Robin has been an exciting ride under Joshua Williamson, with excellent fight scenes rendered by Roger Cruz. Not only has the series shown off tons of great fight sequences, but it’s further complicated and enriched the Al Ghul family line. With Robin heading back to Lazarus Island, the planned blissful new life is being tainted by Lord Death Man.
Robin #16 opens with Damian waking from a nightmare as his friend turns into a demon. We’ve recently learned the Lazarus Pits are tainted, but not everyone knows. As that lingers over Damian’s head, Lord Death Man remains chained up and screaming on the island. He came to Damian for help, but it’s likely all a plan to screw over Damian and his friends.
As is seen in this issue, the creation and well-done development of Flatline drives the characters’ motivations. Lord Death Man claims she’s turned into a feral beast, and so Robin and Hawke investigate.
That leads to a fun action scene involving a big robot, encountering a Batman, Inc. member, and realizing that Lazarus Island is in big trouble. The colors by Luis Guerrero pop, especially in a neon-drenched scene later in the issue. Inks by Norm Rapmund add a lot of dimension to Cruz’s lines. The Oni robot they face off against has super cool armor, the likes of which demand you linger and soak it all in.
I love the emotion Cruz gives Lord Death Man.
Credit: DC Comics
What’s great about this issue is how it all feels earned. There are multiple moving pieces, most of which tie back to previous stories or previous plots. Given the importance of Flatline to Robin, it’s also logical to see her take center stage. Essentially Williamson has set up a story arc that has Damian’s worst enemy–at least right now–team up with her worst enemy. Given the romantic nature of this relationship, there’s a recipe here for intrigue and melodrama.
There is a minor fault of this issue requiring you to read most of the series. It’s a no-brainer for a serial story in its sixteenth issue, but there are plot elements in this issue that will be lost on new readers. The story doesn’t do a lot of explaining how we got here, nor who certain characters are so you’ll need to dig up back issues to understand the minutiae.
Robin is consistently a fun adventure book that’s good for at least one fight scene every issue. Throw in the way the creators are weaving together multiple plotlines in a series that has developed Robin in interesting ways, and you have an instant-buy comic every single month.
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