Robin Rises: Omega #1 Review: Let Sleeping Birds....
Reading time: 2 minutes
Robin Rises: Omega #1 is neither a bad comic nor is it a groundbreaking one. What it is, however, is a mostly fun storyline full of big heady action to keep readers engaged. The plot is simple. Batman's biological son and sidekick Damian Wayne is dead and under the possession of one of Batman's greatest enemies; Ra's Al Ghul. When Batman learns of the news, he and Frankenstein leap into pursuit of the one-and-only son of Batman. The cliffhangers for the end of the last issue involved a third party who wanted the corpse of Damian for completely different reasons. This issue is essentially one big scene with all three factions warring against each other deep within Pnanda Parbat.
What makes this comic more than a couple of action figures bashing against each other is Pete Tomasi's deft written dialogue and characterization. The nuances between dialogue of characters like Frankenstein and Batman makes this tale more than just a dull action sequence. The dynamics between the different heroes are well crafted and played out between the pages. There are also a couple of really smart ideas in the midst of combat that make for another fun way to shake up the combat-heavy issue. There is another major problem which persists in the back half of this massive 40-page issue; and that is some of Batman's emotional material ringing false to his character.
After feeling less than satisfied with the work of artist Andy Kubert lately, I was happy to see the artist in rare form here. He looked as if he had plenty of time to polish off his pencils as he was working in between other projects. Also, seeing so many different heroes onscreen without a lack of quality drop was a really special moment. If we can get some pages like this from the artist that are detailed, clean, and elegant, I am going to hold this artist to an even higher standard going forward. These pages never feel cluttered or uninspired.
This comes in the middle of some other poor decisions that DC has made to heroes like Superman and so on. It is hard to not read this comic through excluding the history of the DC universe, especially because of some of the guest stars in the back of the issue, and the fact that this story is supposed to bleed out into the greater DC world. More importantly, the scene in question probably should have been edited down. Aside from that bit of sloppy characterization, there is a lot of goodwill that is built in this extra-large comic book story.
This is also a nice beginning to a storyline that will continue on Batman and Robin. I can see this comic in particular picking up lots of lapsed readers in the comic. Making the story a number one issue will make this the perfect point to jump in on the story, as long as you are somewhat familiar with the ongoing cast of heroes.
Even though there are some slight setbacks here, overall this comic is just entertaining enough for me to enjoy the action despite some of the problems. This is great pencilling work from Kubert and mostly strong writing from Tomasi.
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