I have a confession… Robin is my favorite Teen Titan. So, I couldn’t wait to dig into this book and was delighted that we got not only one, but two Robins – including my absolute favorite, the original Robin: Dick Grayson.
The note at the top of this book from Kami Garcia and Gabriel Picolo is a bit different than the earlier ones; it thanks Marv Wolfman and George Pérez, creators of the Teen Titans characters Raven, Cyborg, Starfire, and Dick Grayson/Nightwing. It’s not only a nod to the inspiring nature of these characters, but reassurance to any creative – aspiring or established – that what they create can touch countless others. To invoke a sentiment from fellow nerd Matt Mercer, we don’t know the impact our creations will have on others – who they’ll touch, what they’ll become – but if we share them and allow our passions to be a beacon for others, we can find each other, and that’s a win for everyone – especially us weirdos looking to belong.
Since Garcia and Picolo are working with these established characters, they have to strike a balance between staying true to the heart of who these characters are – mostly in service to their original creators and fans of the characters – and offering a new perspective and take on them to draw in new readers and make their stories relevant today. It can be a delicate tightrope to walk, especially if you truly adore the characters you’re creating new stories for and want to do them justice. I, for one, believe they both succeed on this front and all of us benefit.
Robin continues where Beast Boy Loves Raven left off by exploring further how the group functions and relates to each other. The first two books gave us a deep dive into Raven and Gar as individuals and a bit of a “before” snapshot. But now as the teens meet and team up to discover why they’re being pursued, we get a juicy look at relationship dynamics and specifically sibling tension.
I love sibling drama, and I love an estranged siblings trope where one desperately wants to connect and the other doesn’t. We’re typically slotted to empathize with the one who wants to bridge the connection – in this case, Dick – but we usually understand why the other is resistant. And we do here. Sure, the kids are on the run and trying to figure out what Slade and H.I.V.E want with them, but to me, the juiciest thing in this book is the sibling drama and angst. The emotional story is always the hook for me.
Having met Damian in the previous book, he’s not what we would call “likeable” – a critique that’s often a death sentence for any creator trying to launch a project. But not every character has to be likable. Hell, not all of them even have to be relatable. But we should at least understand them. And to Garcia’s credit, she’s able to get us to understand both Damian and Dick, not only through their actions, but through their inner thoughts. Once again, this useful comic narrative device allows us to understand Dick and Damian’s motivations so that we’re left in that delightful space of feeling like neither one is one hundred percent right or wrong while also yelling at them to just hug and make up already.
Dick, by contrast, is completely likable. He’s charismatic, charming, and good looking – granted all of Picolo’s characters are good looking. I swear, that man only draws beautiful things, but I digress… When we first meet Dick, he literally risks his life to save someone, so yeah, he’s totally set up as a hero we want to root for. Beyond that, he shows genuine concern for Damian – granted, planting a tracking device on someone without their knowledge or consent is… questionable, but we give Dick a pass because we know he did it out of worry. Dick reiterates that all he wants to do is get to know Damian and have a relationship with him, and my heart just melts at that. Of course, we’re going to empathize with this sweet guy who tries his best to always do the right thing and look out for others. Honestly, he’s got a bit of golden retriever energy to him.
That energy (among other things) totally turns Damian off. Damian sees Dick as his replacement, the more palatable version of himself. Damian feels unwanted by both his parents, so of course he’d lash out. I mean, if you’d never met one of your parents, were suddenly dropped off at their house and greeted by the kid they adopted, would you want to be friends with that kid? I don’t think I would, I’d feel just like Damian: abandoned, rejected. And what easier way to avoid that kind of emotional pain than to reject people before they can reject you? Translation: Damian wants nothing to do with Dick. As much as we may want these two to just get along, we know that road will be a difficult one.
Making this road more difficult is the contempt Damian has for Dick. This is very shaky ground to build a strong relationship. In fact, renowned relationship researchers John and Julie Gottman note that contempt is the most destructive negative behavior in relationships. Sure, they mainly focus on couples, but their research can translate to any relationship. It takes two people to make a relationship of any kind work, and when one person is adamantly unwilling, it can wear down even the most optimistic person. It’s a conundrum, because on one hand, we admire Dick for wanting to build this connection, but we also question whether it’s actually good for Dick to want a relationship with someone who clearly wants nothing to do with him.
While Dick and Damian’s relationship serves as the main emotional core of the book, plot wise, our characters are hunkering down and hiding, which means… training montage! We get to watch everyone learn to control their powers (or temper in Damian’s case) and it’s balanced nicely with wholesome moments of them all just being teens. It sets up a lovely progression for each of them where we can actually see how far they’ve come in such a short amount of time. Damian being Damian, he doesn’t think he has much training to do, but Max calls him out on this – he needs to work on his people skills. That realization is one of the reasons Dick aggravates Damian so much. Dick gets along with everyone easily. Damian does not. Dick is a reminder of everything Damian isn’t. Where Dick is open, Damian is closed off.
Damian’s defensiveness isn’t just a response to the sense of abandonment from feeling like he was replaced by Dick, but a reaction and overcompensation to the fact that he doesn’t have any supernatural powers like the others. Though Damian comes off as boastful, cocky, and arrogant, underneath he feels insecure, like he’ll never be on their level, and like he constantly needs to prove himself. It only gets worse when it seems like Dick is effortlessly winning over Damian’s friends. There’s a great moment where Dick connects with Max that illustrates how we, as humans, are meaning-making creatures and how the stories we tell ourselves are often more influential than what is actually happening.
Dick confides in Max that he’s not trying to take Damian’s place and just wants to get to know his brother. Damian sees them getting close, but he doesn’t actually hear their conversation, so the story he tells himself (that supports the narrative he has about Dick) is that Dick is trying to charm Max away from him. We know the truth, but in this moment, Damian’s truth is what he believes about the situation and what he’s telling himself. Our brains love to be proven right, it’s confirmation bias. So, since Damian already dislikes Dick, you can bet that his brain is looking for evidence that Dick really is trying to take his place and prove that he’s better than Damian.
Despite all this, we’ve seen that Damian does actually want to connect with the others, especially Max, but his anger and defensiveness gets in the way. It often seems like one step forward, two steps back with him. Thankfully, Damian does grow in this regard. His personality doesn’t get a complete overhaul – nor should it – but he’s able to loosen his grip slightly and let people in through the cracks he creates – which is a much more believable trajectory.
Visually, Picolo does it again, his art is stunning. All the characters look incredible. The separate training sequences build nicely off each other, and we feel very satisfied with where each character ends up. There are also some lovely reaction shots after emotionally charged scenes that literally made me gasp, cringe, and my heart get stuck in my throat. Let’s be honest, I love the stories in these books, but without Picolo’s art, I don’t think I would be as drawn to them.
There’s a great moment where Picolo shows a literal physical connection between Dick and Damian that symbolizes the beginning of their bond forming – at least for Damian who has been the hesitant one, Dick’s already been all in. There’s also a great visual homage to the poster image of the 1988 anime Akira, recreated with Dick and his car. It looks incredible.
In Robin, Garcia and Picolo continue their excellent storytelling by amping up the physical and emotional danger and showing us unique relationship dynamics that will keep readers eager to explore the rest of the series.
Creative Team: Kami Garcia (writer), Gabriel Picolo (artist), Rob Haynes (artist), David Calderon (colorist), Wes Abbott (letterer)
Publisher: DC Comics
Click here to purchase.
