Here He Comes

In spite of not having Dick Grayson’s charisma or Damian Wayne’s fighting ability, Tim Drake could arguably be considered the best Robin. The consummate student, his multi-faceted approach to crime-fighting makes him a perfect sidekick to Batman.

However, as time rolls on and Bruce Wayne finds out he has a son, one who is content to take over the Robin-persona, Tim is pushed out of the crime-fighting family and forced to create a whole new alter ego to fight baddies.

Enter Red Robin.

“Red Robin:Collision,” written by Chris Yost and illustrated by Marcus To and Ray McCarthy, takes us on Drake’s initial journey to get comfortable in his new costume. Working alongside Ra’s Al Ghul, Drake is the only person who believes Bruce Wayne is still alive and is using any resources he can to get his adopted father and former crime-fighting companion back home.

Filled with small moments of wit, cunning and intrigue, Drake, thanks to the writing of Yost, comes into his own quite quickly. And why wouldn’t he? Unlike Grayson, Todd and Wayne, Drake actually listened to his teacher. As a result, you have a trade that feels a lot like a Batman story, but is unmistakably Drake. Anyone who thinks this trade was going to be a quick cash-in on a new character will be won over after the first few chapters, where Drake shows amazing detective skills and a fighting style that Batman himself would be proud of. Add in a nice little love story, or two and there’s plenty of drama here to keep you reading.

Rich fighting scenes by To and McCarthy bring the writing alive and showcase this young hero that needs to make every moment count. Smaller and younger than all of his enemies, Drake constantly has the odds stacked against him. However, thanks to his training, he usually comes out on top. The ways he does though never get old, thanks to Yost and the art team, who could have made fight after fight repetitive and bland.

Instead, you have a trade that never lets up and ends up making the crime-fighting family of the caped crusader a little bigger, but in the process stronger than ever.

Red Robin has arrived.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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