cemeterygates's review

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3.0

Light and fluffy, but it kept my interest.

captwinghead's review

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3.0

This was okay.

I'm still learning about Tim Drake and I know he and Stephanie have a close relationship. Unfortunately, I find hem really boring together. I just don't care about their romance but I love seeing them with other people. I especially love Tim's brotherly relationships with Dick, Cass and Damian and Steph's relationship with Cass.

Anyway, this book follows Tim a while after Steph and his father died. He has been formally adopted by Bruce and he's moved on. He has new girlfriend, he's continuing his training as Robin and he's focused on school.

I don't know if the intention was to make it look like he didn't like his life very much but that was the impression I got. I was interested in Zo and Ives to an extent but this story made it seem like Tim thought they were burdens? Zo is acting like a normal high school girl and if I was dating a guy that constantly cancelled dates and fell asleep on dates with me, I'd be pretty ticked off, too. Then there's the part where Tim leaves Ives after a short visit to confirm that his friend has cancer and the thought box says "God knows Ives needs to talk about it. Like I need to suit up". It was kind of douchey. Plus, it would have been nice to see what Tim was like dating someone who's not Stephanie.

So, there's a Robin Hood-esque character named Violet in this book. She's stealing stolen money and donating some of it to a church. Bruce tasks Robin with catching her. I quite liked her and wanted to know more about her but we didn't get much by way of backstory. It was all action as Robin tries to catch her and ends up helping her instead.

The Spoiler of it all was sloppily executed. She just pops up and they explain her resurgence in such a bs way. If I'd been broken up about how Spoiler left this first time, I would be pissed off about this.

The Africa plot was so freaking weird. Aside from the fact that it's yet another story that makes it seem as though everyone in Africa lives in huts, it was unnecessary. The last two issues are pretty much Spoiler centric issues. It's strange.

I loved Tim's sarcasm, though! That aspect of his personality came across really well.

One big note, Dixon clearly had no idea how teenagers spoke at the time of this book. The lingo was laughably bad. It was like watching an episode of Saved by the Bell.

Anyway, all in all, this was okay. If you're a big fan of Tim/Steph, you'll probably love this. I didn't really care for it.

3 stars

nickpalmieri's review

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3.0

Using this to represent Robin #54-73, the whole "Aftershock"/"No Man's Land" era by Chuck Dixon and Staz Johnson.

This is classic, solid, stakes-free fun. I read the entire 20-issue run in one day because the action is quick and the soapy elements kept me reading. None of the action stories were particularly memorable, but they were all enjoyable in the moment, and it's the subplots, the tension between the various aspects of Tim's life, that really makes the book readable.

The tension between Tim and his dad started to get repetitive, though it all built well to what I'm sure will be a major shake-up starting in issue 74. And I loved seeing the Tim/Steph romance start in earnest. I'm less sure how I feel about Steph's pregnancy arc, which had some questionable moments but ultimately did feel realistic, and it was a big deal for the time. Johnson's art is perfectly suitable to Dixon's writing and the action is always fluid, even if I'm not huge on his character designs.

This was definition of a 3-star superhero comic book, perfect for binge-reading on a lazy day off.
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