Comic review: Robin Rises Omega #1- Everybody quipping, nobody interesting

Writer: Peter J. Tomasi
Artist: Andy Kubert
Publisher: DC
Released: 16th July 2014

I’m not sure if it’s the uninspired writing of Peter J. Tomasi or perhaps it’s just a change coming over myself personally, but this book felt very, very childish and inconsequential to me. The plot is centred on Batman and his dead son, but as we all know in comic’s, dead isn’t dead for very long.

The book begins with a useful summation of recent events in the world of Batman and how we got to where we are today. I largely followed the story arc over the past year or so, but I’ve started to lose interest now that DC is doing more origin stories with Batman. I do give them credit for the summary of events though, as it is concisely packaged and helpful for long-term, lapsed and new readers.

After establishing the story context the book heads off to that favourite mystical region of all comic book writers, the Himalayas. It’s lazy, but they all do it. Snow always looks good, and you can have your heroes and villains doing pretty much whatever they want, with no consequences to anything happening in the larger comic book universe, plus if somebody dies you can just have them frozen in ice and brought back later. Do they do that here? What do you think?

So a big boring fight in the Himalayas kicks off the new story, where a set of good guys and bad guys fight over the mummified bodies of Batman’s son (Damien ‘Robin’ Wayne) and Ra's al Ghul's daughter. Oh, long-time Batman nemesis Ra's is on Batman’s side now by the way. Who is the bad guy this time? Nobody interesting, just some bloke who is an obvious rip-off of the Loki character in the Avengers movie. Batman’s Justice League mates eventually show up, Killer Whales somehow make it up to the mountains of the Himalayas and they all have a big quipping contest as they punch the bad guys. Here are some of the quip lowlights:

Batman- ‘You talk too much.’

Frankenstein- (Whilst slicing a demon in half with a sword) ‘Speak up demon! Steal got your tongue?’

Shazam- ‘We’re going to wipe the ice with these guys.’

Aquaman- ‘You obviously don’t come in peace. But feel free to leave in pieces.’

Lex Luthor- ‘I’m Lex Luthor. Welcome to Earth.’ (ZZRAAP)

Cyborg- ‘If it’s home you want, don’t let the boom hit you on the way out!’ (BOOM)

I’m sorry but this is no fun, no fun at all. The characters have all melded into one personality free blob of blah, and it’s like watching a cartoon for children who just want to see a big fight with the good guys saying cool things whilst they show off their awesome powers. There’s no depth to it, nothing that’s engaging my mind on anything other than a surface level.

That surface level looks great by the way. The art by Andy Kubert is fantastic, far, far better than the script deserves, unfortunately. The book ends with Batman saying he’s going to get his son back from dimension X, or whatever, and if you want to keep on reading to see the rebirth of Damien Wayne you’ll have to keep on buying these books as DC milks his return for as long as is possible. I’m neither criticising nor complaining about that by the way, it’s just what they do.  I won’t be buying those books. Why? Because I’m an adult, I guess. This book offers nothing other than surface thrills, quips and good guys punching villains. Whilst that might be enough for children it’s not enough for me, the big old boring grown-up that I am. I’ll leave this one for the kids.
Rating: 5/10 (for the art)