Comments

1. froggulper says:

   March 2, 2011 at 6:56 pm

   Good review. You summarize a lot of my misgivings with this series. I’ve dipped into Red Robin a few times due to the EXCESSIVE blanket praise I’ve heard about it. Everytime I read an issue of it, I see so many logical problems and cliches. It’s not “bad”, but very, very pedestrian. The sort of series that can only be enjoyed if you have a predisposed devotion to the lead character, and then only if you turn your critical reasoning off and overlook characterizations and logistics that are very off-model and flawed.

   What’s really ironic (as you sort of hinted at) is that Red Robin is very compromised and nonsensical on the level of strict continuity (out-of-character turns, lack of development, continuity contradictions, etc.), and yet those who seem to be the biggest fans of the series are those who follow Tim Drake very closely. Personally, I’m not devoted to Tim Drake, so the bad characterizations don’t insult me on a personal level. But I read things critically (not “negatively”, but “with a critical awareness”), and Red Robin seems very compromised and pedestrian to me. It’s totally beside-the-point; it breaks no new ground and is pointless beyond the surface level of “Oh look here’s something kinda fun to read for five minutes and then forget about.”

   Log in to Reply
2. Franktiger says:

   March 5, 2011 at 9:16 pm

   @froggulper  yea, I also have a “critical awareness” that is almost inherent in my reading, not negative like you point out.  This different from how I read comics when I was a little kid and my big bro would bring home Uncanny X-Men every now and then, I think it’s that I hadn’t developed a critical sense on things in comics as of yet, and what was in that book in particular was just what was, like it couldn’t go wrong.

   Thanks for being a ‘thinking reader’ like me.

   Log in to Reply