Knight Terrors: Robin #2 review

Last month Knight Terrors: Robin opened by dropping both Jason Todd and Tim Drake into their own personal nightmares together. It very much felt like only part of a story rather than a completed thought. This issue steps in to wrap up the ideas presented in the previous one, and finish the story.

I was very disappointed with the opening issue to this two part story. It felt like it didn’t do very much at all with the characters or attempt anything creative regarding their nightmares or fears. This issue doesn’t change the base setting or set of nightmares chosen for its characters, however it swivels away from the doom and gloom of the last issue and focuses instead on the characters themselves and pulling them out of those nightmares which works well for me.

I had hoped the book would shift this way, especially focused on heroes, and I’m glad it did. Horror stories are not my cup of tea. I don’t like pain for the sake of pain, or the feeling of hopelessness that comes with the genre, which has made this event hard for me to enjoy, especially the part 1 issues of it because of that hopeless feeling. Thankfully this issue jumps very quickly into pushing its characters into overcoming the fears they’ve been faced with and utilizes the fact that it has two characters sharing a nightmare.

Having Jason and Tim work together was something I had hoped to see when the solicit for the book was released. While we didn’t get that much of it in the last issue, it is more of a focus here, and helps to resolve the book’s main conflict. Jason and Tim support each other and rebut the other’s fears well, working together to overcome the shared nightmare. Pairing the two of them together was a good idea because of how they view each other, and theirselves. Tim’s fears of being a failure are easily batted away by Jason who has watched him soar as Robin. While Tim can push against Jason’s own concerns about always being alone by being the Robin who always shows up. It doesn’t do much to harp on what I wanted to see, but man I’d have loved to see this kind of give and take in both issues, because it works so well. The dynamics between Batman’s Robins are a field ripe with conflict and tension and honestly deserve more time overall in comics, and it was nice to see it highlighted here.

Miguel Mendonca is back on art, and does a great job. The scenery feels like a nightmare from seeing Jack Drake on puppet strings to the twisted Red Hood/Joker look-alike villains attacking Jason whose helmets shatter like hard candy. There’s nice details scattered around the scenes as well, like the whole Batfamily depicted in little plush dolls on Tim’s bed in his room.

Overall, it fits the flavor of the story well, especially in moments where you can feel how the nightmare is trying to isolate Tim and Jason from each other. They're very clearly put in their own little contained almost bubbles of nightmare space in a way that shows us how close, yet far, they are from each other.

In looking at both parts together, I think this issue complements the first well. Where that issue felt very much about the nightmare and doom, this one pulls the characters and readers out of that feeling to ultimately succeed. It also ends in a way that feels well rounded. There is no ambiguity here, just a tale told and characters off on the next stage of their adventure, making it a good two issues to pick up if you want to read a Jason and Tim story.

Recommended If

Seeing Jason and Tim work together is something you enjoy
You want a completed two issue story
The horror backgrounds and scenery are really cool

Overall

Looking at the Knight Terrors: Robin story as a whole, it has flaws but brings the story together by pairing up its two main characters, rather than keeping them apart. The ending is hopeful, and if you read both issues together, it flows better than just trying to read each part individually. If you’re looking for a story that pairs up Jason and Tim in a positive way, this isn’t a bad book to check out.

Score: 6/10

DISCLAIMER: DC Comics provided Batman News with a copy of this comic for the purpose of this review.

13 comments

Sara

August 9, 2023

Jason needs to be saved from DC.

Newsarama posted a page of Jason whimpering about what a failure he is. I don't care what Porter wanted us to take from that dialogue. All I take is that Jason is being written as a petty, whinging adolescent.

It does seem like Jason is being converted into a de facto damsel who needs saving in almost every story, doesn't it? I know that's been a criticism of how Batman and Nightwing are written, too, but those stories are full of reminders that Bruce and Dick are strong, good men. Jason is written as a bad, ungrateful drama queen who doesn't deserve others' forbearance.

He'll be back to squabbling with everybody in September.

Jesse Fitzpatrick
August 9, 2023
Ya Jason is the most misused character at dc. Very rarely does anyone use him to what the fans feel is his potential and the direction he should go.
Zdarsky wrote him good in his first urban legends tale I thought.
Why dc hasn't just given us a black label red hood book. Is the dumbest thing going to me.
So you're telling me, you have had a mature comic line for almost 5 years now. And not once did you decide to do a punisher max style. Red hood goes rogue and kills as many gangs and criminals as humanly possible and once the sales go down, have Batman track him down for a final fight.
1. Sara
  August 9, 2023
  I would kill for a Black Label book that took Jason seriously.
  My dream is for DC to straighten out his canon, which currently makes no sense and is full of holes.
  But most of all I need a story where Jason isn't just half-assing his way through another by-the-numbers comic about redemption, having another falling out with the Bat-Family, or chasing the Joker pointlessly. DC sets Jason up to fail, then has the nerve to publish stories where Jason worries that he's a failure.

Sara

August 9, 2023

Lol. I know what you mean about comments disappearing or never showing up. I've fallen into the habit of rechecking the page a few minutes after I commented in case something went wrong. I never got an answer about where my older comments went or why they were removed. I am told it's a Disqus thing, not a site thing. C'est la vie.

LoveandLoss

August 9, 2023

It's been frustrating to watch this whole story play out, being as relatively unimaginative as it has been on most fronts. Not only does it feel like Porter has a rather superficial grasp of who Jason is (and while I'd say he does better with Tim, I'm still not about to say he wrote Tim well either) as a character at best, he brings us to this story conclusion based upon that in a way that manages to be both unsatisfactory and hardly deserved. He could have created an opening for something here, a plot point to build on from this moment with these two and allowing for the work to be done in that relationship in whatever stories might follow, and instead it felt like some trite after-school special getting its neatly packaged lesson of an ending. And there was definitely dialogue here that was just off to plain weird and cringe, and felt unnatural at times, almost as if these characters should have been shadows of the nightmare selves they faced instead of the original personas conversing.

I can see why Tim Drake fans seem to love what he's done here compared to what they've recently gotten, but I feel like Porter did a disservice to Tim as well in this. This whole story felt emptied of life, a bunch of hollowed-out puppets shuffling across a nightmare stage for no real purpose other than to disappoint.

But seeing Jason in this was painful. How utterly reduced he was yet again, once more a prop rather than a vital component to the story. I don't know how DC takes one of their most complex characters and continues to cut him down to no better than a caricature of a bully-loner who only needs to learn his lesson.

Sara
August 10, 2023
I was reading the WFA review just now. I don't like the Webtoons. I've tried. I can't do it. One of my fears is that that version of Jason will prevail because they've written him as a self-absorbed ass in the comics so often that a more lovable Jason Todd, who horses around with his brothers and gets over his pain like a good scout, will look like the only escape from the dumb lout in Knight Terrors. They will warp him to fit a cozy, wholesome Bat-Family role because it's easier.
I did not like Zdarsky's comic one bit, but you are probably right that it's the one recent Red Hood story that isn't a dead end and that gives him some dimension. (I preferred Task Force Z, but where do you go from there? I can think of some things to do, but DC wouldn't do them.) They have to bring more balance to his character. That can't happen while they retcon everything that comes up.
It's so beyond frustrating.
1. Sara
  August 10, 2023
  If only they'd stop taking the worst ideas from comics like Three Jokers and follow the few good threads...
LoveandLoss
August 10, 2023
I noticed the Killer Croc thing too and had to do a double-take, because having him mentioned with The Penguin implies more of a villain relationship instead of any level of friendship. But you are right in that Porter's whole schtick in this is how Jason is utterly and completely alone and it's because he just simply doesn't know how to interact with people and make connections with them.
I simply cannot get over how absolutely mundane and poorly wrapped up these nightmares were. But again, you are right in saying they don't deserve an in-depth look at them, though depth here is more like kiddie pool than ocean. I felt no real sense of alarm at all from what we got here, and it made it even harder to take Jason and Tim's reactions and resolution seriously in the face of them. It really felt like Porter had no idea how to wrap this up, realized he was out of space to tell the story, and just hastily threw together some sort of Disney-ified ending about the true power of friendship that completely stripped the whole humanity from the story itself along with its two starring characters. Even worse, the lesson pounded into us at the end was basically for Jason alone and not really for Tim, who ended up being the savior here. Ugh. I hated so much of this, and it only got worse on another read through.
And this is the second time now this summer we've had Tim Drake roll out with that whole "I am Robin" line like it was some grand moment of actualization for him. And if people could rail on Fitzmartin for putting that one out there, Porter is just as bad here in my opinion. Even if done on some level of facetiousness, it's still a bad line of dialogue and thoroughly unnecessary.
And that's not even getting into Jason's dialogue and how terrible most of it was. Honestly, Jason simply giving up in this really feels like Porter spelling out DC's general stance on him as a character. Sitting out of the fight and waiting for someone else to come do the heavy lifting while he gets the shit kicked out of him all while playing like it means something just to blow hot air into some vapid storytelling and sell some issues on his name.
1. LoveandLoss
  August 12, 2023
  I agree.
  It really feels like DC has no desire to let Jason be the challenge in Gotham Bruce probably needs more than some other villain to add to his list of them. He's not this unredeemable character with no morals the Bat-perspective would make you think about him (he has them and has far more heart for the people of Gotham than I think even Bruce does), but has a much different view of the problems plaguing the city and what's to be done about that. And there's a validity to the way Jason thinks. It's not just street-thug logic, and in all honesty, I think that logical aspect of Tim would understand Jason's stance as well. Tim's idealism in the vein of all things Batman tempers his own decisions and has him looking for conclusions that meet those standards and yet the way he does things can be just as manipulative and dirty in their doing.
  I'm not against him getting on better terms with the Batfam though, but I think this idea of forcing him to admit he is wrong and has been wrong isn't the way to go about it. Plus, there needs to be work put into building those relationships back up - not simply throwing him into a nightmare realm for an event that doesn't even last a full night and walking out of it best friends with them. But again, I think there's something to be said for how Jason approaches Gotham that is valid, and it makes a great contrast to Dick (especially now with Taylor and things in Bludhaven) to show the spectrum of our former Robins and their personal paths. I don't think Jason would get along with every Batfam member either. Making that happen would be basically stripping the personality out of him to do so. And it's perfectly fine if he doesn't get along with everyone, if he maintains some of the friction and challenge. Things like that make for a better, more human story and relationships. (And I say this also as someone who enjoys WFA for what it is, but that should not be the expectation for the main canon line.)
  Right now, which is wild to consider given the history of Gotham and its gallery of characters (vigilantes and villains alike), it feels like DC is afraid to dance in the gray areas of being and really wants to push for this stark black and white approach while still trying to sell us on the full breadth of the human experience. Jason is one of the most nuanced and emotionally complex Batfam members. He is a fantastic character vehicle for story-telling because of that, but for some reason, DC can't seem to grasp this and insists on distilling him down to 'bad boy does bad things and the good Batfam always has to set him right.'
  I agree completely that it's grown beyond tiresome, and Porter's portrayal of him here only makes me regret he even got included in this story if this was the best he could do with him, and I say that as someone who had been hopeful and even excited to see what could happen given the potential of the set-up (perhaps beyond my better judgement on that knowing DC's track record on him). But having read through this again, this should have stayed a Tim-only nightmare.

Kirru

August 10, 2023

Horror stories are not my cup of tea. I don’t like pain for the sake of
pain, or the feeling of hopelessness that comes with the genre, which
has made this event hard for me to enjoy,

Dear Matina,

it's more than perfectly all right to be NOT interrested in horror stories. From your writing I'd take you to be an optimistic gal. However, to call them "painful" and "hopeless" in general I feel is a misconception. Yes, I can say I'm into it, though I have my standards. It can be fun, goofy, tragic, and even enlightening. As in: Aaah! So THIS IS how we live. There are many flavours. Ever heard the name Thomas Ligotti? Pessimistic horror: maybe that is what you can't stand. Although there is worse, in nihilism.

Reading that you work in a library, I just thought to give you my chump change on it.

Wanna know my horror?

Disney! I am not kidding.

Sara
August 10, 2023
I don't know. I'd say most horror is pessimistic, if not nihilistic. Ligotti is at the deep end of pessimism, but how many great horror stories have happy or hopeful endings? At best you might get a compromise. When they end happily, doesn't it usually feel like a cheat? Any DC horror event's tacky optimism is taken from the superhero side, not the horror side.
1. Kirru
  August 12, 2023
  but how many great horror stories have happy or hopeful endings? At best
  you might get a compromise. When they end happily, doesn't it usually
  feel like a cheat?
  When a horror story ends happily, I call it a fairy tale. The attempt to stir something dark and resolve it, so it can be forgotten. Ideally to put the kids to bed: all's well that ends well. Many horror movies find compromise in letting the people you've been rooting for survive, though it ends with a scare. Just so it's not happy or sappy.
  The end from Carpenter's The Thing comes to mind for choosing neither. His Prince of Darkness does it, too. They linger. There are examples.
  Ed: thought of another: The Return of the Living Dead. Don't chalk it up as comedy. It's The End. Really. ;)

RedSomnus

August 10, 2023

Okay a lot to unpack.
I think Jason and Tim gave up a bit too quickly at the start but pacing probably explains that. As for the insecurities both of them have in terms of Tim's fear of not saving everyone and Jason feeling like he is a failure/alone as people have said these are story beats we have seen before so it seems repetitive. The pep talk was kind of corny and saying too much and it seems a bit jarring as last issue the two were more vitriol and now the the shift to super close is a bit rushed. I did like how it was highlighed that Jason was failed by the adults in his life instead of blaming him so that was a plus and the fact the Batfamily won't give up on him. But I thought we already were done with the Jason pushing people away thing as UL went against that so again repetitive. I would have preferred a more vitriolic dynamic between the two in their speeches that wouldn't say too much. Jason's dialogue was more up there but again he said too much. Batman and Robin Eternal for me really grasps how to write both of them as you have the two endlessly snarking to each other but when push comes to shove they have each other's back but don't need to say it in a long speech

Tim's nightmare of his 'dad' and seeing the people close to him die was visually interesting (no YJ but since this tie in seems more Batfamily) and I did like the highlight of Dick, Barbara and Stephanie which shows the admiration Tim has to them. As for the message of Tim choosing to not dwell on the past and on the future of who he can save it was nice but again is a repeat but to be fair I don't really recall there being a story of Tim ever accepting his dad's death fully and that he couldn't save him but maybe I missed it. The whole I am light and hope speech....corny I have to admit and Tim's I am Robin thing which to me is frustrating as him being Robin still is what is holding him back and why he is in a rut currently so not a fan of them trying to still push it for him.

As for Jason not a fan of the whole not asking for help thing both here and at the end as again he already overcame it as we recently saw in Cheers (and before) so them acting like it's something he still has to work on is eh. I did like him not fighting back and frustrating the nightmare but it would have worked better if they focused more on his mystic side/sense of tranquility he got from the people who gave him the All Blades (could have used them but they seemed to have dropped everything from there) to better highlight he's not just the muscle.

Them teaming up to beat the Nightmares was a nice fight but like them giving up too easily it felt kind of rushed but again pacing is probably the culprit.

Overall not a bad story just feels repetitive and rushed and the Tim and Jason interactions feel very much on the fluff side.

5/10. Maybe I was too generous on issue 1

Sara
August 9, 2023
Jason needs to be saved from DC.
Newsarama posted a page of Jason whimpering about what a failure he is. I don't care what Porter wanted us to take from that dialogue. All I take is that Jason is being written as a petty, whinging adolescent.
It does seem like Jason is being converted into a de facto damsel who needs saving in almost every story, doesn't it? I know that's been a criticism of how Batman and Nightwing are written, too, but those stories are full of reminders that Bruce and Dick are strong, good men. Jason is written as a bad, ungrateful drama queen who doesn't deserve others' forbearance.
He'll be back to squabbling with everybody in September.
1. Jesse Fitzpatrick
  August 9, 2023
  Ya Jason is the most misused character at dc. Very rarely does anyone use him to what the fans feel is his potential and the direction he should go.
  Zdarsky wrote him good in his first urban legends tale I thought.
  Why dc hasn't just given us a black label red hood book. Is the dumbest thing going to me.
  So you're telling me, you have had a mature comic line for almost 5 years now. And not once did you decide to do a punisher max style. Red hood goes rogue and kills as many gangs and criminals as humanly possible and once the sales go down, have Batman track him down for a final fight.
  1. Sara
    August 9, 2023
    I would kill for a Black Label book that took Jason seriously.
    My dream is for DC to straighten out his canon, which currently makes no sense and is full of holes.
    But most of all I need a story where Jason isn't just half-assing his way through another by-the-numbers comic about redemption, having another falling out with the Bat-Family, or chasing the Joker pointlessly. DC sets Jason up to fail, then has the nerve to publish stories where Jason worries that he's a failure.
Sara
August 9, 2023
Lol. I know what you mean about comments disappearing or never showing up. I've fallen into the habit of rechecking the page a few minutes after I commented in case something went wrong. I never got an answer about where my older comments went or why they were removed. I am told it's a Disqus thing, not a site thing. C'est la vie.
LoveandLoss
August 9, 2023
It's been frustrating to watch this whole story play out, being as relatively unimaginative as it has been on most fronts. Not only does it feel like Porter has a rather superficial grasp of who Jason is (and while I'd say he does better with Tim, I'm still not about to say he wrote Tim well either) as a character at best, he brings us to this story conclusion based upon that in a way that manages to be both unsatisfactory and hardly deserved. He could have created an opening for something here, a plot point to build on from this moment with these two and allowing for the work to be done in that relationship in whatever stories might follow, and instead it felt like some trite after-school special getting its neatly packaged lesson of an ending. And there was definitely dialogue here that was just off to plain weird and cringe, and felt unnatural at times, almost as if these characters should have been shadows of the nightmare selves they faced instead of the original personas conversing.
I can see why Tim Drake fans seem to love what he's done here compared to what they've recently gotten, but I feel like Porter did a disservice to Tim as well in this. This whole story felt emptied of life, a bunch of hollowed-out puppets shuffling across a nightmare stage for no real purpose other than to disappoint.
But seeing Jason in this was painful. How utterly reduced he was yet again, once more a prop rather than a vital component to the story. I don't know how DC takes one of their most complex characters and continues to cut him down to no better than a caricature of a bully-loner who only needs to learn his lesson.
1. Sara
  August 10, 2023
  I was reading the WFA review just now. I don't like the Webtoons. I've tried. I can't do it. One of my fears is that that version of Jason will prevail because they've written him as a self-absorbed ass in the comics so often that a more lovable Jason Todd, who horses around with his brothers and gets over his pain like a good scout, will look like the only escape from the dumb lout in Knight Terrors. They will warp him to fit a cozy, wholesome Bat-Family role because it's easier.
  I did not like Zdarsky's comic one bit, but you are probably right that it's the one recent Red Hood story that isn't a dead end and that gives him some dimension. (I preferred Task Force Z, but where do you go from there? I can think of some things to do, but DC wouldn't do them.) They have to bring more balance to his character. That can't happen while they retcon everything that comes up.
  It's so beyond frustrating.
  1. Sara
    August 10, 2023
    If only they'd stop taking the worst ideas from comics like Three Jokers and follow the few good threads...
2. LoveandLoss
  August 10, 2023
  I noticed the Killer Croc thing too and had to do a double-take, because having him mentioned with The Penguin implies more of a villain relationship instead of any level of friendship. But you are right in that Porter's whole schtick in this is how Jason is utterly and completely alone and it's because he just simply doesn't know how to interact with people and make connections with them.
  I simply cannot get over how absolutely mundane and poorly wrapped up these nightmares were. But again, you are right in saying they don't deserve an in-depth look at them, though depth here is more like kiddie pool than ocean. I felt no real sense of alarm at all from what we got here, and it made it even harder to take Jason and Tim's reactions and resolution seriously in the face of them. It really felt like Porter had no idea how to wrap this up, realized he was out of space to tell the story, and just hastily threw together some sort of Disney-ified ending about the true power of friendship that completely stripped the whole humanity from the story itself along with its two starring characters. Even worse, the lesson pounded into us at the end was basically for Jason alone and not really for Tim, who ended up being the savior here. Ugh. I hated so much of this, and it only got worse on another read through.
  And this is the second time now this summer we've had Tim Drake roll out with that whole "I am Robin" line like it was some grand moment of actualization for him. And if people could rail on Fitzmartin for putting that one out there, Porter is just as bad here in my opinion. Even if done on some level of facetiousness, it's still a bad line of dialogue and thoroughly unnecessary.
  And that's not even getting into Jason's dialogue and how terrible most of it was. Honestly, Jason simply giving up in this really feels like Porter spelling out DC's general stance on him as a character. Sitting out of the fight and waiting for someone else to come do the heavy lifting while he gets the shit kicked out of him all while playing like it means something just to blow hot air into some vapid storytelling and sell some issues on his name.
  1. LoveandLoss
    August 12, 2023
    I agree.
    It really feels like DC has no desire to let Jason be the challenge in Gotham Bruce probably needs more than some other villain to add to his list of them. He's not this unredeemable character with no morals the Bat-perspective would make you think about him (he has them and has far more heart for the people of Gotham than I think even Bruce does), but has a much different view of the problems plaguing the city and what's to be done about that. And there's a validity to the way Jason thinks. It's not just street-thug logic, and in all honesty, I think that logical aspect of Tim would understand Jason's stance as well. Tim's idealism in the vein of all things Batman tempers his own decisions and has him looking for conclusions that meet those standards and yet the way he does things can be just as manipulative and dirty in their doing.
    I'm not against him getting on better terms with the Batfam though, but I think this idea of forcing him to admit he is wrong and has been wrong isn't the way to go about it. Plus, there needs to be work put into building those relationships back up - not simply throwing him into a nightmare realm for an event that doesn't even last a full night and walking out of it best friends with them. But again, I think there's something to be said for how Jason approaches Gotham that is valid, and it makes a great contrast to Dick (especially now with Taylor and things in Bludhaven) to show the spectrum of our former Robins and their personal paths. I don't think Jason would get along with every Batfam member either. Making that happen would be basically stripping the personality out of him to do so. And it's perfectly fine if he doesn't get along with everyone, if he maintains some of the friction and challenge. Things like that make for a better, more human story and relationships. (And I say this also as someone who enjoys WFA for what it is, but that should not be the expectation for the main canon line.)
    Right now, which is wild to consider given the history of Gotham and its gallery of characters (vigilantes and villains alike), it feels like DC is afraid to dance in the gray areas of being and really wants to push for this stark black and white approach while still trying to sell us on the full breadth of the human experience. Jason is one of the most nuanced and emotionally complex Batfam members. He is a fantastic character vehicle for story-telling because of that, but for some reason, DC can't seem to grasp this and insists on distilling him down to 'bad boy does bad things and the good Batfam always has to set him right.'
    I agree completely that it's grown beyond tiresome, and Porter's portrayal of him here only makes me regret he even got included in this story if this was the best he could do with him, and I say that as someone who had been hopeful and even excited to see what could happen given the potential of the set-up (perhaps beyond my better judgement on that knowing DC's track record on him). But having read through this again, this should have stayed a Tim-only nightmare.
Kirru
August 10, 2023
Horror stories are not my cup of tea. I don’t like pain for the sake of
pain, or the feeling of hopelessness that comes with the genre, which
has made this event hard for me to enjoy,
Dear Matina,
it's more than perfectly all right to be NOT interrested in horror stories. From your writing I'd take you to be an optimistic gal. However, to call them "painful" and "hopeless" in general I feel is a misconception. Yes, I can say I'm into it, though I have my standards. It can be fun, goofy, tragic, and even enlightening. As in: Aaah! So THIS IS how we live. There are many flavours. Ever heard the name Thomas Ligotti? Pessimistic horror: maybe that is what you can't stand. Although there is worse, in nihilism.
Reading that you work in a library, I just thought to give you my chump change on it.
Wanna know my horror?
Disney! I am not kidding.
1. Sara
  August 10, 2023
  I don't know. I'd say most horror is pessimistic, if not nihilistic. Ligotti is at the deep end of pessimism, but how many great horror stories have happy or hopeful endings? At best you might get a compromise. When they end happily, doesn't it usually feel like a cheat? Any DC horror event's tacky optimism is taken from the superhero side, not the horror side.
  1. Kirru
    August 12, 2023
    but how many great horror stories have happy or hopeful endings? At best
    you might get a compromise. When they end happily, doesn't it usually
    feel like a cheat?
    When a horror story ends happily, I call it a fairy tale. The attempt to stir something dark and resolve it, so it can be forgotten. Ideally to put the kids to bed: all's well that ends well. Many horror movies find compromise in letting the people you've been rooting for survive, though it ends with a scare. Just so it's not happy or sappy.
    The end from Carpenter's The Thing comes to mind for choosing neither. His Prince of Darkness does it, too. They linger. There are examples.
    Ed: thought of another: The Return of the Living Dead. Don't chalk it up as comedy. It's The End. Really. ;)
RedSomnus
August 10, 2023
Okay a lot to unpack.
I think Jason and Tim gave up a bit too quickly at the start but pacing probably explains that. As for the insecurities both of them have in terms of Tim's fear of not saving everyone and Jason feeling like he is a failure/alone as people have said these are story beats we have seen before so it seems repetitive. The pep talk was kind of corny and saying too much and it seems a bit jarring as last issue the two were more vitriol and now the the shift to super close is a bit rushed. I did like how it was highlighed that Jason was failed by the adults in his life instead of blaming him so that was a plus and the fact the Batfamily won't give up on him. But I thought we already were done with the Jason pushing people away thing as UL went against that so again repetitive. I would have preferred a more vitriolic dynamic between the two in their speeches that wouldn't say too much. Jason's dialogue was more up there but again he said too much. Batman and Robin Eternal for me really grasps how to write both of them as you have the two endlessly snarking to each other but when push comes to shove they have each other's back but don't need to say it in a long speech
Tim's nightmare of his 'dad' and seeing the people close to him die was visually interesting (no YJ but since this tie in seems more Batfamily) and I did like the highlight of Dick, Barbara and Stephanie which shows the admiration Tim has to them. As for the message of Tim choosing to not dwell on the past and on the future of who he can save it was nice but again is a repeat but to be fair I don't really recall there being a story of Tim ever accepting his dad's death fully and that he couldn't save him but maybe I missed it. The whole I am light and hope speech....corny I have to admit and Tim's I am Robin thing which to me is frustrating as him being Robin still is what is holding him back and why he is in a rut currently so not a fan of them trying to still push it for him.
As for Jason not a fan of the whole not asking for help thing both here and at the end as again he already overcame it as we recently saw in Cheers (and before) so them acting like it's something he still has to work on is eh. I did like him not fighting back and frustrating the nightmare but it would have worked better if they focused more on his mystic side/sense of tranquility he got from the people who gave him the All Blades (could have used them but they seemed to have dropped everything from there) to better highlight he's not just the muscle.
Them teaming up to beat the Nightmares was a nice fight but like them giving up too easily it felt kind of rushed but again pacing is probably the culprit.
Overall not a bad story just feels repetitive and rushed and the Tim and Jason interactions feel very much on the fluff side.
5/10. Maybe I was too generous on issue 1

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