Written by: Peter J Tomasi
Art by: Patrick Gleason
Publisher: DC
Still no sign of Robin, but what a fantastic issue nevertheless.
This series has gone from strength to strength since the death of Damian and has been slowly heating up the past couple of issues leading towards what I hope will be a fantastic climax. There is no reason to think otherwise as Tomasi and Gleason have continued to produce an excellent narrative and visual with some fantastic character work and dialogue.
The opening of this issue was a real cathartic point for those that have been following not only this series but also the Death of the Family arc. Bruce’s meeting with the bat-family was purely stripped back of everything and honesty to the bones. It was written so well and compared to the action packed previous issue, really brought home the effect of Damian’s death not only on Bruce but on the family as a whole. This really sat well for me as Damian Rises or Robin Rises really feels like a father searching for his child, a true family story, so it was nice to see how the family reunited to draw a close to the internal struggles they were feeling towards Bruce.
The rest of the issue was really just straightforward and predictable but that didn’t take anything away from how exciting it was to see it played out and there was another fantastic confrontation between Lex and Bruce. Lex on the Justice League has really made for a fantastic dynamic that has been taken advantage already by Geoff Johns in Justice League, and Tomasi does just as well in this issue.
The art is this issue was truly a treat and Gleason once again proves he is just a fantastic drawer of emotion. He truly captures each characters state of feeling and portrays it so well to us as the reader. Not only do the little things look great but there are a couple of fantastic flash pages in this issue too which truly stand out as some of the best work in this series to date.
Robin Rises continues to grow in excitement despite the lack of action in this issue. However, this lack of action was needed to get to the bare bones of what this story is about – Family – and this issue really packed its punches with getting us as the reader to understand that. The only bad point now is that we have to wait till October to read the next part, Sad days!
