We Are Robin Vol. 1: The Vigilante Business

I’m not sure if this series was inspired by the Spider-Verse in Marvel comics which sees hundred of variants on Spider-Man from a variety of parallel Earths. Maybe the premise was inspired by The Dark Knight Returns. There, a female character decides to take on the mantel of Robin despite Batman’s reluctance to accept her.

In this story, there are hundreds of Robins who have done the same thing, except they don’t seem to work with the Batman at all. Instead, they team up to fight evil. It’s not as intriguing as the Spider-Verse and I’m not sure it works. Too many vigilantes could be just as much a problem as too much crime in Gotham.

There is also the question of who is organizing this force, known as Nest. Some of the Robins work together and are given tips via text message. Many of them believe that Batman is guiding them through the messages.

The newest recruit is Duke Thomas. He hopes that by becoming a new Robin and joining the group, he will be able to find his missing parents. Instead he helps to uncover a conspiracy that threatens the entire city. It’s now up to a group of untrained teenagers to save the city.

Behind all of this is how dangerous is it to dawn the mantel of Robin. Being Robin is dangerous. Robins die. And that is no different in this series.

I wasn’t totally captivated by this book and am not sure I will read more of it. It just didn’t have the magic that the Spider-Verse had. Those characters have a charm to them that many of these Robins do not. Maybe this would have worked better with an A-list hero and not a side-kick. Hundreds of wanna-be sidekicks doesn’t really do it for me.

My List of 2018 Reads – continually updated all year long.