REVIEW: ‘Future State: Robin Eternal,’ Issue #1

Future State: Robin Eternal #1 is published by DC Comics, written by Meghan Fitzmartin, art by Eddy Barrows, inks by Eber Ferreira, colors by Adriano Lucas, and letters by Pat Brosseau. As the Magistrate continues his war against Gotham’s vigilantes, Robin learns of a shipment containing an experimental compound that will greatly enhance the Magistrate’s cyber henchmen. Robin needs to stop that shipment, but he might not be able to do it alone.

Gotham, it seems, is doomed to suffer under the weight of oppression. While this oppression is usually born of the fear invoked by the chaos that constantly threatens to consume her streets, it seems in the future, the stranglehold of order will be what weighs Gotham down. The more things change, the more they stay the same, huh?

Future State: Robin Eternal #1 sees Robin (Tim Drake) pushing back against the Magistrate’s suffocating might. As rumors have begun to swirl about an upgrade coming to the Magistrate’s cyber soldiers, Drake looks to test out the new hardware for himself. To that end, our story opens with him coming into conflict with one of these new models.

As Drake struggles to stay ahead of this improved opponent, he finds himself saved by a timely ally. I won’t say who, as that would be a spoiler. With the battle won, Drake decides he needs more intel to find out how he might stop this new upgrade from spreading through Gotham.

Future State: Robin Eternal #1’s writing takes on a tough task. And while it mostly succeeds, it doesn’t come through completely unscathed. The big issue comes from the mix of setting and primary protagonist. I speak, of course, of Tim Drake. Now I want to be clear; I like Tim. He was the first Robin I read, and he has a lot of interesting angles to him. However, one thing he often lacks is a vibrant personality. He, at times, can be kind of bland. He probably spent too much time hanging around with Bruce.

In many of the stories I remember reading about him, this isn’t a problem because the cast around him picked up some of the personality deficiencies. Whether it was Alfred, Stephanie, or even Oracle, there was always someone with a bit more wit to balance his more serious persona. In Future State: Robin Eternal #1, this support isn’t so present. While there are others around Tim here, it seems nothing kills people’s energy like a nice dystopian future. Because of this, the story is functionally sound, easy to follow, and fairly interesting. But lacks much personality. Sporting only one or two moments where dialogue feels like anything more than relaying information, this story lands a little dully.

The art design here does a great job delivering the previously mentioned dystopian future. The book looks like the sleek cyber future it sets out to deliver from the city itself to the updated looks of preexisting characters. This cyber inspired future look is also greatly augmented by Lucas’ brilliant colorwork. Coming off his fantastic run on last year’s Suicide Squad, Lucas continues to implement unique, eye-catching colors to help every panel here land with a visual freshness.

Lastly, we have Brosseau’s letters. Brosseau delivers the story in a clean and easy to follow manner. A few alternate font styles are used for a couple of characters, and when a conversation in ASL occurs. This strengthens some of the differences in certain dialogue moments.

Future State: Robin Eternal #1 delivers an interesting opening to its story when all is said and done. While it lacks a little personality, it utilizes its setting and characters to deliver something worth reading, particularly if you are a fan of Tim Drake.

Future State: Robin Eternal #1 is available on January 12th, wherever comics are sold.