“I am Robin. Son of Batman. And that’s all you need to know!”
— Patrick Gleason, Robin: Son of Batman (Volume 1) Year of Blood
Leave it to Patrick Gleason to transform some of the most unique character’s in the Batman universe into unrecognizable and typical individuals. Robin: Son of Batman is a series that rose from the dead after Damian Wayne went through a whole ordeal regarding his life. Collecting issues 1 to 6, volume 1 explores the story behind the Year of Blood, a trial that Damian went through during his earlier and darker days under the watchful eyes of his mother. After his reappearance into the game and his countless lessons under the wings of Batman, Robin seeks to undo the evil that he had unraveled by going through a phase of atonement/redemption. As he attempts to set things back to the way they were prior to his trial, he quickly runs into countless obstacles, including a girl with a vengeance, Nobody.
Now, this adventure is far from being a solo quest by Robin. Where’s the fun in that, right? During this story arc you’ll be acquainted to a giant hairy red creature with wings, also referred to as a Man-Bat. The relationship between Robin and this creature is under development but the story behind it will slowly be unveiled in bits and pieces. Nobody also gets introduced and developed on the side and will quickly become an important side-character to Robin’s quest. The story also dives into multiple storylines without shame or restraint in order to give us a better understanding of how much Damian has changed from his past life. Patrick Gleason doesn’t make anything easy for the eyes or the brain as the story ends up feeling like a giant colourful mess instead of a coherent, well-structured and clever plot.
What defines Damian Wayne and distinguishes him from the other Robin’s is his size and personality. For a little guy, he can be one of the most rude and savage character in the Batman universe. However, Patrick Gleason succeeds in taking away everything that made him original and transformed him into a typical tech-savy and wordy character. It doesn’t help that every other staple character goes through the same filter and personality change. Ruthless characters would suddenly grow a heart, and clever and merciless killers would become money hungry and harmless. There is also a lot of character names being dropped left and right out of the blue without any real development. It sometimes felt like there was a whole mythology inspired this adventure but was never truly explored.
It’s also safe to say that the mystical facet of this story was prioritized. While you knew you were going to be dealing with the Al Ghul’s and all their witchcraft, what Patrick Gleason brings to the able is a whole new level of psychedelic non-sense. There were moments that were simply unreal and impossible to follow. As fun as it was to watch the story unfold in a direction that is rarely explored in the Batman universe, it still remained chaotic and insane. The artwork also didn’t help with sometime very mediocre work, and at other times crazy colourful and trippy panels. With a giant man-bat as a companion and supernatural things happening left and right, it was hard to feel rested reading this story arc. If anything, I thought I was high.
Robin: Son of Batman (Volume 1): Year of Blood was a fun and messy story featuring a Robin that could’ve brought us some really bloody and careless adventures. Instead, Patrick Gleason offers us a very supernatural and hectic story about redemption and forgiveness with unrecognizable characters from the Batman universe. This series however doesn’t last long (it only has one more volume before it was cut) and I guess I understand why things didn’t last longer. It still remains that this was a fun and creative story with maybe a little too many cheesy moments that helped in changing the scene of what people are used to in regards of Robin. The artwork switched between mediocre to acceptable from panel to panel, but I honestly couldn’t stand the facial designs of some of these characters. They looked so off. I’ll probably complete the run with the last volume some day, but I definitely won’t have any expectations regarding it.
Did you read Robin: Son of Batman (Volume 1) Year of Blood yet? What did you think about it?
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MY OVERALL RATING: ★★☆☆☆/
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Roars and Echoes 
Man, now you’ve got me hankering to pull out my old Robin graphic novels…
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Are we talking about Chuck Dixon’s Robin stories? I don’t know how I even got you to want to pick up Robin related stories after this review though hahaha
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alan grant and chuck dixon.
Robin: A hero reborn and Robin: Tragedy and Triumph.
Those are the gn’s I associate with Robin and his color scheme. So whenever I see the color scheme, no matter the context, those are what my mind goes to.
16 is a very impressionable age 😀
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Yeh.. The day they change his colour scheme will probably have the fanbase erupt in madness. It’s also nice that Damian Wayne has his own suit though (any change to that would be outrageous…)
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Patrick Gleason can be a good writer. Judging by the sound of this review, it sounds like Robin just isn’t the right character for him.
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I have no clue what he’s written other than this series. You’ve got any personal recommendations? And yep… that sums it up pretty well. Robin (Damian) shouldn’t have been the character he’d write about. He would’ve done better with Tim Drake though (pretty much what he transformed Damian Wayne into in this series).
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He’s one of the co-writers in the current Superman series, which I’ve been enjoying a lot. It started off as more of a family drama than a superhero book and it worked very well. While it’s been leaning more toward epic stories and action lately, it’s still generally really good. The last three issues have been written by guest writers though, some better than others.
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Oh snap, that’s interesting. Didn’t realize he was co-writing it with Peter J. Tomasi. It did sound like that series was pretty decent ever since I read your thought on it all (which also gave birth to the whole Super Sons spin-off).
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He is generally known as an artist more than a writer, but he’s clearly got potential.
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hahahahaha… why do drugs when you can get high off a GN?! 😀 It seems they were trying to do toooo much with this one… I bet with some background story and some inne rjokes from the duration of creation of this GN, it could improve the coolness level… Sorry it didn’t work out for you, 100%, Lahsaan… I know I have said it before but I really need to start reading more GNs!
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Hahahah exactly!! Adults should think about filling their kids’ lives with comics to prevent them from having time to explore hardcore drugs!! 😀 Thanks, Liz. And yep! Hopefully you can pick something up that interest you soon and see how much you’ll dig it. 😉
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oh dear, I knew straight from your first line that there were gonna be problems here
Shame this was such a “giant colourful mess”!! No wonder you thought you were high reading it 😉
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Hahah yep. I knew it would be messy the moment I picked it up too though, so it wasn’t a complete downer. It was nice mess to indulge. A bit like those movies you just turn your brain off to and watch for pure entertainment. 😛
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Oddly enough, the artwork is the one thing that interested me with this one. But being my blah history with superheros and your thoughts, it is safe to say I will just avoid and apply funds elsewhere 😉 Love how well you tackled what failed here.
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Ohhh, I’m sure we can come up with a much more interesting list of series–at least 10!!–for you to check out that not only has fantastic artwork, but also a wonderful story! 😛 Thanks Danielle! I appreciate that. After all, the flaws I see could be elements that other would thoroughly love too huh 😀
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I never knew Robin had a dark side. I’ve always known him as Batman’s sidekick, based on the old series, of course.
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Honestly, I was a bit scared to review stories like this one cause of the knowledge of “different” Robins being existent for some people. There isn’t just ONE Robin in the whole Batman lore, there’s 4 of them, this one being the fourth, Damian Wayne. There are also other Robins in “alternative” worlds too. But Damian Wayne is by far the darkest Robin of them all. He loves blood. Well.. until he learns to control himself. The chances that we this Robin in a live-action movie or TV show today or anytime soon is pretty slim though…
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