Robin: Son of Batman #3 Review and *SPOILERS*

Written By: Patrick Gleason
Art By: Patrick Gleason, Mick Gray, John Kalisz
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: August 19, 2015

Rubbing Off On Nobody

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Damian continues his atonement for his Year of Blood that his mother and grandfather put him through before he became a hero under his father's tutelage.  In the previous issue we saw Damian on one such Quantum Leap like mission where he was trying to put right something that he once wronged and during this quest, he was met by the daughter of Nobody, the merc that Damian killed at the beginning of Batman and Robin.  Seeking vengeance for her father's death, this new Nobody planned on taking Damian's head, but seeing the good that the Boy Wonder was doing made her hold off her vengeance so she could help him along his way so at least something good could come out of the Al Ghul bloodline........... after Damian is done his journey though, she totally plans on killing him.  So we've got the son of Batman, the daughter of Nobody and a big ass bat monster as we continue this series and see what Damian plans on fixing next.  Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

Our issue begins with Damian, Nobody and Goliath trying to escape from the people he was trying to do good by, but I guess the fact that they showed up with these people's most precious gem and them remembering this monster of a child stealing it in the first place, I guess they have a right to shoot arrows first and ask questions later.  This whole scene is to let people in on the idea that Damian and Nobody don't get along and that neither will budge an inch in proving that one is better than the other.  Eventually though, the two escape when Damian let's the gem go and their pursuers seem happy enough to simply go back to their lives with their most precious of treasures returned to them.  The tension between our two heroes is finally broken when they fight their anger out, where Nobody gets a lucky shot in and knocks Damian's tooth out........... which leads to the two actually bonding a bit over Nobody making fun of Damian for still having baby teeth.  This is a really nice moment because we see how Damian has grown as a character and how he doesn't let something silly like being ribbed about baby teeth result in another fight.

After the two calm down, we see that Nobody has a bad ass stealth ship and that she plans on continuing her father's contracts that are still active with his partner and Damian proves yet again how much he's changed as a character when he begins trying to talk Nobody, who we find out in this moment is named Maya, out of this life that was built for her because she can be whoever she wants to be.  It's a touching moment, especially when we learn that the reason that Maya hated Damian so much........ you know, besides for the whole killing her father thing, is because of the interest that her father Henri Ducard showed towards Damian.  With this retrospective moment about who her father was and who she wants to be, Maya sends her father's partner a message that she quits....... or actually that her father quits because besides for her, Damian and Batman, no one knows that Nobody is dead.

In the end, we see a mysterious figure doing some marble magic over top of Talia Al Ghul.  It seems that he's trying to unlock her memory and his mumbo jumbo actually works and Talia remembers her son and everything that led up to her death, but with her memories intact, she isn't about to let some two bit witch doctor hold any power over her and quickly takes him out.  So we have Talia back in play now and as the issue closes we see that Nobody's former partner isn't too keen on quitters, which makes sense because I've never known Deathstroke to quit.  That's right folks, Slade Wilson is entering the story and Damian's atonement seems like it might find a few more obstacles from here on out.

That's it for this issue of Robin: Son of Batman and while I really enjoyed this touching tale of two youths becoming friends and overcoming the cards that have been dealt to them, the art in this book really made it hard to get into.  Normally, I'm a huge fan of Patrick Gleason's art and I don't know if it's because he's busy writing the series as well as penciling it, but the art seems to be suffering from what I know this artist to be capable of.  Also, due to the panel layout and the amount of word balloons in this issue, everything seems clustered and because of this the enjoyment level for this issue goes down.  So while this story really has some touching moments and expands on the growth of Damian Wayne, the art makes this issue hard to follow at times and it doesn't come off as good as it might have been.

Bits and Pieces:

I love the idea of Damian growing as a character in this series, but with Patrick Gleason on both writing and penciling duties, it feels like he might have bit off more than he can chew because the art really suffers in this book and that's a shame because the story really felt like it might have been something great if only it had been portrayed better.  

6/10