Chris Yost's Run on Red Robin

Red Robin #2 Cover

Francis Manapul

Chris Yost, I am very confused by him. Currently he is the writer of Red Robin, the "post" Bruce Wayne Tim Drake (Wayne) identity. To put it politely his run has been an entire piece of shit. Ok, maybe not that harshly, after all Batgirl is far worse, and Outsiders crashed and burned much sooner than this title. Still I think I have my anger toward Yost because it's Tim Drake. The Robin that was the most Human.

While I love Dick Grayson, and yes I love him as Batman, it's been great fun; There is no denying that his original conception was just to be Kid Batman. He was there to sort of just be cool to younger kids, and indeed that is the recurring motif with all of the Robins. They grow up with the Readers. Dick is now post college (comic book style), having found a real job as Batman, Tim seems to be an insecure but competent late teenager. And Damian is just a little shitmuncher, not completely relate-able except by spoiled rich kids, but still his rebelious nature is something to be desired for very little kids just realising that rules are meant to be broken. 

However back to Chris Yost, and Red Robin. Drake started out wanting to be Robin for the sake of studying under Batman's tutelage as a detective, not so much as an ass kickin' crime fighter; though I'm sure for all kids his age that was a damn nice bonus. This backstory was a nice change from everyone's motivations stemming from tragedy. Eventually though tragedy did catch up to Tim when each of his parents were taken by crime. But unlike most heroes who used it to keep pushing forward as a hero. (I mean this as this is now entirely what motivates them, like Batman, or the 2814 Green Lanterns initially). Tim moves past it, taking time off from being Robin, and going through a completely reasonable lashing out at the world period. A few real life years later, the man who adopted Tim was killed by the god of all evil (the most fucking badass way for Batman to go, and you know it!) Tim once again goes into denial and sets out on a morally questionable journey to prove that Bruce is still alive, and now here come all kinds of problems.

Just to start with something positive before I pour bile all over Yost...Everything he's done so far has been a very good attempt. He's been trying to play to the fact that Tim is a detective, however he just isn't Brad Meltzer, or a pre tragedy Jeph Leob, in that he just can't seem to write a good, unpredictable, compelling mystery. Ok, so Tim doesn't think Bruce is dead. That's fine, now here is where you would present the why, other than denial. I understand he's upset and might not be thinking clearly, but a detective of Tim's caliber would need more than the corpse of Batman to run off and search for Bruce. That's the next thing; the story on his hunt for Bruce Wayne makes absolutely no sense. He's in Germany, Paris, Iraq, then BAM! he has the Bat that Bruce drew on the cave wall at the end of Final Crisis #7. We don't know what he found in the previous countries, we don't know how the fuck he got to this specific cave. Moreover Ra's Al Ghul is trailing Tim, presumably to find Batman's corpse and put it in a Lazarus pit (Though I think that's what they're going to do in Batman and Robin, but that's Grant Morrison so it will be good).

Overall the story just wreaks of lazy storytelling. The characterisation isn't bad, with Tim constantly reassuring himself he's not crazy. But the problem is the Audience already knows what no one else in the DCU knows; that Batman isn't dead. So to keep hammering that home becomes very frustrating to read. This is compounded by the fact that Tim rarely interacts with anyone who makes him feel like he's crazy. Brief stints with Wonder Girl, and Spoiler who just want to help him, but then he turns brash saying that he has to do this alone for absolutely no good reason.

As an older person than the demographic that Drake is sort of aimed at, I try not to let his angst get to me too much though it is bothersome at times. But back to just basic storytelling problems, Yost just doesn't give any reason or means for these mysteries to be solved. The council of spiders arc was fair enough. But it was in the end a series of punch ups and then suddenly Tim blew up Ra's computer network. It was entirely stupid and really just didn't offer anything new to the character, the Bat-verse, the DCU, or comic books as a whole. And while not every comic needs to be a watchmen or promethea; Red Robin takes a very central character in the Bat-verse, in a very strange time in this world, and does absolutely nothing with it. It's a costume change, and a slight personality change, but no real character development, even in the vein of comics where everything is reset.

I still don't know what to say about Yost as a writer. While I want to replace his skin with styrofoam for making such a stupid arc on Red Robin, his One issue stint on Titans spotlighting Starfire was not all that bad. Neither was his run on The Streets of Gotham. So who knows? This is a book that you should skip. Unless of course you have some disposable income and would just like to see something crash and burn. If you would like to see a slightly less irritating Tim Drake depiction, pick up Adventure Comics #3, or Blackest Night Batman.

Also I know that its ironic that I criticize Yost for having all kinds of plot holes and simplistic writing, while my own writing style is splotchy. I'm working on it, and also I'm not a professional, so yeah....