Red Robin/Batgirl - Collision Review (Spoiler Warning)

Hey, Hello, Hola, and Bienvenidos. Once again I'd like to welcome everyone to my Red Hood. So, if you're like me, last year's Battle For The Cowl started a bunch of interesting things you were looking forward to. Sure Jason turned "evil", and Damian became Robin, and Dick became Bats which we all predicted, but two more things happened. Tim Drake became the Red Robin, and Stephanie Brown became the new Batgirl. Batgirl, written by Bryan Q. Miller quickly became one of the best monthly comics, bringing seriousness and a fun tone, as well as making everyone, even Damian likable. Red Robin written by Christopher Yost quickly became one of the worst monthly comics in my opinion, even to the point some of my fellow bloggers decided to drop the series. So, what happens when you take one of the best and one of the worst series, with two characters who have history comparable to Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon? That's what we find out in Red Robin/Batgirl - Collision. (By the way I'm very happy with this opening paragraph.)

Collision takes place in Batgirl #8, and Red Robin #'s 10, 11, and 12, which is why he gets top billing of course. Our story starts with Batgirl and Red Robin running into one another in the recently abandoned by Batman but re-bandoned (?) by Oracle and Batgirl. Tim is upset to find Steph still "playing dress-up" as he calls it. After some bonding, if you can call it that, Tim lets it spill that Ra's Al Ghul and the League of Assassins are after Bruce Wayne's friends and allies and Doctor Leslie. After kicking some assassin butt and saving the good Doctor, Tim and Steph share a romantic moment on a rooftop while in costume, intil the part is crashed by Prudence a.k.a. Pru, a former member of Ra's League of Assasins. Pru tells Tim that she was hired to kill Stephanie Brown, before pulling a gun out and pointing it right into Stephanie's face. Steph then proceeds to lay down an all-star Smackdown onto Pru that would make Bruce Wayne do a double take. After Steph is done beating Pru senseless, we find out the gun wasn't loaded and Pru came to help Tim, because she owed him one.

Meanwhile, we see that Ra's has come to Gotham, and he's looking for an audience, with Thomas Elliot. Ra's tells Hush, he want's everything Bruce Wayne has. We also see both Vickie Vale and Tamara Fox looking desperately for Timothy Drake/Wayne together, little do they know their being hunted by Ra's Al Ghul's assassins. At the same time, the power in the Batcave is disconnected and we see two more of Ra's assasins jumping down a rope to enter the Batcave and attack Barbara Gordon. After an dodging an explosion back at one of Tim's weapon cache's in Gotham, Red Robin, Batgirl, and Pru come face to face with Ra's best assassins, The Seven Men of Death, which is an odd name because one is a woman. Also, why the hell are the X-Men called that when they have women on the team? But I digress, after an amazing fight scene with the Seven Men of Death and Red Robin, Batgirl and Prudence, the heroes escape on Batgirl's "Ricochet" Motorcycle thing. Tim hooks one of the Seven and drags him away so he and Pru can beat some answers out of him. Steph leaves to make sure Oracle is okay. Right outside of Wayne Manor, Vicki Vale and Tam Fox are running after being shot at by the assassin sent by Ra's.

While Red Robin and Pru interrogate their hostage, Gotham's Finest, Batman and Robin arrive on the scene. Damian makes a hilarious joke about Red Robin having some decency and getting a longer skirt. Damian eventually recognizes Pru as one of his grandfather's assassin's and attacks her before Red Robin SLAMS him harder than necessary, which made this comic worth the price of purchase. Vicki and Tam pull one over on the assassin and Vicki clocks him with a shovel. Vale then grills Tam about Drake and asks what's his big secret? Tam quickly answers, covering for Tim who she knows is Red Robin, "We're engaged!" The assassin wakes up in time to grab Vale from behind and hold a knife to her neck, but she's luckily saved by Batgirl. Red Robin tells Batman to trust him and do as he asks, Batman agrees to do so and Red Robin tells him to wait for his call. Finally we see Ra's assassins ready to strike on each intended target. The targets are all unaware of the danger surrounding them. The targets include Damian Wayne, Dick Grayson, Barbara Gordon, Alfred Pennyworth, Lucius Fox, Stephanie Brown, Vicki Vale, Julie Madison, Selina Kyle, and Jim Gordon.

Our final book starts with Ra's wondering why no one can find Red Robin. Maybe that's because he's behind ya big guy. Ra's tells Tim his efforts are futile because even if one person survives the others will die. Red Robin takes a walkie talkie off of a guard he knocked out and says "Report." The Walkie Talkie answers "Hey, Ra's. How's it going?" We see that the intended targets have been saved by allies of Tim Drake, either former Teen Titan partners or other Gotham heroes. Superboy having saved Alfred Pennyworth, Kid Flash helping Catwoman, Mahunter and Jim Gordon, Batgirl who was still with Vale and Tam Fox, Huntress with Lucius Fox, Manbat saving a freaked out Julie Madison, Wonder Girl... attempting to save Oracle who saved herself and Batman and Robin who beat up the Ninjas that attacked them. Prompting Damian to chime in with "Really, Grandfather? Ninja? I'm insulted" as Batman swings off. Ra's is shocked that Red Robin was a step ahead of him, and Tim tells him "Did you think I was going to run all around the city, desperately trying to save everyone all by myself? I'm not Batman. I have friends." Tim shows that he's never trusted Ra's and has been gathering information for a while now. Ra's angrily attacks Tim, and Tim knows he can't beat Ra's. He mentions that Ra's can take Bruce to a stalemate and has been around forever and knows all types of fighting styles, so Tim just tries to survive. It's shown that Tim has been stalling to give Lucius time to prepare the paper work. He tales Ra's today he became an emancipated minor, and as of right now he is the controlling shareholder of Wayne Enterprises. He says Bruce knew that just in case something happened to him, that Hush could steal his Legacy, so left work to Lucius that if he started spending recklessly, to transfer his majority shares to Tim. He knew that Hush was going to transfer everything of Bruce's to Ra's after a simple threat, so he beat him to the punch. After finding this out, Ra's tells Tim, "Well done, Detective." before kicking him out of the building window. As Tim falls, satisfied in stopping Ra's Al Ghul, he is saved by Dick Grayson in mid-air.

Tim wakes up surrounded bt Steph, Dick, Damian and Alfred. Tim tells Dick he knew he'd save him, because he's his brother. Stephanie then asks him if he forgot to tell her anything. Tim looks confused as Damian gives him a newspaper and says "Congratulations, you dog." Tim opens the newspaper to see the headline "Engaged: Teen Wayne Heir Tim Drake to wed older woman" by Vicki Vale. A confused Tim askes, how long was he out for. Tim is later shown swinging around Gotham, with some alterations made to the Red Robin costume, claiming he's redeemed the honor of it, and it's no longer a punishment. Next, we see Ra's talking to a woman with a hood on saying Tim Drake passed every one of his tests, and "He will produce a worthy heir." Lastly, we come across an angered Tim Drake from a year ago after being told Damian was replacing him as Robin. He breaks a portrait on the wall of "Mordecai Wayne" and recognizes him as Bruce. The last thing we see, is Tim saying, "He's Alive." As we finally know what sent him around the world looking for proof that Bruce was lost in time.


Damn that was a long review. You owe me X! But really, I enjoyed reading this crossover, and I thought it did a good job of showing Tim finally come into his own. We also got to see why Tim has been so adamant that Bruce was alive. Sadly, Yost couldn't keep this going since the beginning because I really enjoyed this crossover. Now that Red Robin is getting a new writer I can only hope that Tim continues to grow and show that he definitely belongs to stand side by side with Dick and Bruce.  I very much so enjoyed seeing the growth between Tim and Steph as well, and I hope they get back together and don't get the run-around like Babs and Dick. With that said, I'll give this entire crossover a solid 8/10 rating and I'd recommend it to anyone who's a fan of Tim, Steph or just a good comic.

Also, below you can see the results of last week's poll. This weeks poll is going to be a little different, I had so may picks that I decided this week we'll have two polls so be sure to vote on them both. And below are the results of the last poll which was "Which character would you like to see star in their own Video game?"

Last place with 10% - Once again a Speedster falls behind, The Flash.
3rd Place with 20%  - The Cap falls back as well, Captain America.
2nd Place with 30%  - Our favorite Amazonian, Wonder Woman.
The Winner with 40% - The Emerald Archer, Green Arrow should get his own video game. No Boxing glove arrows!!!!

And that said, looks like I'm done for the day. I'll be back for a huge edition of Ratings and Rantings later this week, and a review of Wolverine: Enemy of The State as requested by Marc, as well as a new poll next weekend. Until then, you've just been Gobsmacked!

- Jason Todd