Knight Terrors: Robin #2 – Kenny Porter, Writer; Miguel Mendonca, Artist; Adriano Lucas, Colorist
Ray – 8.5/10
Ray: Last issue of this miniseries found the two most unlikely Robins forced to team up, as Jason Todd and Tim Drake found themselves plunged into nightmares with only each other to rely on. The two have frequently been at odds—Jason tried to kill Tim repeatedly—but there’s a core of respect that often isn’t there with the two of them and Damian. Here, the two each found their oldest and most primal anxieties cropping back up. Jason saw himself as a failure and was forced to relive his death over and over again, while Tim was faced with the prospect that he never should have been Robin at all, and that he was unable to save the people closest to him and would keep failing. As Insomnia tries to break them down, they find themselves in their own worlds but able to keep contact—and it’s only that connection that is able to pull Tim out of his despair and get him thinking on how to escape.
In many ways, this issue feels like a commentary on the way many people talk about these two Robins. Jason is called the “Bad Robin” and accused of failing himself as a teenage boy by…searching for his mother and being murdered. Tim, meanwhile, is accused of being an entitled stalker rather than someone who was so determined to save Batman that he put himself in a dangerous position. This feels like a great way to refute those poor takes on the characters by showing exactly how much it took for them to get here and how much they’ve overcome. Is it a particularly plot-heavy issue? No, it basically just ends with the two of them searching for their next move after escaping, but only a few issues actually felt like it was giving us any insight into the characters. This issue works because it seems to have real affection for the two Robins at its core, and uses the plot device to make them stronger.
To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.
GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
