Red Robin #20

The Rabbit Hole [Interlude]: On the Shoulders of Titans

Fabian Nicieza – Writer
Marcus To – Penciller
Ray McCarthy – Inker
Guy Major – Colors
Sal Cipriano – Letters
To, McCarthy, and Brian Buccellato – Cover
Rachel Gluckstern & Sean Ryan – Editors
Michael Marts – Batman Group Editor
Batman created by Bob Kane
Special thanks to J.T. Krul!

Our cover shows Tim battling Catman — and getting his butt kicked. I love Marcus To's style, and I will say this is a well-drawn cover. However, I wish we actually had the Teen Titans on the cover besides that small note. Of course, that's kind of my main complaint with this issue. All the Teen Titans fans who came over here just for the crossover had to endure an unrelated Catman fight in the first half of the comic before the Titans finally show up. I don't think that's the most effective way to stage a crossover, but that's just me.

Our story opens in the middle of a long, convoluted arc involving the villains' communications grid, the ünternet, a Russian oligarch named Viktor Mikalek, and the Catman. Long story short, after being chased by Tim for a while, Catman gets him off his trail by sending the Calculator after Tim's latest girlfriend, Tam. (Yeah, Tim and Tam.) The Calculator actually fires a rocket launcher at Tam's dormitory, but luckily Tam was out drinking with her sorority sisters. Unluckily, the Calculator got away. So Tim heads back to his computer to analyze his evidence.

Tim has several screens of his closest allies around his main monitor, showing Batgirl, Batman and the Teen Titans. (Sadly, these are just images of recent covers, not original art by Marcus To. For the Titans, it's the variant cover for issue #91. I mean, how did Tim even get a picture of the Titans posing together so neatly like that?) Anyway, Tim rightly believes it to be rather strange that the Calculator himself would be firing rocket launchers at colleges. His facial recognition software finds a 94% match between the shooter and the Calculator, so Tim decides to run a worldwide search of all faces with a 94% match. To Tim's horror, the computer finds 147 matches across the world, meaning the Calculator has an army of robots that look like him. Realizing he needs help on this mission, but not wanting Bruce or Dick to take charge, Tim calls his old team. And that brings us to the ending of Teen Titans #91.

Although Tim did call in some of his old friends to help him fight off Ra's al Ghul's ninjas not to long ago, he didn't really interact with them that much. In fact, it's likely that Tim hasn't actually had a proper conversation with Conner or Bart since they were brought back to life. Understandably, Tim is incredibly nervous when he goes out to meet the T-jet the next morning. And when the Titans arrive, Cassie, Conner and Bart solemnly walk off the jet with stoic, almost angry faces. Tim awkwardly says hi to Cass and silently wishes that someone would smile. Suddenly, Cassie, Conner and Bart wrap Tim up in a big hug, while Beast Boy cries out, "Psyche!"

Tim realizes Beast Boy put the old Young Justice members up to this, but he's actually grateful for the ruse. In fact, this reunion has Tim in such good spirits, he's even happy to see Rose again. Raven comments on how tired Tim looks, and he admits he's exhausted. At which point Damian chimes in, suggesting it's time for Tim to retire and make way for the "real Robin." Tim jokes that he's surprised the Titans haven't killed Damian yet, and Conner says they were just waiting for his approval.

So Tim hops on the jet and explains that with the help of Oracle and Cyborg, he's tracked the Calculator's robots' signal to a single server nest in Istanbul. Even if the real Calculator isn't there, Tim believes that's where he's controlling his activities from and wants to shut it down. Kon asks Tim what their strategy is, and Tim starts to answer, but worries that he's stepping on Cassie's toes as team leader. But Cassie lets Tim lay out the strategy, so he explains that the Calculator could easily recognize any of them out of costume, except for one new hero he hasn't encountered yet. Everybody looks at Damian, and Bart sadly says, "Wait ... does that mean what I think it means ... ?" Damian mocks Bart for having neurons that don't move as quickly as his feet.

When our heroes reach Istanbul, everybody stays hidden in the jet, while Damian explores the streets in civilian clothes. Tim has patched into the city's traffic cams, so they can essentially see everything Damian sees. Kon says he missed working with Tim being the man with the plan. Bart adds that he just missed having a plan, period, before hastily tacking on an apology to Cassie. Tim also apologizes to her, but she once again graciously concedes control on this mission to him.

Damian eventually does pass the Calculator, or one of his robots, on the street, and after spending the day in surveillance, our heroes finally pinpoint the server nest to the basement of a popular nightclub. So the team heads out into the night, with Beast Boy employing the best disguise as a spider (although he is distracted by some of the pretty girls waiting outside the club). Damian naturally makes the first move, leaping off a window ledge to knock the head off a Calculator robot. Everybody gathers around the robot and Bart notices its eyes are still blinking. Kon notes the blinking seems to be keeping time, which Damian realizes means it's a bomb. Bart quickly pulls Damian away from the robot, while Superboy slams it into the wall and shields everybody from the blast. And to Tim's dismay, he notes there are at least half a dozen more Calculator robots among the crowd surrounding them, and it's going to be pretty difficult to protect the people from these bombs.




Bart and Conner were brought back to life almost two years before this comic. Two years! That's a long, long time to wait for this beautiful reunion of the Young Justice founders. But we finally got it, and Marcus To executed it perfectly. Bart didn't just hug Tim, he leaped into the air to wrap his arms around Tim and Kon. It was glorious. And Guy Major earns a lot of points for actually giving Bart brown hair — but then he loses some points for giving him blue eyes. Oh well, we can't win them all! Anyway, I wish we had this art team on the Teen Titans. I'm sorry, Nicola Scott, but To's got you beat.

This story itself, though, was rather odd. Besides taking way too long to bring in the guests of honor, the actual mission they've been tasked with is quite strange and random. Why does the Calculator have an army of robots that look just like him? And why are there so many of these robots congregated in one city? That's practically begging someone to shut down your operations. And I guess it's kind of a trap, with the robots loaded with explosives, but still. I would have preferred this grand reunion to have preceded the Ra's al Ghul fight. Now there's a villain worthy of teaming up for.

To be continued in Teen Titans #92!