Tim Drake: Robin #8 – Meghan Fitzmartin, Writer; Nikola Cizmesija, Artist; Lee Loughridge, Colorist
Ray – 8/10
Ray: This series, along with Batgirls, is ending in a few months—quite the puzzling decision given the strong reception of both books and how much hype Tim Drake’s coming-out got. Even though it’ll only last ten issues, I think the series did a good job of setting up the character’s new status quo—although it’s odd that it’ll have only gone through two arcs before the end. This issue picks up after Tim’s defeat of Moriarty, as he continues to settle into his new life on the Gotham Marina. He’s in the middle of trying to fix his boat when he gets an uninvited guest—a bloodied Batwoman, who crashes onto his boat and quickly reveals she has no memory of how she got there. Not only doesn’t she remember where the blood came from, but she doesn’t remember the last few months including past meetings with Tim—and a quick series of tests reveal that the blood on her costume isn’t hers.
This sends Tim and the slightly unstable Batwoman on a quest to find out the source of her amnesia, along with Tim’s new partner Sparrow. However, it’s not long before their quest is derailed by the addition of more chaos monsters—the strange projections that dominated the first arc of this series. They look good, especially under new artist Cizmesija’s pen, but they’ve played an oddly large role in this series overall and sometimes seem to be pulling focus. Before the issue is over, Sparrow is seriously injured and the mysterious villain drops a shocking reveal about Batwoman—one that I’m pretty sure is going to be a fake-out. Overall, this series is still strong, particularly in its lead character, but it doesn’t feel like it was nearly as much about Tim as it should be. While he’s going through some huge changes in this series, it often feels like the story is happening around him rather than to him.
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GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
