One of Tim's early career defining moments

[icon_uk]

From fairly early in the Knightfall run, we have Tim vs a couple of the heavier hitters in Gotham for the first time.



I'm not normally a fan of Sam Kieth's style, but I love Tim's "I SO hate my life right now" expression.

7 and a bit pages from 22.


Whilst trailing Bane in an effort to find out more about him (Stalker!Tim to the fore again) Tim has been bushwacked by persons unknown (Guess who)



Jim Balent is guest penciller of this issue and I really like his style.

On the next page, the one who "pretended" to be Batman was Jean-Paul Valley (oh the irony). Oh and Bane's casual comment about how much easier it would have been to blind Tim is one of the more creepy moments Bane has had IMHO (But then, I'm squeamish about eyes)



Yay Tim!



He's blindfolded, with his hands tied, on a narrow brick walkway, in the middle of deafening water and he's STILL trying to fight. That's the proper Robin spirit!



Also have to say, if we have to have Croc as a monstrous beast, that's a "good" look for him.



Y'think Tim?



I'm not quite sure what move Tim is making in this next page, I can imagine what move he's TRYING for (trying to get his wrists in front of him, but I'm not sure the movements match. Still, Robins SHOULD be bendy...



This is also some good fight choreography here, you can FEEL those punches.





You almost have to admire Croc and Bane's dedication to trying to whale the crap of each other, even when they have what should count as other more pressing concerns.

And there we run out of page count, so let's just assume that they all lived happily ever after....




Trevor McCarthy has posted, on his twitter feed, a sample panel from his one-off issue of Nightwing, to be seen in #4.



He's certainly improved since his last run on the title, IMHO.

Comments

[aeka]

As someone who practices yoga, I can safely say that unless Tim has really long arms or his hands were that loosely tied, it's actually pretty difficult to get your hands up front using that pose he's doing. And judging by the position of his arms in the first few panels, he would have had trouble getting his arms past his butt alone.

[mrosa]

I think the reason those punches feel so strong is because of the motion lines. They make all the difference. Modern pencillers no longer use them and the art becomes static and bodies and objects lose sense of weight and movement. They become just drawn figures.

I wrote about this recently in my blog:

http://comicswithoutfrontiers.blogspot.com/2011/11/emperor-is-static.html

[blunderbuss]

Word to that. So many comics now have lovely art and coloring, but are incapable of capturing genuine motion. Then all the characters seem like cardboard cutouts who aren't actually interacting with the environment.

[blunderbuss]

Sorry for the doublepost, but I just read your tumbler post. It's a brilliant article and I agree with all of it. I'd say you should actually make a post of it right here in SD, because you make a lot of great points.

[mrosa]

Thanks for the nice words :-)

[shadowpsykie]

you and your tied up Robins :D

[icon_uk]

Odd how few people actually complain about that... ;)

And hey, at least I normally showcase them as DEFIANT, and fighting to get free.

[shadowpsykie]

Odd how few people actually complain about that... ;)

what's to complain about?

And hey, at least I normally showcase them as DEFIANT, and fighting to get free.

because tied up young men Being defiant is so not enticing? :)

i keed i keed... we all get a guilty or maybe not so guilty pleasure out of your posts :D

[espanolbot]

To be a defining moment in his career was when he turned out Lady Shiva's offer to make out with him, leading to another fifteen, twenty years of him turning down people's proportions until Cass Cain finally appeared to get him in the final issue of Gates of Gotham.

This one is good too though.

[shadowpsykie]

.... twenty years of him turning down people's proportions until Cass Cain finally appeared to get him in the final issue of Gates of Gotham.

heh that's pretty much my head canon. this is of course right after Cassandra and steph were together :D

[icon_uk]

Amteur night... Dick was turning down propositions from 1940 until... well, I think his first confirmed bit of bedroom action was 1984.

turning down people's proportions

Heh, I know it's a typo, but I love the idea of Tim rejecting people based on that "Sorry, I can't be seen socialising with you because you're too Reubenesque!"

[salinea]

Yeah, people getting rejected because they're too fat is so funny. Wait, what?

[icon_uk]

Sorry, it was the only term I could think of at short notice, if I could have thought of one for skinny folk, I'd have thrown it into the mix, honest.

[salinea]

It's not the word choice I found disturbing. It's the meaning behind the joke. Unless your intentions was something I misread and just come across this way???

[icon_uk]

Just the notion of Tim being so petty as to use proportions to decide on his interactions with people; "Too skinny. Nose doesn't seem to fit your face. Too tall. Ears too big." etc

[cainofdreaming]

"Ears too big."

Now look what you did, Tim. You made Man-Bat cry!

[zechs80]

I'm still surprised nobody has yet got someone to do a commission of Cass pouncing on Tim in bed.

[mommy]

Oh, Tim. Your early hair choices were atrocious. I'm so glad you grew out of that phase.

Nightwing looks much better when the black bits are actually black. I miss the blue stripes, but the red looks decent in that pic.

[paradoxrealm]

Your thoughts on the Nightwing pic mirror mine precisely.

[icon_uk]

I'm not sure some of his later hair choices were that much better

[mommy]

I'm suddenly remembering his non-symmetrical foot-tall spikes during the Legacy arc. Quality hair choices, there.

[brooms]

i don't read dc, are tim fans worried dc will off him in the near future? (he's still around, right? and he and fanfavorite damian don't get along?)

i almost never hear this kid being mentioned when there's fan-talk about the bat family anymore. it's always damian this, nightwing that, jason todd whatever.

[icon_uk]

Ummm... not remotely afraid of that happening, as Tim now known as Red Robin is the lead in the "Teen Titans" comic.

[brooms]

oic. i was just reading a discussion about the robins and what they mean to batman (with some hypothesizing dick's or alfred's death would drive bruce to kill), and ppl kept going on and on about dick being the perfect robin, jason being the fuck up robin and damian being THE SON.

and i was like... wait, isn't there ANOTHER of these kids? he sounded very afterthought-ish, the surplus robin.

[icon_uk]

Tim is usually depicted, especially over the past few years, as the Robin who is most fundamentally like Bruce in approach and outlook. He's primarily a detective and a strategic manipulator. He'll set long term plans into motion, and has contingency plans for his contingency plans, contingency plans.

[starwolf_oakley]

He'll set long term plans into motion, and has contingency plans for his contingency plans, contingency plans.

But Tim *doesn't* have the whole "You can't trust people; they'll only hurt you, so you had better figure out a way to hurt them first" limitation that Bruce had going for so long.

Of course, with Superboy, Young Justice and the Teen Titians no longer in Tim's past, that could be VERY different now.

[icon_uk]

Tim does have problems with trust though, as some of his behaviour leading up to his Red Robin career attested. He was shutting out those who cared about him (Like Dick and Alfred) when he really needed to open up to them. (Of course what Morrison had Dick do to him by firing him as Robin and giving Damian the role without talking to him, is another matter)

[starwolf_oakley]

"Batman's not going to fall into any traps for my sake."

I know Tim was new at the time, but he wasn't THAT new.

[icon_uk]

Tim actually has a much better track record of NOT being bait/a hostage in such cases than his predecessors. Chuck Dixon I believe made that a conscious choice on his part, if there was going to be a third Robin, he'd have a different outlook and not fall into so many traps. It made the few times that he was used for that purpose more memorable.

[eyz]

Tim always was "my" Robin. Didn't matter if people still referred and had Grayson in the minds...
(though I had a sort of crush on Steph!Robin, even for her short run time)