Story Title: The Only Light in Gotham
Review by: Tim Sheridan
Writer: Bill Willingham
Penciler: Jon Proctor
Inkers: Robert Campanella& Rodney Ramos
Colorist: Guy Major
Letterer: Phil Balsman
Editor: Michael Wright
Publisher: DC Comics
I was excited for this issue. While War Games has slowly bored me, I still enjoy Robin as a book and a character. I’ve reluctantly dug the whole Tim retiring storyline, and was happy to have him back. And last issue was one of the War Games highlights for me. So I was disappointed this month.
It starts out by what is supposed to be a big reveal. We find out that (SPOILER ALERT, WHINERS!) Black Mask is behind this whole War Games thing. And wow is that a disappointment. It’s not like we’ve been seeing the machinations of Black Mask and how he’s been stewing for years about how he will take his ultimate revenge on Batman or Gotham City. Nor is Black Mask the type of A-list villain that we say “Oh NO! Not him! How could it have been him!?” What we get here is a sort of “oh”¦well, I guess it makes sense. But what really bothers me I guess is the cheesy cornball dialogue. It’s “So now Batman’s sending little girls after me? Me?! Black Mask?” Whoa, dude, get over yourself and stop with the unnecessarily expository dialogue.
So after this little display of ego, he decides to torture the Spoiler. Not that we see much of it. A lot of it off panel, and I thank the good lord for that, because all the hints we see are incredibly uncomfortable. I don’t mind this sort of thing in books like Sleeper and Powers, but this is traditionally a kid-friendly book. I also don’t mind a book like this pushing the boundaries a bit. But it just came across as a little extreme here, even though we saw so little.
Anyway, the rest of the book is pretty well written. We get the conversation between Tim and his father we’ve been waiting for. He basically tells pops “Whatever man, I’m gonna go fight crime, regardless if you want me to or not!” Jack Drake’s response is “well, ok, but I wanna help you!” So they do a cute family thing and go help out at Leslie Thompson’s clinic. Then Tim leaves to really fight crime and not just give blood.
Jon Procto’s art was off for me at first, but after a few paged I warmed up to it, and it really seemed to fit the book. He is very good at creating a mood, and it was a different feel for Robin, but I liked it overall.
So yeah, disappointed overall in this issue. It got off to a really weak start, and ended up getting a little bit better, but that first page really dragged it down. But I have faith in Willingham to turn it around again.
