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Red Robin, Vol. 1: The Grail (2010)

by Christopher Yost(Favorite Author)

4.01 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1401226191 (ISBN13: 9781401226190)

languge

English

genre

Graphic Novels & Comics

publisher

DC Comics

series

Red Robin

review 1: I came into Red Robin a few issuses after those collected in this book. And even though I didn't know all the backstory, I did just fine piecing it all together.But now that I HAVE read it, let me tell you, WOW. I loved it. I was afraid I was going to be disappointed because I adore the later issues a lot. But this was just so good. Tim's battle with himself. His reactions. His quest. He's sometimes a bit ridiculous, but you know what? It makes sense. He's 17. He's been in this all his life. This IS his life. And he's finally starting to come into his own and grow out of the shadow he's been living it.Tim's internal monologue is BRILLIANT. He's sarcastic and funny, but yet still sharp and competent. I could just gush forever about my feelings for Tim anyways,... more though.Great read. Great start to the series. I'm ready for Volume 2.
review 2: To be honest, I'm pretty jaded with comics right now, and DC Comics in particular given everything that has happened to my beloved characters who once formed Young Justice, the remnants of which can still be seen lingering in Teen Titans once scribed by ne'er-do-well Geoff Johns. Okay so he does do well on occasion for instance the aforementioned Titans, and Green Lantern (or so I've heard). Honestly, I don't care for how Johns writes most DC characters, too much like he's writing a movie and doesn't want to alter them or make them in any way shape or form be important outside of their flat iconic OLD representations. Essentially what I'm saying is, Johns writes Superman like if he were writing the 80 some year old legend that is ... rather than, the adventures of Kryptonian come to earth Clark Kent/Superman. That said, thankfully his hands are nowhere in this book. Still, I was expecting the worst. I didn't, here again before I read this, like the idea of my favorite Robin, Tim Drake, becoming this Red Robin persona. The artwork however, was irresistible. Ramon Bachs does a brilliant job of portraying Tim and Ra's al Ghul, and all the other characters that enter into the story. The books starts off nicely illustrated, this is clearly not someone who has never penciled a comic book or who is finding his feet on the art. He takes the character and makes him his own. And while the inks by Art Thibert seriously detract from the look of that issue, that's really more Mr. Thibert's fault than Ramon Bachs. Art Thibert having such a stylized, a la Jim Lee style of inks. Whatsoever he inks looks like he inked it and doesn't always work with the penciller he's inking. Still the book is beautiful in spite of that little artistic mishap. As to the story, which was not what I was expecting, Chris Yost, in my opinion shot it out of the park. Not only is this first story arc not presented in chronological order, as most comics today are. He doesn't just throw in the broken flashbacks into the story for the sake of some minor reveal but he purposely plays with them all so as not to reveal everything at once. His fractured flashback storyline works really well to not only give us a sense of how lost Tim feels now that Bruce Wayne is allegedly dead and he's lost the mantle of Robin now that Dick Grayson has given it to Bruce Wayne's son, but he also uses it as a way to reveal the major villain in the story, heightening the mystery of the character, making us wonder how broken Tim and Dick's relationship really is. Cutting between the present action and flashing back to what happened to lead him down this path, Yost doesn't lay all of his cards out on the table but slowly interests us in the story, while making sure we still care about Tim Drake. He shows us how Tim feels, feeling at times betrayed by former friends and allies, wondering what exactly it means to suddenly be Tim Wayne, when there's no Bruce Wayne to be his father figure and with it he plays up Tim's sense of loneliness and his separation from all the old familiar things. Chris Yost is taking this character to new places but he's letting us see and know where he came from, giving us glimpses of who Red Robin used to be, and how he's struggling to find a new identity. All in all this book has renewed my interest in the character of Tim Drake even if he's no longer Robin. Yes, he's maturing, and Tim's growing up but this is the same Tim who pines for his friends Conner, and talks to Cassie a.k.a. Wonder Girl and was Batman's protege. Rather than just dropping in and changing everything Yost is respectfully letting us bid farewell to the old Robin and helping us welcome in Red Robin and writing a heck of a good adventure story, even throwing in some current events without making them the center of the tale and trying to pontificate his own world views as way too many Marvel comic books nowadays do. less

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