Robin, Son of Batman #4

The issue begins with a flashback to Damian's Year of Blood when he went on a vandalizing, pilfering tour of the world. Damian's servant takes Damian's recent acquisition from Egypt to Ra's al Ghul and accidentally walks in on a ceremony utilizing the previous objects stolen by Damian. I'm sure it's no big deal. People probably walk in on Ra's doing all kinds of freaky things. But I guess the pouring blood out of the sockets of a goat's skull ceremony cannot be witnessed by anybody without punishment. So Damian's servant, who helped teach Damian to paint and loves seeing things like art and nature and the underside of his erect penis in a mirror, is blinded. Talia gives Damian the chance to forgive him but Damian knows a trick question from his mother when he hears one! Instead he calls his servant a fool and goes on with his life.

But that was whenever that happened. Total ancient history! Now is the time for Damian to atone for stealing the idols canopic jars from Egypt. How he's going to atone for allowing his servant's sight to be taken is another matter. Perhaps Damian can find a groupon for Lasik?

Maya, Damian, and Goliath are working together now. Not because Damian really wants to work with Nobody but because Nobody is now the only way to control Goliath. It can't be because he hopes to one day touch one of her boobies because he's still losing baby teeth. No way he's into girls yet. Murder. Justice. Revenge. But not girls. Gross.

Damian explains how he's atoning for stealing the canopic jars but that doesn't really matter, right? I'm just waiting for Deathstroke to appear so Damian can whoops his ass.

I was just lamenting my lack of cake before sitting down to read this comic book.

The person calling out Nobody's name is, of course, Deathstroke. He didn't take kindly to Nobody cutting off communication with him and his fellow Mercenary Chatroom buddies. He seems to be familiar with Nobody's method of operations (sometimes called some Latin thing, especially when talking about Jack the Ripper) because the first thing Slade does is explode a paint grenade in her proximity. That should help him realize he's fighting a young girl which, knowing Slade, will probably give him a boner.

Who else would be in that club? Talia. Rose. Lian. And why is he so interested in a club full of young girls? Pedo.

Deathstroke is familiar with Goliath. I wonder how they know each other? He seems content with not getting what he was owed by Morgan Ducard as long as he gets to kill Maya and Goliath. But of course that isn't going to happen. Damian will probably save the day.

See? I think. This is saving the day right? And not just horsey back rides?

Damian lures Deathstork Deathstroke back through the trapped entry to the secret tomb below. It's where Damian just recently returned the canopic jars by sneaking past the traps. Now he's setting them off on purpose to hopefully kill Deathstroke. Boy, I hope they kill Deathstroke! It's not that I want to see Deathstroke dead since I actually like the character. But if it'll put a stop to Tony S. Daniel's travesty of a Deathstroke comic book, I'm all for the death of Slade Wilson!

Instead of killing Deathstork's Deathstroke's comic book, he finances it to the tune of five million dollars. Dammit, Robin! Now he's got enough cash to get his mercenary gig back on track! Although Deathstroke's comic book isn't selling very well and it's not like this five million dollars went into DC's pocket to keep their company solvent. So it's only a matter of time, Slade!

I'm pretty sure the "so boring" is Gleason's shot across Daniel's bow. And he has every right to fire that shot because Gleason is an artist turned writer who's actually doing a terrific job.

Slade reluctantly heads off back to his own shitty comic book and Robin takes Nobody back down into the tomb. By putting the jars back, he opened up a secret passageway leading to the reason that the health center above the tomb was able to cure so many people: a Lazarus Pit. No wonder Ra's wanted this place shut down.

Robin, Son of Batman #4 Rating: +1 Ranking. This issue was probably half fight scenes and yet it still managed to tell a coherent story that could have filled up an issue on its own without the fight scene padding. I don't think Deathstroke is used to that. He had to do an awful lot of fighting in this issue. Usually he only has to pose for one or two huge double page splashes. But this time, he had to pose ten different ways across what would have been one of Daniel's double splash pages. That's a lot of work! No wonder he wanted to settle on five million dollars so he could go back to his comic book. Who knew there was usually so much choreography in fight scenes?! I'll tell you who didn't know! Any character ever written and drawn by Tony S. Daniel!