Batman and Robin #23, Red Robin #23, and Batgirl #21 (7/11)

Okay, I've learned something in the last little while. There's no way I'll be able to keep up the little reviews that I've been doing for the past few comics I've read. Especially when classes start back up in August. And there are plenty of good comic book review sites out there. So henceforth unless something really strikes me about a specific issue, my blogging about my comics habit is going to be confined to just logging in the issues as I read them. It may just be cover and issue title. Maybe a couple more words but not always or even usually.

“The Streets Run Red, Part 1 of 3: Ins and Outs”

This issue is more about Jason Todd, the erstwhile second Robin who got beaten to death with a crowbar by the Joker, got all better, and came back as a psychotic murderous vigilante called the Red Hood, than it is Batman (Dick or Bruce – both appear) and Robin. I've never been a big fan of Jason Todd in any capacity – as Robin (I voted for him to die in the infamous phone poll that determined his fate back in the 1980s), or as the Red Hood (although the story of his return did serve as the basis for a very good Direct-to-DVD animated movie a while back). I suspect it's really all about setting up whatever is going to be that September Red Hood and the Outlaws title. I won't be getting it. Pity that the last arc of this run of Batman and Robin, the last we'll see Dick and Damian working together at least in that relationship, is given over to that.

Okay, so I wrote more than a couple of words on that one.

“7 Days of Death, Part One: Little Triggers”

I am going to miss this title. Tim Drake has, for me, been the best of the Robins. While I detest the name “Red Robin,” I love the character and fear for what's coming, when he'll apparently be relegated to the ranks of some new and punk looking Teen Titans. Makes reading this issue quite bittersweet. I'll just have to enjoy it while it lasts.

“The Lesson: Unchained Melody” (art by Dustin Nguyen, not Pere Perez)

Another title I'll miss. At least Tim seems to have landed in Teen Titans. Stephanie Brown is nowhere to be seen in the new DC for September. Barbara Gordon will be Batgirl. I love Gail Simone; I love Barbara Gordon. But I don't want to lose Bryan Q. Miller's Stephanie Brown Batgirl. This title, when it started almost two years ago, turned out to be a surprise little hit, with remarkably good stories combining action and humor. It was consistently fun. I hope that sense of fun will be present somewhere in the new DC.

By the way, that cover by Dustin Nguyen is fantastic and deserves to be seen unobscured by the cover copy: