Robin One Year Later:
First story arc complete

Robin 151: Harder Questions
Writer: Adam Beechen
Artist: Freddie Williams III

Obviously Robin isn’t going to pull the trigger, and his defiance leads to a knock down all or nothing brawl between himself and the former Girl Wonder. During their fight, Cassandra makes it clear she is tired of being used and lied to. Robin comes back; telling her Batman never lied to her or him. Which brings up the first of the hard questions Cassandra plants in Robin’s (and our heads), has Batman ever lied to Tim?

IMAGE REMOVED BY DC LEGAL DEPARTMENT

We also get some other interesting answers from David Cain as he apparently dies – Cassandra and Annalea weren’t the only ones he raised as his experimental assassins…there were others.

Robin and Cassandra continue to fight all the while Robin trying to convince Cassandra to turn herself in and get the (mental) help she needs. During the height of the battle, the refinery area they are fighting in catches fire and explodes, scattering Boy Wonder, Cassandra, and League of Assassin fighters everywhere.

When the smoke clears Robin discovers the assassin necks are broken and Cassandra and Cain are gone. Is he still alive? Another hard question.

Throughout the issue, two other side stores emerge. The first is yet another new character. This time it is a kid wearing a Dodge jersey who can teleport himself to another location. He does appear to be a new hero type in Gotham, but not a character I care anything about.

The other side story sets us up for issue 152 as Owen Mercer (son of Captain Boomerang) sends a message that he wants to meet with Robin. For those of you not in the know, Captain Boomerang killed Tim’s father during Identity Crisis.

Bottom Line – Interesting. I must say Cassandra Cain turning to the dark side is a bit of a shocker, but Beechen does justify everything to an adequate satisfaction. As a fan of Cassandra Cain, it is bad to see her go down that path, but perhaps at some point in the future she could redeem herself. She does make a good foil for Robin as she is the Yin (female, expert fighter) to his Yang (male, great thinker). As Cassandra points out she and Robin could be an awesome team, killing those that need to be killed. On one hand she does make a good point and it would be an interesting team up, but on the other, there is no way Robin will ever kill intentionally.

Overall this was a great story arc to kick off Robin’s return to Gotham. If you are a fan of the Bat-family, you probably already have these issues. If you are not, get out there and pick up this title now. I think Beechen does a very good job as the writer and it is good to see he is up for the next couple of issues, as is Freddie Williams III, whose artwork I enjoyed throughout the last three issues of the arc.

Even though it is one year later, Robin is still Robin, older, wiser, and ready to take on the world.

Robin and all related characters are property of DC Comics. All images copyright DC Comics.