Graphic Novel Reviews: Teen Titans 0

During Tim Drake’s attempts to discover Batman’s identity, in order to apply for the position as Robin, he ends up stealing money from the Penguin, getting himself and his family targeted. After Batman saves him, Tim’s parents are taken into protective custody and Tim becomes Batman’s protege as Red Robin.

The Review
I will confess, my knowledge of Batman lore comes more from reading done on wikipedia than actually reading the comics. I am currently working to remedy that, but at the moment my knowledge is still somewhat limited. That being said, I know for a FACT that Tim Drake did not start out as Red Robin.

I’m not sure what the reason behind the change was, though I can imagine it had something to do with establishing Tim as separate from the Robin identity that has been bestowed on Damian. I still think his choice of name is ridiculous. Either a certain restaurant chain doesn’t exist in the DC universe, or the writers and editors at DC have never heard of it. Either way, they’re all missing out on the Royal Red Robin Burger, which is an absolute shame.

Retcons aside, the story in this issue is quite good. Tim has always been one of my favorite characters to don the Robin costume, and I quite enjoyed his Red Robin series during the The Return of Bruce Wayne era.

The one problem I have with the story is how hard it tries to make Tim’s separation from his parents seem like a tragedy. Scott Lobdell builds them up as the ideal parents, in an attempt to make us care more about them. And he tries to make their separation from Tim seem like some kind predestined fate. But honestly I find it hard to feel any sense of pathos when Tim himself barely grieves them after they are taken into protective custody.

What might confuse some readers is that the title is Teen Titans and yet the story has nothing to do with the team. Rather it becomes another part of the extended Bat Family backstories. Which is good for fans of Batman, not so good for fans of the Teen Titans.

The Grade
This was a decent book, but overall I felt the retcons and faux tragedy of Tim being separated from his parents were a fairly weak part of this issue.