Our continuing journey through ‘Robin War’ rolls on with Robin: Son of Batman #7. Patrick Gleason writes, while Ray Fawkes (writer of the Detective Comics tie-in) steps in to do the dialogue. Is it good?
Robin: Son of Batman #7 (DC Comics)
The Lowdown
Let’s take a look at the solicit information for this issue:
In the aftermath of the cage match in WE ARE ROBIN #7, it’s utter chaos as the Court of Owls unleashes hundreds of imprisoned Robins to fight for survival— and to become the one and only Gray Son!”
It’s… not as big or epic as that makes it seem.
The Breakdown
Let’s keep this short and sweet. We are at the second to last issue of this mini-event and this was a big letdown in many ways. Starting from the top, the story is problematic and not particularly easy to follow at times. The motivations of the Court of Owls seem vague at points and rather overcomplicated in others, wanting to get this “Gray Son” and using the methods they us. The whole situation with the hatching of the Talons seems tacked on and pointless. The surprise villain at the end just comes out of nowhere as well. Considering the character’s last appearance was in a Batman comic and what was happening to him then, his appearance and power here do not make a lot of sense (sort of like a lot of what is happening).
However, that’s just sadly a few of the many issues at play here. There’s no real character development or growth for anyone, and there are a couple of moments where it feels like the characterization is completely off (like in the end where Dick faces off with the big bad). The dialogue isn’t very memorable outside of one good meta moment towards the end. The exposition comes across as very awkward; in fact, the only bits of the writing that were good were the pacing and story flow, since they felt perfectly fine and there weren’t any particular moments that didn’t read well on that basic level.
That being said, the very worst thing with the comic was the continuity. Scenes don’t match up with what happened earlier in the event, motivations seemed different, locations didn’t look the same as they were previously, and one of the villains seemingly changed hair color and race over the course of the comic. It was a mess and I personally kept getting distracted, having to go back to previous pages to see if I was remembering something wrong.
The artwork wasn’t much better unfortunately. Scott McDaniel drew this issue and while I’ll say the colorist and inker didn’t help, his work didn’t look too good here. The action was stiff and rigid and didn’t flow well from each panel while looking limited in the amount of detail used, which was a constant problem throughout the issue. Body proportions looked off in a lot of the panels, locations looked barren, and backgrounds were featureless in some panels. Also, the artwork helped contribute to the continuity issues between this comic and the others thanks to missing characters in scenes, people and locations not colored correctly, and more.
Is It Good?
Robin: Son of Batman #7 is a mess. As the big climax to this event, it feels so rushed and jumbled in its storytelling. Things don’t make sense or feel properly built up to. The writing is lacking, the continuity is an utter mess, and the artwork just doesn’t look good. I’m hoping that Tom King can save this event with the final issue next month, because Robin War is looking very dire currently.
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