Robin: Days of Fire and Madness

From the cover, it appears that Robin has teamed with Shadowpact. And while the Boy Wonder does join forces with Blue Devil and Ragman, the alliance is nowhere near the focus of this volume as the cover image would lead you to believe.

Instead, Tim Drake is recruited by a special forces unit comprised of metas and war legends. The descendants of the Losers and Enemy Ace are a part of this team. As is a special Weird War Tales/Land That Time Forgot character. Plus there is the mysterious leader: The Veteran. Nobody really knows who he is. Batman says that he's just a legend made up by the war department; "always the last person to die in a war." Sgt. Rock supposedly was killed by the last bullet fired in World War II, so my bet is on him! Only now with enhanced powers and abilities.

The secondary story has a long thought dead romance of Tim Drake's returning from the grave. A demon holds her fate in the palm of it's hands. In typical Batman fashion, the resurrected lover can be with Tim Drake again if she kills Robin! Drake's solution to this pickle is both clever and funny!

Heck, there were a lot of funny moments in this book!

I find myself trying to choose between the Robin and the Nightwing series of the late 90s/early 2000s. I'm trying to make a little bit of room in my collection. I really thought Robin would be the one to go. But after this wild ride, I am thinking that Dick Grayson may have to say adios. 

A wonderful collection of stories by Fables creator Bill Willingham with really striking art by Green Arrow's Scott McDaniel. This and the rest of my Robin collection is definitely a keeper!

Worth Consuming!

Rating: 8 out of 10 stars.

DC Comics Presents: Green Lantern #1

A tribute issue in honor of the passing of the great Julius Schwartz, long-time EIC of DC Comics. Schwartz was known for having concept covers drawn up and then would assign writers to use that idea for use in a forthcoming issue of said title.

Here, artists and writers such as Brian Azzarello, Brian Bolland, and Scott McDaniel devise two potential tales in which Green Lantern might have reason to sell copies of his power rings for only a buck each. (That my friends is a steal.)

The best of the two stories is the first, which is set during the 60s and has the Emerald Warrior on the hunt for Gorilla Grodd. The second tale has Green Lantern and Green Arrow teaming up to stop a renegade toy seller from profiting on fake Lantern rings using shoddy work conditions and child labor. The internal conflict of Hal Jordan just doesn’t seem plausible. In just about everything I’ve read on GL, Jordan loved his dad. But in this tale, Mr. Jordan is a boozer and has led to Hal having rage issues. I just don’t see that. Maybe the writer got Jordan confused with Guy Gardner?

Worth Consuming.

Rating: 7 out of 10 stars.