As it’s one of the books I’ve been buying monthly for some time now, I picked up Robin #126 during my first trip to Sleep of Reason this week. As I said, I’ve been reading the book for some time now. I read it through Jon Lewis‘ run, and have been enjoying the transition to Bill Willingham, especially as Willingham is the creator of one of my favorite books of the moment (that’d be the delightfully bizarre Fables).
Anyway, I started reading Robin because I was really curious to see how Jon Lewis would handle the book, seeing has how his prior comics work was about as far from mainstream as you can get. It turned out he did a pretty good job, and I really grew to like the book. Tim Drake is a pretty dull character at the end of the day, but I really liked the supporting cast, and found it particularly fun that this Robin actually had parents he had to sneak around. But the real star of the book for me was Spoiler, a character I also liked during her appearances in Birds of Prey (before the book took a total nose dive when Terry Moore took over).
So you can imagine my surprise when I picked up this month’s issue and saw that in the wake of last month’s issue, where Tim’s parents discovered his Robin costume, Spoiler would be taking up the reigns as the new Robin. Sure it’s gimmicky to have a female Robin, but Spoiler’s a great character.
Spoiler, for those unfamiliar with her, is a teenage girl named Stephanie Brown. She’s sort of been the third wheel in the Batman roster for some time. Batman told her to her face that she wasn’t cut out for the whole vigilante thing, and adding to the issue is the fact that her father was the Cluemaster, one of those wacky Gotham City villains.
Of the three prior Robins, there was Dick Grayson, the classic Robin, who has grown into a decent character (even if it did take decades and decades to get there). Jason Todd was a whiney little brat (who I’m proud to say I voted to kill off), and Tim Drake is a bit too normal to be Robin (I mean, the guy has a healthy family and friends…how lame is that?). So already I think Spoiler has a lot going for her.
There are a few things in Steph’s past I’d like to forget about completely. Particularly that ill-conceived (pun not intended) pregnancy storyline from a few years back (she put the kid up for adoption the whole ordeal has never been referenced since…doesn’t that seem a bit unlikely?). And I really hope this doesn’t turn out to be a six-month deal, ultimately ending in the reinstatement of Tim Drake. Ultimately this whole thing could descend into some kind of Bat-Buffy wannabe, but again, I hope not. She’s a great character, who I really thought deserved her own mini-series to develop a bit more. Assuming they don’t screw it up, this will suffice just as well (if not better).
