"The End" Week: Robin #183!

Another book that I had been looking for, for quite some time: it had been on my old bingo cards for the comic shows. And yet I'm tearing into it before I even open it up: from 2009, Robin #183, featuring "Robin Dies at Dawn!" and "Origins & Omens" Both written by Fabian Nicieza, art by Freddie E. Williams II. 

OK, maybe I'm not getting it: I had thought the purpose of a crossover event, was to try and bring new readers to a title. People weren't maybe reading Book X, but if they want to see all of this storyline they'll have to check it out, and maybe they'll like what they see. This issue has the tags for both "Origins & Omens" and "Last Rites," and it's the last issue! This year, and over the course of "The End" week, we've seen a bunch of last issues where DC has done the exact same thing, and it just seems...wasteful? Pointless? Maybe they need to shore up the numbers at the end; it probably has made some of these easier to find, but still. 

Anyway, while I knew some of what happens this issue from Twitter, let me hold it up to my head Carnac-style and make some predictions: I'm gonna go out on a limb and say Robin visits some supporting characters he, and the readers, are never gonna see again. Let's see: in a fancy hotel room, while she accepts the complimentary chocolates, Lady Shiva tells the maid no need to turn down the bed, she won't be sleeping, as she sends a note for Detective Harper to pass on to Robin, with the title on it, "Robin Dies at Dawn!" That's a little melodramatic for Shiva. There's also a caption about her recent time with the Birds of Prey, but Nicieza, and possibly Tim, don't seem to see her as anything but a hired killer. 

Robin's plate was already full, however: Batman was missing from Final Crisis and presumed dead, although I don't think Tim believed it (later, he may have at the time) and he had a new Anarky to deal with. He had also benched his long-time on-again-off-again girlfriend, Stephanie, from going into action as Spoiler. (I feel like Spoiler's treatment, through the entire run of the title, was kind of an issue, or at least conflicted? She was never, or rarely, treated as Tim's partner or equal; more like a problem for him to take care of.) And Jason Todd makes an appearance, to hear Bruce's last message for him. Tim doesn't care to hear what that message was, he knows Jason doesn't listen...

Tim breaks up with Zoanne, his current girlfriend, over the phone: this may be supposed to indicate he thought Shiva was going to kill him, but may have been because he felt he couldn't make the time for her that she deserved. He calls his pal Ives, and tries to call Stephanie, who doesn't answer: Tim had previously sworn he'd never be as cold and detached as Batman, but was there another way? Maybe: he meets Shiva for their showdown, and immediately gets three ribs broken--and knocks Shiva out? He tells the downed Shiva, he had to fight smarter: he had known she was coming, and poisoned the chocolates with a "heart-rate activated paralytic." It's kind of a cop out; and out of character for Shiva as well: she in no way resembles my preferred version, from the classic the Question appearances. Feh. 

Nightwing had been there in case things had escalated, and tells Tim they're going to be okay. Tim agrees, since he figures somebody would be wearing the Bat-cowl soon enough. The closing narration makes it seem like he was going to continue for some time to come, but not so fast: with Damien taking the Robin role, Tim would be shifted over to Red Robin later. He's never had the same level of success, though; but at least naming him 'Drake' didn't stick.

Also this issue: creepy former Guardian of the Universe Scar reads a Robin story from the Book of the Black--kind of an analog to the Book of Oa framing device that used to be used to tell Tales of the Green Lantern Corps. Robin goes after the Obeah Man, who murdered his mother back in Detective #621. Obeah had "greased some palms" to get out of prison; when Robin goes after him he gets the traditional visions of his fallen parents (he had lost the other one since then) but since this was a six-pager, shrugs his tricks off pretty quickly, to have him put back into jail for ever. Does Scar get something out of that? We see a brief glimpse of what may be to come, with Ra's al Ghul, Anarky, and a fully-masked gun-toting Batman.

Well, I may have been partially correct: that was it for Zoanne, but Ives would appear at least one more time in Tim's Red Robin book. Detective Harper got traded over to the Superman books and may have been in the New Krypton/Mon-El storylines before disappearing. I think Stephanie is in the current Batgirls book, but I'm not sure Tim is in anything? Was Young Justice still going? Kinda feel like he's been pushed aside, squeezed on both sides, by Jason as the gunslinging antihero, and Damien as the cute one. Maybe it's tougher to write Tim: he's always been a bit more cerebral, trying to use his head as much as his fists, if not more. Even Dick goes off halfcocked more than he does; so it's probably harder to put him in fixes. Still, there's "working smarter" and then there's "cheating in a completely anticlimactic fashion."