Red Robin #5

[xdoop.insanejournal.com]

Comments

[xammax.insanejournal.com]

Seriously Tim? AGAIN? With this guy?

[jarodrussell.insanejournal.com]

That's not Tim!

That's a man, baby!

[sherkahn.insanejournal.com]

Not just any man. I can practically see Ace of the G-Force/Gatchaman resemblance.

[sistermagpie.insanejournal.com]

I think we all knew where this was going.

I look forward to Tim's "Oh wait, I'm actually being a total idiot" moment. Hope I don't have to wait too long.

Tim just didn't want to get left out of the new family, you know. If the Batfamily is going to entangle themselves with the al Ghuls Tim's got to get on it. So Tim'll seek out Father #3 in R'as, Bruce plays husband and wife with Talia and Dick adopts Damian.

[kagome654.insanejournal.com]

For a second there I thought you meant that Bruce would be playing both the husband and the wife.

He could do it, he's versatile!

[neuhallidae.insanejournal.com]

Oh, God.

[tanetris.insanejournal.com]

Dammit, Tim....

[taggerung301.insanejournal.com]

motto ):

[zechs27.insanejournal.com]

It be humrously ironic if Cass snaps Tim out of this funk with hanging with Ra's and the League of Assasins but I doubt it.

[perletwo.insanejournal.com]

Cass? Who is Cass? Where is she? I know nothing of this "Cass" person of whom you speak!

Srsly, DC, show the Batchick some respect, pleaaaaase?

[kagome654.insanejournal.com]

Tim...this desperate cry for attention just isn't cute anymore (leave that shit to Jason).

[sistermagpie.insanejournal.com]

I love how that description is so spot on. It's exactly how they've set it up. Apparently once you become a middle child, you're Jan Brady in the Bat family.

[majingojira.insanejournal.com]

Comics really are like Pro Wrestling, retreading plots every 5 years or so (if we're "lucky") with different characters in the lead roles.

[rdfox.insanejournal.com]

Jim Cornette says that the "statute of limitations" on recycling wrestling angles is seven years.

[seriousfic.insanejournal.com]

On the plus side, maybe Ra's Al GQ Motherfucker could give him some fashion tips. Losing the mask is already a big improvement.

[volksjager.insanejournal.com]

WHY DO THEY HAVE TO WRECK THIS CHARACTER !?!?!?!?!?!?!?

[magus_69.insanejournal.com]

Because he used to be in YJ, but is too important/popular to kill.

[sir_razorback.insanejournal.com]

I'm more of a Marvel guy than DC. Who's the guy standing behind him? He looks like the genetic love child of Logan and Dr. Strange.

[caeliluminar.insanejournal.com]

Ra's al-Ghul. If I even spelled his name right.

[caeliluminar.insanejournal.com]

...So, is Ra's supposed to be the Joker/Two-Face to Tim's Jason/Dick? (In spite of all evidence I'm still clinging onto the false hope that this is just a clever ruse on Tim's part and they aren't really destroying one of my favourite characters.)

[xdoop.insanejournal.com]

To be fair, working with Ra's to find Bruce isn't the same as joining the League of Assassins or something.

[mullon.insanejournal.com]

No Ra's, Damien is your grandson. Not Tim.

[tanetris.insanejournal.com]

You know, if Ra's adopts Tim as his son, that would make him Damian's uncle.

It would also make Tim and Talia not-blood-related siblings. And you know what that means.

Just saying.

[thanekos.insanejournal.com]

geez, Ra's, you look like if someone fought you from a side-view with a whip, you'd open your cape and three fireballs'd come out.

" What is a man? Nothing but a miserable pile of BULL SHIT, that's what a man is! " ah, youtubes.

[freeman333.insanejournal.com]

BWA HA HA HA HA! Please equip this *INTERNETZ*.

(Also: screw the whip, the Alucard Shield with the Shield Rod is the most powerful "weapon" in SotN.)

[shanejayell.insanejournal.com]

*headdesk*

[jelly_ace.insanejournal.com]

Give the guy a break. He just had his birthday.

[ladymirth.insanejournal.com]

I once wrote a fanfic like this. DC is following it point for point so far, except for the ugly costume. I gave Tim a long trenchcoat and Ninja mask.

Well, if Tim has to be all grimdark and emo, at leasthe gets to be increasingly hardcore too, which is sexxeh! And the Al-Ghul team-up is not new. We saw it coming from the first issue, no?

[runespoor7.insanejournal.com]

And the recent tradition of Batkids going evil keeps on FAILING.

I don't know what's most deserving of the facepalm: that Tim's following into Jason's general footsteps, that Tim's following into Cass' general character derailment, or that when it gets known that Tim's allied himself with Ra's, Dick's going to be written like a jerk, if the writer even remembers that Dick should attempt to rescue his little brother and that he had something not altogether different happen to him.

[shadowvalkyrie.insanejournal.com]

Tim: "ALL BOW BEFORE MY EPIC ANGST!"

Ra's: "Awesome, next Robin to play creepy daddy to! It's a good thing they come with the disposition for loving it. Only, why isn't this one undead yet? Clearly one step is missing... Let's remedy that!"

Me: "Wow, Tim, way to be a hypocrite to Jason. Association with Ra's? Check! Sudden urge to slash at people with knife? Check! The tiny detail is, Jay had the excuse of having been dead and fucking mind-wiped before!"

On the plus side, he lost the weird cowl.

[runespoor7.insanejournal.com]

That and Jason was only associating with Talia, who's several steps less evil and disturbed than her evil Daddy.

All hail the disappearance of the cowl. Let's hope it's not a sign that he's going to lose the secret identity as well.

[jupiterrhode.insanejournal.com]

Yeah, yeah, angst, whine, they're ruining Tim, etc.

But hot DAMN how fuckable does he look right there? Answer: VERY. Little Timmy's growing up.

[jelly_ace.insanejournal.com]

EXTREMELY fuckable, although I have doubts due to the smallness of his crotch are. Although his hands ARE pretty big...

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

Y'know, this cover aside, I'd like to pontificate on the current state of the Batverse, if I may.
I have almost the entire run of the 'Knightfall' storyline (minus the 'Knightquest' bit in the middle where AzBats gets crazier and crazier), and I was rereading it the other day, 'cause I brought it out to quote something from it, and I figured 'hey, why not?' And y'know something? That storyline did some very similar things to what's been going on lately - it trashed the normal Batman and put another one in his place; it had Gotham in chaos, a 'newer, deadlier' character running amuck - and y'know what?
It. ROCKED.
Seriously, Knightfall is definitely one of my favorite Batman sagas of all time. Seriously great stuff - and yet, it had plenty in common with the current situation - which, most agree, does NOT rock.
So what's the difference? I'll tell you what it is. Characters. Or perhaps I should say, staying true to characters.
Everyone in Knightfall behaves exactly as they should behave, exactly as previous experience with the characters has told us that they WOULD behave. Batman is stern and forbidding, but not to the point of mania; Tim is loyal, but not above striking out on his own a little, intelligent and concerned for his boss; Alfred is... well, he thinks the lot of them are crazy, but is still the backbone of the Bats. And then, of course, we have Jean-Paul and Bane, who have never had a chance to step OUT of character, as they've both just been created. Character is what drives the whole thing, and character consistency makes it real.
My point? Well, Knightfall is great, for one. But more importantly, this current storyline could be great, too - it's doing most of the same things - if they'd just stop dicking around with the characters. Tim is now a grief-crazed psycho; the entire female supporting cast may as well not exist at the moment, Gordon is more-or-less blithely accepting this new Batman, despite the fact that he has expressed bitterness in the past over 'just how many Batmen ARE there?', etc., etc. The only characters who ARE in character are Dick and Alfred, and even they're focusing unduly on Damian at the expense of Tim. With Knightfall, I got the feeling that the writers were playing fair with me; here, I just feel like my chain is being yanked - and not in a good way. Straighten up and fly right, DC, or you'll crash into the mountain of our disbelief.
(Oh, and - random thought I just had. Dick's having problems training Damian to be Robin, right? 'Cause the kid's a little snot, and won't listen to him. Well, here's an idea - why not bring in Bane to help train him? It makes sense - the guy's had experience with both the Bats and the al Ghuls - in fact, he probably met Damian at one point while he was working for Ra's - and, more importantly, the kid's main concern is fighting skills - he thinks Dick's a lousy teacher because he focuses on tactics instead of violence. Well, Bane BROKE HIS FATHER'S BACK, and he used both muscles AND tactics to do it. If that doesn't cool the kid down a bit, nothing will.)

[icon_uk.insanejournal.com]

See, Knightfall failed completely for me because I never felt it DID play fair with the characters. Batman had to be such a completely anal dipshit from the first page that I completely lost sympathy for him. Batman being somewhat obsessive, no problem. Batman being an utter idiot, BIG problem.

Bane was tedious, he HAD no real personality beyond "I must prove myself better than Batman!" and Azrael was such a... I won't say "Mary-Sue", but "overly convenient plot device" who kept pulling convenient and completely new skillsets out of his ass because of the "system" thing. The only ones I felt remotely sympathetic towards were Tim and Alfred.

[yaseen101.insanejournal.com]

You know I get the feeling that this series was originally suppoused to star Jason as Red Robin since half the stuff Tim is doing seems to be more fitting for Jason. However, Didio, as usual, changed his decision at the last moment and many of the plot lines used for Jason was applied to Tim instead. JMHO. I think it would have been a much better idea for Tim to retire for a while as Robin (the boy has gone through a lot these past few years) and give him a 'cooling off' time with the Teen Titans with Kon, Bart, Cass, Spoiler and others. Make him some kind of 'Oracle' figure for the Teen Titans. Then later have him return to Gotham to run Wayne Industries as a young business partner with Lucius.

[runespoor7.insanejournal.com]

Your ideas for Tim are awesome.

I'm not sure how that'd work for Jason, though; last time Jason and Ra's saw each other, Talia had shoved Jason into a Lazarus Pit while Ra's was in it, and she had to make him flee at top speed. Jason's been in contact with Talia since then, too, and she's helped him behind the scenes.

Tim's had more interaction with Ra's as recently as the thing with Ra's attempting to pull an Orochimaru and steal Damian's body, so it's not as if Tim going to Ra's comes completely out of the blue. To say the truth, I'm reminded of Sasuke when I look at Tim's current arc, including the inevitable revelation that Tim was playing Ra's all along.

Well...

[johnzdrake.insanejournal.com]

On the one hand, I am not pleased with how we got here. I didn't see any reasonable character development that sensibly led to Tim going dark, nor did I see any particular reason why Tim had decided to believe Bruce was alive when everyone else accepted the corpse.

HOWEVER... There is something appealing in the prospect of having one of the bats go bad WITHOUT the looney tunes, WITHOUT the sole motivation of "proving your soft-hearted methods don't work," and hopefully WITH some intelligence, competence and a master plan.

Ra's is a good fit with that kind of newly minted villain... Well, he is when he's being written right anyway.

[blunderbuss.insanejournal.com]

Yoda had it all wrong. ANGST leads to the Dark Side.

[dreadedlurker.insanejournal.com]

That would certainly be a better explanation for episodes 2 and 3.

[dreadedlurker.insanejournal.com]

That doesn't even LOOK like Tim. That looks like an effing Jonas Brother.

I WANT TIM BACK!