Robin: Son of Batman #4 Review and *SPOILERS*

Written By: Patrick Gleason
Art By: Patrick Gleason, Mick Gray, John Kalisz, Tom Napolitano
Cover Price: $2.99
Release Date: September 16, 2015

Let's Beat Up Children

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Robin's up to his ears in atoning for his Year of Blood and while his constant attempts in righting the wrongs he once committed might sound tedious and a bit boring........ well, they are getting a little old, but hopefully the tedium will be relieved with his new partner Maya Ducard, who happens to be the daughter of the assassin Nobody from the first story arc of Batman and Robin.......who Damian totally killed.  Yeah, the friendship isn't quite there yet, but it has room to blossom.  As we saw in the previous issue, the new Nobody decided that she didn't want to follow in her father's footsteps and contacted her father's old partner to tell him that she's calling it quits.......which to the partner meant that her father was and I guess since we're getting the partner in this book and that it happens to be Deathstroke, I guess it's safe to assume that Slade isn't a fan of quitters.  So let's jump into this issue and see if we can catch a glimpse of an old fashioned child ass whoopin'........ that's a thing everyone wants to see right?  I know it can't just be me........ Let's check it out.

Explain It!:

We begin our issue with seeing what a right bastard Damian once was before he began living with his father and getting some proper manners down.  It seems that during Damian's Year of Blood, he returned from collecting his treasures and his servant......you know, being a servant and all decided that he would take the items inside, but I guess one of the big "no no's" on the island is walking in on Ra's pouring blood over himself.... The Al Ghul family are a bunch of freaks.  Since the servant sinned with this eyes, his eyes themselves are the punishment and even though Damian could grant his man-servant mercy, he let the punishment be fulfilled and to this day........the man that still helps and serves Damian is blind.  Kids are the worst.  None of that really does anything for the story since we all know that Damian was and still can be at times a little shit so let's move on to the actual story.

It's time to return some canopic jars to a secret tomb in Egypt and even though this has hints of Indiana Jones to it with the traps that are involved in getting to the secret rooms, because of muddy art and Deathstroke showing up and uncharacteristically all about killing children, this issue comes off flat and lacking in the fun that I thought this setting would give us.  I mean, I loved Patrick Gleason's art throughout the Batman and Robin run but here it just runs together and it might be because of the coloring being so dark, but I had a hard time trying to understand what was going on throughout this issue, especially during the action scenes and since wanting to see Robin take on Deathstroke solo was a big drawl to this book, it's really disappointing.  So yeah, Deathstroke has tracked down Maya and it's funny because even before Deathstroke unmasked her, he totally should have realized that the Nobody he knew didn't have the body type of pre-teen girl, but still it came as a shock to him when Maya's mask was pulled.

In the end, Damian came to Maya's rescue and after what was probably a pretty cool fight that I couldn't really see or understand, Damian offers to pay Deathstroke for his time and transfers Five Million Dollars into his account....... You know, since it beats dying and all.  After receiving the money, Slade quickly leaves and our issue ends with Damian returning the canopic jars and finding a secret entrance at the bottom of the tomb that leads to an active Lazarus Pit.

That's it for this issue of Robin: Son of Batman and believe me when I say that I wanted to love this book because I personally love every Robin character and have been begging for a Robin book for a long time, but sadly this isn't giving me something that I can really sink my eye teeth into........ you know, because I'm looking at it......yeah.  Damian running around the world returning items that he once stole, while we get constant reminders of how he wasn't always a good little boy just gets tiresome and with Patrick Gleason's art seeming to be taking a hit due to his writing, this series just feels like a missed opportunity to actually tell a Robin story instead of a "Hey, you all know Damian is a screwed up kid" story.  If a uninteresting story and sub par art and colors weren't bad enough, Deathstroke came off really weird in this book as well.  I know he's The Terminator and all that, but after he makes a comment referring to his own daughter in this and us knowing from Deathstroke's own series how torn up he's been about his failings as a father, you'd think that he wouldn't be all about killing his old partner's daughter like it was nothing.  It just came off really weird and if any of you give me this story over continuity nonsense, I'll pitch a fit.  Just a very underwhelming issue to a very underwhelming series....... which is so sad because I really wanted this book to be great.

Bits and Pieces:

It's so hard to like a book where you can't really understand what's going on in the panels and sadly, that's what's going on here.  We've got another return the treasure story going on and even though it comes with a cameo appearance of Deathstroke taking on Robin...... You'll be lucky to understand everything that goes on because the colors are just so dark and the panels aren't able to tell a fluid story.  Besides for Deathstroke though, it's just more of the same and the same is getting boring.

4/10