I'm going to cry....
For two reasons actually. The first being that LJ ate the write up when I tried to post it.
The second and original reason is because the #0 issues have destroyed the origins and personalities of the Robins! I sat on writing this because I didn't want to be reactionary. So I sat and I thought and I read, but it only get worse the more I look at it.
I will grant that Damian is the least screwed up of the Robins, but I still have a HUGE issue with the kid raised be eco-terrorists killing animals in general and as part of the "training" in particular. genetically modified humans ala man-bat, sure. But Ra's and Talia see humans as insignificant to the natural world. How is it then okay for Damian to kill an endangered animal (tiger)?!
Now, onto the ones they really screwed over.
Dick. An intrinsic part of Dick's character is the depth of feeling an attachment he forms to many things, including his role as Robin and his relationship with Bruce. The #0 issue of Nightwing took away all that. It established that Dick thought from the get go that his time as Robin was temporary and likewise his time with Bruce. That's not who Dick is. There's a reason why he was effected so deeply when he was fired, but now that's not going to have happened. Not only is Dick reduced to a pale, superficial version of himself, they've given him one of the aspects that was Tim's. Tim was the onet hat thought he'd do his time and then move on...until he realized how much being Robin meant to him, and that was quite a moment in the Robin series.
Jason. This one disappointed so much and not just because he's my boy. It started out WELL. I was excited! I thought someone was going to get it right. Here we have an obviously dysfunctional family, but they ARE a family and the dynamics were a great set up for a kid who was the definition of "at risk youth". Then it went down hill. Oh not straight away. It was gradual.
He finds mom dead, things go wrong and he ends up at Leslie's clinic. Okay, that's fine. He decides to steal some drugs, yup I can go with it. Batman just happens to be there to catch him, now we're stretching credibility, but I can suspend disbelief for this. Next is LESLIE brow beating Batman into taking Jason in. And then Bruce just SHOWS him what he does? Seriously?
Oh but wait there's more! Then we have the whole mom is dead, no she's alive, I have to go find her, oops she's working for the Joker who catches me, beats me and blows me up real good thing. The retelling of that is so incredibly weak!
And yet I'm not done, because there is also the Joker back up where he's claiming to have arranged for Jason to become Robin. Okay, sure, it's Joker. But why the fuck would JOKER fake Catherine's death?! He doesn't think in terms of the big picture. Planning beyond the next week is pretty much unheard of, but the reader is expected to believe that Joker had a year (using DC's new timeline) long plan to use Catherine to lure Jason to Africa? That he could keep Catherine QUITE for all that time? Why the hell would he bother? It makes no sense whatsoever. ARRRGGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!
Tim. This I was worried about when I first say the preview, never mind the actual issue. Those first five pages put my teeth on edge. We have Bruce narrating, positively fawning over Tim's prowess. We have Alfred apparently scouting Tim for Bruce and ARGUING that Bruce should have a third Robin! As if that's not bad enough, we also have TIM who is super confident, super good, super perfect....and super inept. I just can't buy that a super hacker teen wouldn't cover his tracks and get caught by the Penguin, putting his family at risk! That's stupid beyond words!
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Back to Bruce. Apparently this guy is so obviously off his game that the young detective noticed it, yet he still has the mental facilities to lay an elaborate breadcrumb trail for Tim to follow? Seriously?! Come on! Oh but lets not forget that mom and dad go into protective custody outside of Gotham, but TIM is staying right there. So Penguin (or his henchlings) is smart enough to figure out that Tim (or someone in Tim's family) took his money and targets them to be killed, but he's not smart enough to figure out that Tim Drake is now Bruce Wayne's new ward?! That's not stretching credibility. That's breaking it and throwing the pieces on the pyre of good writing!
And no, I'm still not done because THIS Tim is Mr. Confident! He's the BEST at everything he does. He has no self-confidence issues. And that's so wrong. He started at Robin not because HE wanted to be but because he saw that Batman NEEDED a Robin. It was poignant part of his character growth that made Tim so different from Dick (trained as an aerialist, used to jumping in and trusting himself as well as his partner) and Jason (a streetwise tough that knew long before he was Robin that he had to do for himself). But now that's gone too.
It seems like DC is trying to do a clean slate restart, but the character are to START where we've seen them end up! I don't want the character to be perfect, I want them to be human, I want to see them struggle and grow, I want to see them learn and become better. I want to see character development that comes from good story telling, but it doesn't happen. Instead we're presented with these "perfect" cardboard cut-outs that have done all their growing off panel.
Why DC? Why do you hate us so? Why do you think your readers are so stupid? So insipid that THIS would be in anyway acceptable story telling? WHY?!