Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Not The New World's Finest?

A while back I wondered who would be the members of the 'next World's Finest'. The concensus then was that Kara and Steph, Supergirl and Batgirl, would best fit the bill.

I wasn't sure. I thought maybe Tim and Kara would be a better duo, a better legacy pair to earn the name World's Finest. In particular, I thought their interactions in Superman/Batman #62 really laid the foundation for a great friendship.

Maybe I was wrong?

I have been collecting Red Robin for about a half year now and I have been very pleased in direction that Tim's character has been going. Comfortable in his role of Red Robin, driven to bring back Bruce, acting as a partner in the Wayne Foundation, he suddenly seems like a fully realized hero rather than a sidekick.

As for his super-heroics, he has created a 'hit list' of super-villains he intends to hunt and capture.

I am not usually a big bat-book reader, but this one has been entertaining so far.

And then, in Red Robin #14, written by Fabien Nicienza, we see that all is not perfect in Tim's mind. We kind of take a left turn. In the issue, Damien attacks Tim while they are out on patrol. And what is Damien's motivation?

Well, it turns out that Red Robin has two 'hit lists' operating. One is for the low level super-baddies he is hunting.

The other list is of super-heroes! Following in the footsteps of Bruce Wayne maybe a little bit too closely, Tim is keeping files on all these heroes and cataloging ways he can eliminate them if he needs to. And there on the top row is Supergirl. Not exactly the act of a best buddy.

So maybe Kara and Steph are a better World's Finest.

Of course it was just such a 'hit list' that Bruce made that Brother Eye and the OMACs a horrific reality. And I am surprised that Dick Grayson doesn't come down on him a bit.

It will be interesting to see exactly how this all plays out. Will Tim continue to sink into a paranoia, becoming a threat to the heroes? Or will he realize that this was a shortcoming of Bruce and rein it in a bit?

3 comments:

Saranga said...

I seriously hope that he realises this is the wrong thing to do.

didn't the tower of babel storyline in jla way back when also deal with a similar scheme of Bruces?

Anonymous said...

Didn't Tim make a promise to his young justice team that he would never make a list like Bruce did?
Wow nice Tim. Nice. I think when Bruce comes back he might not be as paranoid. But for now damn. I mean the list makes sense these are people that have gone rogue or killed or have anger issue. Or are just incredibly powerful (Superman, Supergirl, Captain Marvel). But Still this is low. On a side note i hope Damien is still Robin when Bruce comes back, Tim is still Red Robin and Steph better still be Batgirl. I wonder if Dick's gonna go back to being Nightwing...but if he is supposed to stay on Justice League as Batman than i think the writers have another plan for Bruce Wayne.

Anj said...

Didn't Tim make a promise to his young justice team that he would never make a list like Bruce did?
Wow nice Tim. Nice.


I didn't collect YJ so it would be interesting to know if that was true.

I think at some point Dick will go back to being Nightwing. But my guess is his tenure is Batman is going to go on for a bit longer.