quickly found out that it linked back to the Lazarus pit. And then Tim died and came back—powered up by that same serum. This is a very different Tim than we’ve ever seen before, distanced from his humanity and getting more unstable by the second. As he takes full advantage of his newfound strength and seeming indestructibility, he rips through the Magistrate’s forces in some impressive action segments. But there are some bigger questions at play here—namely, what happens to someone with this serum in their blood long-term? It was never meant for a person, only for robot super-soldiers, and Tim’s reaction indicates there could be some serious side effects.
While Tim is in the lead role and the narrator, Steph and Darcy get some great moments too. Steph mostly seems here to set up her role in the Batgirls story, so her character arc ends on a cliffhanger in this issue. I wonder how DC can possibly wrap up so much in only a few more issues of the Gotham story. Darcy continues to be the hidden star of this series, adding a great dose of diversity as DC’s first hearing-impaired heroine, and I hope she shows up post-Future State. But Tim’s storyarc is the main draw here, as he battles against escalating hallucinations that call back to his time as Robin and some of his earliest stories. I don’t know if Fitzmartin has ever written Tim before, but she shows a great grasp on his character and DC should be keeping her number on speed-dial. Overall, all the Gotham books are entertaining but follow a similar playbook, but this is one of the most effective of the two-issue minis.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
