Hello everyone and welcome to the newest installment of the World of Bats Book Club (unless you’re from the future, in which case if you have a sports almanac I can borrow…)!
Today we’re continuing through the celebration of 80 Years of Robin and our in-depth look at the early years of Tim Drake with the five-part Robin mini-series from 1990, the first mini-series fully starring the Teen Wonder! You can find the link to the series HERE!
No Discussion Questions this week, just let us know what you guys are thinking as you read through the book and your overall thoughts on the story here!
Oh, crap, I knew I was forgetting to do something. Thank you for putting this up. I promise I’m going to be better about actually posting these clubs in the future.
So I just finished the five issues and…it’s okay. I liked the idea that Tim was going around and getting more training, doing stuff more independent of Batman while still learning on the job. There’s a couple of clever/funny ways he figure things out, like pinching his nose and using a fake accent to get the floor buildings to King Snake’s fortress.
The actual plot of using the plague and having it slowly dissolve in the water fountain was clever, even if the actual reasoning for it is never fully explained. King Snake wanted to kill Hong Kong because…communism? I guess?
Really, the weakest part of the mini is that outside of Tim and Lady Shiva, all the other side characters are frankly rather dull.
One of the things that really bugged me was the presence of Ducard. Shiva was already a stretch, but at least she actually did some things in the story!
IMO, Dixon did better with the sequel that I linked above, “Shadow Box.” Even King Snake is somewhat more interesting once he is plagued with Post-Tim Drake Disorder.
Speaking of King Snake, is it even worth mentioning that he was later retconned to be Bane’s father? The apple fell far from the tree–in a good way. Bane is far more interesting a foe.
Definitely – I get why Dixon (I presume) would do that, since both are his creations, but that is a bit of a disappointing answer to that mystery. Wasn’t there a time where it was thought he could be one of Ra’s bastard kids? That might have been more interesting.
It was also heavily suggested in the first arc of the '93 Catwoman series (by Jo Duffy, specifically), that Bane’s father went on to be the then-current dictator of Santa Prisca, which I liked better than having him be some other supervillain.
Where did that happen, by the way? I’ve been trying to figure that out.
