Juni Ba’s Boy Wonder is one of those miniseries that has unexpectedly become one of my favorite reads this year. While the intentionally childlike art style and parable-esque storytelling take a few pages to get used to, Ba has crafted a delightful exploration of the Bat family in the prestige format of DC’s Black Label. Unfortunately, the third issue fails to capture the same quality as the series’ sophomore outing.
Tim Drake is introduced as the featured Robin in this go-around, but unlike Jason Todd and Dick Grayson, his backstory isn’t explored at all. That’s disappointing because it means that Tim ends up a hero with no vulnerabilities. Ba’s talent for drilling down to what makes a character tick is lost here.
Instead, the main focus is on the evil plot that’s causing members of Gotham’s underclass to go missing. It really isn’t even a spoiler to say that obviously Ra’s al Ghul is the culprit and we’re leading up to Damian having to confront his own past. This series has been enjoyable so far because of the interesting character exploration that has animated the generic plot. Without that exploration, the reader ends up with a very average Robin story about the Boy Wonder investigating a mystery.
What is here is fun. While we unfortunately don’t get to have Tim Drake’s fascinating origin unraveled by Ba (which I would have loved because he’s my favorite Robin) we at least get some fun scenes.
For starters, there’s an interesting social critique here where the net worth of various evil billionaires is put on display at a ‘charity gala’ put on by the Penguin. Damian is disgusted by this image of horrible people pretending that their plundering of the lower and middle classes is actually a philanthropic achievement.
I’m not sure whether Ba really thinks out the implications of this criticism, however, because mere pages after he throws stones at these billionaires, the comic comes to a grinding halt to admire the fancy (and expensive) Wayne technology that allows Robin to fight crime. Is the message supposed to be that being a billionaire is okay but that there are good and bad billionaires? I know it’s not the responsibility of a writer to address political themes in their work, but if they are going to introduce them then they ought to see them through. It seems like Ba wanted to criticize extreme wealth in this issue without considering what that means in a comic about a family of crime fighters propped-up by a billionaire’s fortune.
The issue concludes with Tim and Damian fighting the Demon. I love that Ba chose to go with the 2009 Red Robin look for Drake’s costume. It isn’t my favorite outfit of his by a long shot, but it has a fun vibe that’s almost knowingly-silly. It fits well in this wondrous world Ba is building (complemented with a warm color palette from Chris O’Halloran). The lettering from Aditya Bidikar also fits the action of this issue quite well, contrasting heavy lettering with the occasional medieval flourish when appropriate. It makes the encounters with Ra’s’ minions feel more menacing.
Recommended if…
If you’ve read the first two issues you may as well stick with it.
You are a Tim Drake fan.
You love Ba’s art style.
Overall…
I wish that this issue explored Tim’s origins like the last two did for Dick and Jason. Instead, we’re set up for the penultimate chapter in this story with a pretty standard mystery plot punctuated with some clumsy social commentary. I still have high hopes for this comic, and I understand the occasional necessity of writers moving the plot along at the expense of character exploration. It would be great if Tim Drake was highlighted later along so that we get a more fleshed-out picture of the main cast of Robins.
Score: 6/10
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