Red Robin #12

Collision: The Conclusion

Christopher Yost (Writer)
Marcus To (Penciller)
Ray McCarthy (Inker)
Guy Major (Colorist)
Sal Cipriano (Letterer)
Janelle Siegel (Assistant Editor)
Mike Marts (Editor)
To & McCarthy (Cover)

Our cover shows our old friend Tim Drake (now going as the stupidly named Red Robin) at the mercy of one of Batman's greatest foes, Ra's al Ghul. It's a pretty dramatic cover with the bleeding Batman symbol in the background. Sometimes I might call something like this over the top, but I kind of like it here — mainly because I enjoy Marcus To's style.

Our story picks up at the conclusion of a massive battle between Tim and Ra's. Apparently, Ra's had sought to coerce Tim by sending teams of ninjas out to kill several members of the extended Bat family. But Tim had previously gained access to al Ghul's computer systems and subsequently prepared for this event by calling in some friends. Superboy was sent to protect Alfred, Wonder Girl was asked to help Barbara Gordon (but Barbara took care of the ninjas by herself), and Kid Flash was sent to save Catwoman. Bart reported back to Tim that Selina Kyle is "super-fine" and that this might be the best day of his life.

So that just leaves Tim to fight Ra's one on one. Fittingly, Ra's does win the duel, beating the snot out of Tim before shoving him out a window. Luckily, Nightwing was there to catch him and bring him back to the Batcave. But this was not a defeat for Tim, as his true victory was behind the scenes, thwarting al Ghul's attempts to take control of Wayne Enterprises.

While tim recovers in the Batcave, the new Robin, Damian Wayne, complains that the Teen Titans "riffraff" are going through his father's kitchen upstairs. But that's the last mention of Kon, Bart and Cassie. And at the end of this story, we learn this whole battle was actually Ra's al Ghul testing Tim to see if he'd be a worthy heir. And Tim passed the test.




The obvious joke here is that Bart's calling this the best day of his life because he's in a bedroom with a beautiful woman. But I like to think he might also be referring to the fact that he, Kon and Cassie are finally working with Tim again. We never really got a proper reunion of the four Young Justice holdovers. They had a nice little fireside chat about Superboy's fight with Lex Luthor. Then we had Blackest Night and Superboy and Kid Flash re-joined the Teen Titans. But we haven't had an actual discussion about why Tim isn't with them anymore. At the very least, it is nice to see that Tim's friends will respond to his calls.

Next time, we'll return to Teen Titans #83.