Robin # 115 Review

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Reviewer: Chris Delloiacono
Story Title: The Wrong Town: Part 4

Written by: Jon Lewis
Penciled by: Pete Woods
Inked by: Andrew Pepoy
Colored by: Noelle Giddings
Lettered by: Willie Schubert
Editor: Matt Idelson
Publisher: DC Comics

I can’t stress enough, just how good this last arc on ROBIN has been. At first I was taken a little aback by the strange and twisted direction that writer Jon Lewis was leading us down. As a matter of fact, his entire run has left me a little off kilter. He’s got the Robin character right, but many of the situations have been more than a little off the wall. Not more unbelievable per say, this is a comic book, but just a very odd direction. While most of his 16 issues have been good, the last three have been superb, building tension towards this conclusion.

Lewis wisely takes the first couple of pages to recount the insanity that are the events of the last few issues. The storyline has been so crazy, that Robin can’t believe what’s occurred. Robin’s first line of narration, “I don’t know what kind of story this is anymore,” is perfection. Lewis has told one of the most twisted stories in a long time, and even the main character doesn’t know what to make of it.

Here’s a brief synopsis since the story doesn’t make much sense otherwise. The setup had Robin trailing a gunrunner to the small town of Wrestling. I’m not even going to make another witty comment about the town’s name again. The religious folk that make up the population of the town stage Wrestling Night in Wrestling, where the main event is a young boy who’s apparently impervious to harm. Visitors are allowed to take their crack at hurting the boy in a wrestling ring.

The boy is always with a girl who’s apparently his sister, and when they’re together he can’t be hurt. A biker gang that wants him to do the motorcycle stunt of all time for a contest captured the boy. Separated from his apparent sister, he died when the gangs made him drive a motorcycle off a cliff. Thus unleashing the true form of the female child back in the town of Wrestling.

Lewis amazingly is able to tie up all the loose ends in this issue, and believe me there were a lot. He’s integrated horror, mystery, action, and super heroism into this arc. The story comes to a neat conclusion, with all of the elements fitting together to complete the story. Lewis’ work with the mystery and horror aspects is top notch, and I give him big kudos for thinking the whole thing through so well. A story with so many different elements can seem contrived and have a patchwork ending, but that’s not the case here. Woods is even able to bring everything back around to Robin’s original goal, stopping the gunrunning.

I hate to have too many spoilers in my reviews, and I don’t want to recount much of the why and how behind this issue. The writing was superb, and the art as always by the team of Woods and Pepoy, is outstanding. I doubt DC will ever trade these issues, but they really should, even if it where under the Vertigo banner. Even if you’re not a big ROBIN fan, do yourself a favor and read this arc!