Lal's Profile

Cass and Steph's characterization was fine and even fun, but the story made Babs act and feel like a 40+ mother, a characterization that came out of nowhere and doesn't remotely resemble what we've seen of Babs in recent years. Since I like Babs, I don't think I'll continue reading this series.

The series really had potential, but the characterization is completely off and continuity-wise doesn't work with the mainline. Cass and Steph here are inexperienced, and nothing about them hints they already carried the Batgirl mantle in their own right. They need Babs to cook them dinner, hold their hands and tell them what to do. As for Babs... the one who's portrayed the worst is definitely Babs. She cooks them dinner, stays up all night to wait for them, and then says she's "not a helicopter mom and not so old to forget what it's like", while the book makes her seem like exactly those things. The weirdest thing is that while Babs suited up as Batgirl in Nightwing's last issue, here she's rotating between a wheelchair, a cane, and walking. All in the same issue, without addressing the fact she suited up as Batgirl literally now. It's okay to make her partially disabled, but just doing it all in one issue without addressing her also being an active batgirl seemed like a joke.

Better than the previous issues, but still not good. Babs is still portrayed badly here.

Much better than previous issues.

This story has potential, but right now it's just too frustrating to read with this never-ending influx of new characters, and the fact that the current Batfamily is basically just Harley and Ghost-maker. The art is still absolutely stunning and is one of the redeeming qualities of the book.

It's a batman book with way too many side characters taking the lead and Batman himself as a supporting character. The art is inconsistent, and overall the plot is just mediocre. I'm just waiting for this event to end.

An excellent, fun issue with beautiful art. I wish this creative team will do more Dick Grayson stories.

The book emphesizing that the main antagonist is Jewish and then portraying him using antisemitic stereotypes is troubling, to say the least.

The book is really butchering Dick Grayson. He's so out of character and nerfed and so far there's no real explanation for this behavior. This, combined with the very disturbing origin story Powers got last issue, are good reasons to drop the book.

While the art was decent, the writing was pretty bland and the story wasn't compelling. That's probably as far from a defining two-face story as you can get.

While the Batwoman story was actually quite interesting (and I'm not someone who read batwoman before), the Outsiders story was just a huge mess. Overall, the issue is quite skippable and too expensive.

Sadly, Tim's story was medicare at best. Both Nightwing and Batman were out of character in the story and read more like alternate versions of themselves, with Batman hugging random Gothamites and Nightwing scolding Tim for coming to him when he needs advice. The bright side of the story was hinting that Tim is about to move on from being Robin, but that was more or less the only part of the story that really made sense. Overall, it was just disappointing. Instead of getting a story of Tim coming out to his family, hanging with Bernard, talking with Steph, we got a story with OOC Batman and Nightwing, no Steph, no real story, with Tim's new relationship sidelined. The other stories were better, and Nightwing's story was the best of the bunch. Tini Howard did a good job portraying Dick, showing an interesting take on him.

The idea is pretty good, and the art is great, but way too many pages were wasted on Jon trying to recruit a new destined-to-fail JL instead of things actually happening. It's also completely unclear why Nightwing is playing at being a PE teacher instead of leading a new group of heroes to defend earth (the weird explanation in the "Road to dark crisis" didn't really answer the question, as he already did exactly that before until the JL were back).

Overall, a very good issue. The Nightwing vs Deasthstoke fight was great, and Jon showing up to help was nice. My only concern is that the pacing was a bit too slow, and we still don't really understand the great darkness or Deathstroke's motives.

It's a fun and fresh take on the DC universe. A very compelling first issue.

After two weak issues, things get interesting again.

Just.. Meh. Instead of a meaningful coming-out story exploring Tim, we got mediocre writing. The story doesn't show us why Tim even likes Bernard or the two of them dating. We don't see Tim actually come out to his family on-panel. The story just avoided every single meaningful milestone or story that could have been explored.

Way too many pages are wasted on exposition that could have been explored in 2 pages, but overall the book still has a lot of potential.

Not as strong as the previous issues, but still pretty good.

The weakest issue so far. More or less just two long fight scenes.

The story fell short of expectations, and it was mostly because it completely downplayed Dick's and Damian's bond. These two characters have a lot of history and are probably the closest amongst the Robins. Damian just plain hating Dick or saying he never looked up to him pretty much destroys what could be an emotional or compelling story of Damian having to kill a brother or even a semi-father figure that he genuinely loves. Instead, there is literally no conflict or emotional struggle here because Damian isn't even a bit conflicted about killing Dick. Overall, Damian as a vampire hunter could have been a great story, but the execution didn't deliver.

The backup was actually much better than the main story, but overall a solid issue.

The backup was again much better than the main story, but overall still a fun read.

It was okay, but I feel like the Deathstoke issues in this crossover are quite skippable. This issue mostly just set the stage for the Robin issue, and while some things progressed, it seems like the event could have easily included fewer books.

The story was good, the differences between Batman and Nightwing and them discussing criminal rehabilitation and protecting the innocents was interesting. I am not a fan of the art - it looked a bit too simple and too bright, but overall it was a good issue and I'll follow the upcoming shadow of the bat event.

While the art is beautiful, this was by far the weakest issue in this run so far. Most of the characters didn't really do anything important and overall the story wasn't very clear or compelling. I really hope the shadows of the bat event would be better written and have a clearer direction.

Not as strong as the previous issue, but still interesting enough.

Still interesting, but we're already in issue 3 and the pacing is just way too slow.

The two backup stories were pretty good, and the main story finally progressed. The twist at the end was a nice addition. Seeing Nightwing actually do something was pretty great, but in this book it seems like he and Helena are incredibly close, something that wasn't even hinted at for years. The pacing is still a bit problematic, and way too much of the plot was spent on prepping Helena, but overall it was still pretty good.

It was an okay issue, but while the solicitations suggest that Nightwing is investigating a mystery in this issue, he was completely sidelined and didn't do a thing in this issue.

We actually saw Nightwing doing some detective work and investigating, which is a huge plus, but too many pages are used for exposition until something really happens.

I want to support a batfamily story, I really do. But the characterization of some characters is getting so completely off that it's almost funny. This issue we got Huntress, doing acrobatics and fighting when injured and shouting jokes at Dr. Freeze. At the same time, we got Nightwing who can't even sneak on a villain, literally stumbles and falls, beaten by every single opponent around, and ends as a hostage. Unless the sole purpose of the series is to prop Huntress, I really don't get what's the endgame here.

It's unclear why DC decided to do a weekly event of the batfamily investigating Arkham just to have Batman show up on the last page to save the day.

The Jon and Dick story was good, and the Flash story was okay, but the next three stories were quite bad. Overall, not worth the cover price.

Not a fan of the creative team. The story is a mess and the art is too cartoony. Can't wait for the regular creative team to get back.

It was actually quite a good issue for a tie-in event. The rationalization of Nightwing coming to Gotham actually made sense, and the team-up with Batman was fun and even heartwarming. My main problem was with the art. Redondo's art was perfect in the previous arc, and he was greatly missed here. But overall, it was a surprisingly good issue.

It was a solid issue, although very Batgirl-centric. I probably would have liked it more if Bruno Redondo handled the art. Overall the main fear state event is mediocre at best, and while the Nightwing tie-in is good, it's still a very unnecessary denture from the main Nightwing plot.

The entire fear-state felt like an unnecessary detour from the main plot, but the batfamily banter and the interactions were fun. I'm not a fan of the art, but overall it was a very good issue.

The Nightwing Red Hood team-up was great, both in the past and in the present. It's one of the first times they actually felt like brothers in forever, and it seems like there is a lot more to explore in their dynamics. It was a very good issue and I hope we could see more of their team-ups in the future.

Once again, a great issue. I hope Taylor would take over the Titans book and write them as well.

Definitely a fun issue. Little details like Dick being a van Gogh fan, or his and Babs' PJ are just perfect. My main problem with this issue is that it was too Jon-heavy for my taste, but there were great moments there. Seeing Nightwing helping sharpen Jon's detective skills was fun and very in character.

It was a fun issue and the Nightwing-Flash interaction was awesome and reminded us why their friendship is probably the best in the DCU.

It was a fun issue, but I hope we'll get a more plot-driven issue next month, as well as Redondo's art back.

I still enjoy this series, but we really need more plot progression and focus on Nightwing as a competent hero and detective, rather than just the nicest guy in the world. It's fun seeing Nightwing's connections with other heroes, but I hope future issues will refocus on Nightwing and reestablish his competence and abilities that are currently a bit neglected.

Overall, it's still a pretty decent issue, but the two major problems of the run - the pacing and Nightwing not being competent and constantly needing others help, continues here. For example, Nightwing cleaned statues and made breakfast, showing again that he's a really nice guy, while Oracle created the database that identified the bad guys and made it public in order to expose the police force corruption. It seems like something that Nightwing should be able to do, and he needs to deal with at least some things on his own. We also still don't know where Nightwing lives after his building blew up 2 issues ago, and it seems like a pretty big issue. The ending with Heartless looks very promising, but his confrontation with Blockbuster at the beginning was weird and he came out as an amateur.

The pacing of the issue was much better, and the art is great, but the issue shows the main problem of this run - Nightwing is portrayed as very nice but not too bright and quite incompetent and is hardly able to do anything on his own.

Overall the new arc started pretty well, but the pacing is still a bit slow. The art was decent enough, but Redondo is missed, and I hope he'll return to the book soon. The backup story was surprisingly fun, and the art by Acuna was great.

Overall, really good issue. It was a bit weird that Damian was able to outrun/outsmart (almost) everyone, but other than that it was really good. Dick and Damian's dialogue was of course the best part. We needed that.

A good issue. Less action, but the book keeps building Damian's mythos. Still a great series.

Overall a good issue. My main problem is that Batman really can't claim to be the world's greatest detective after failing to figure out who the fake Deathstoke was (readers figured it out several issues ago), but overall the fights and the pacing of this book were good.

I love this story. The book focuses on the early days of Dick as Robin. Not the "happy go lucky" Robin that he became, but a newly orphaned kid, adjusting to being a crime fighter and Batman's partner. The dynamic of Batman, Alfred, and Dick was very special in this book. I can't wait for the next issue.

I love the idea of a Robins series, but the execution here was a bit lacking. Overall the issue was okay-ish, but it could have been so much better. I'm not a fan of the art, but it was definitely nice seeing the Robins interacting together. I hope the following issues would be better.

It was cool seeing the alternate futures, but the take that the Robins needed each other to not lose themselves was kind of ridiculous. Are we really supposed to believe that Nightwing, for example, really needs Jason, Tim, or Steph to not lose himself, even though they weren't even around throughout most of his career?

It's a mixed bag, but overall the quality of most of the stories wasn't great. The Black Canary story was pretty good, but Talia's story was mediocre, and the Clownhunter and Harley stories were pretty bad. Clownhunter becoming a master ninja in no time didn't make much sense, and the Harley story tried to convince the readers she would be an asset to any team and completely failed. Overall, a skippable issue.

It's probably the weakest issue in the run so far. Everything felt both rushed and anti-climatic. A lot of things happened and a lot of characters made guest appearances, but most of them were meaningless, with the exception of Jon meeting Wally, which was actually nice. Jon is young and inexperienced and is making mistakes, and it all makes sense, but his actions still felt very childish, and Lois just allowing him to do it was also weird. I still think it's a good series, but this issue was a bit disappointing.

An okay issue. It was nice to see Damian show his support, but he was quite out of character (calling Jon "man"?)

The best issue to date. The interactions and dynamic between Dick and Jon were great.

Too many things didn't work in this issue. It was recently confirmed that Luthor knows that Bruce is Batman and Dick is Nightwing. Luthor actually killed Dick Grayson before, so him suddenly acting like he doesn't know, or being so easily outsmarted with the listening device just didn't work well. Jon didn't really do anything notable except for coming up with a very weird plan to spy on Luthor, and Batman's problems with Jay weren't addressed. The art, especially in the Nightwing-Luthor part, wasn't great, and the characters looked pretty bad.

The art is good, but the story isn't very compelling.

I'm not a fan of books going out of their way to prop the lead character by making established characters around them look and act like fools, and that's exactly what we got here. In this issue, the batfamily are all relegated to be lesser than Jason. Jason is smarter than Oracle, Batman, Nightwing, and Tim. He is also able to fight Cass, Nightwing, and Tim simultaneously and still claims he held back. He is considerably better than everyone at more or less everything, is manipulating them, outsmarting them, fighting all of them together, and unless you're a real die-hard Jason fan, it's about as believable as it sounds. While Jason crossing paths with the batfamily could have been a great addition to this book, it was overall incredibly bad. That's not the book for batfamily fans.

The students are currently not interesting enough to hold an entire book alone, and it's quite weird focusing on them rather than the actual Titans or even the previous roster of the TT. The writing is nice, but I just don't care enough about these kids to read about them.

Focusing on the new students just makes reading the series feel redundant and a bit boring. Most of those students would never be seen again in a year from now, and many readers read this series just for the faculty. Overall, the last two issues were the weakest so far.

So disappointing. It was supposed to be an emotional and intriguing issue. Wally and Roy finally meet after the Flash annual and HIC. Dick and Wally interact for the first time in forever, even Garth showing up. However, instead of all these, we got a pitch on how the Titans are drafting the new students and are afraid of them. Then we get more Red X acting very strangely, then we see someone trying to recruit the new students to be the new fearsome five... Yes, it was just as weird as it sounds. Every time I get a new TTA issue I hope that this time it would be better, and each time I'm disappointed again.

Well, the series finally reached the point of no return and decided to trash the OG Titans and make them appear incompetent, old, and outdated, and all that while making sure that Stitch appear as the competent, compassionate, and of course, all-knowing character. Stich literally called the Titans old and immoral, scolded them... Because the Titans apparently need Stitch to reach complex decisions now. And then the Titans just change their minds, just because Stitch said so. Not to mention that stitch somehow revealed all their secret identities... because why not? It's really unreadable. If you even remotely like the OG Titans, this book is not for you.

The Titans in TTA are constantly portrayed as either inept, dumb, or both. Their students are often smarter and more capable, and their opponents call them aging sidekicks. It's quite baffling why the book made the Titans (who are the main reason people are picking up this book) act like idiots. In this issue the Titans finally did something. Not a lot, as they still seemed completely incapable, but at least they helped Shazam. Which is... something, I guess? I just want a fresh start for this book, preferably with a writer who actually likes the Titans.

There was much I didn't like about this issue, and so many things just didn't make sense at all. I hope there would be a follow-up on several leads here (a Nightwing-Deathstroke encounter?), and that War on earth 3 would be better written.

There were some questionable decisions in this issue,starting with Wally quitting the team and Dick stepping back and blaming himself for Waller, and continuing with showcasing the Titans as incompetent and suggesting they are no longer relevant as a team once the JL are back. I'll probably drop this book and wait for the next run.

IMO, that's not the right creative team for this book. The Titans did nothing in this issue. Donna had her badass moment, but she was the only one showing any skill or abilities. The others said about one sentence each and were written more as damsels in distress than veteran heroes. The team's worst traumas were glossed over, and the plot led nowhere. And while not a significant detail, the villain saying that Donna's plan was 'surprising and ingenious' and not something that could be expected from Nightwing's leadership was in poor taste. Donna could have been shown to be a capable leader without undermining the others, and sadly, propping her at their expense was the main theme of this issue.

This crossover doesn't really work for mostly TT/ Flash readers. This issue was entirely focused on Earth-3 characters and the suicide squad, without even hinting at any involvement of either the Titans or the Flash. Actually, together with the suicide squad issue today we're 2/5 into this event, and there are no Titans no Flash yet. Owlman's characterization was also very weird. Since when is he stupid or incompetent? Isn't he suppose to be Batman's equal? I'd have probably skipped this issue and the entire event if I knew who it would focus mainly on the suicide squad and Earth-3 characters.