Red Robin thoughts and spoilers - and Booster Gold?!

Red Robin #1 did something important - it finally revealed (somewhat) why Tim Drake/Wayne (a distinction that was actually emphasized in this issue) is no longer Robin. That part made some sense - given that Damian wasn't going anywhere (why exactly isn't clear), Dick felt he had to watch him at all times, and the only way he could do that was to make him Robin.

Tim's rationales for his behavior didn't wash as well, though, either for his adoption of the Red Robin persona, or his pursuit of Bruce. He said he chose the Red Robin identity so none of his actions would reflect on Dick or Bruce (but rather on Jason--as if anyone on New Earth remembers his short stint as RR on his wacky travels through the multiverse in That Weekly Series That Shall Not Be Named). Uh, Tim - if you wanted to distance your actions from your brother and father, why not pick a completely different name? "Oh, he's Red Robin - for a minute I thought he had something to do with Robin from 'Batman and Robin' - silly me." Please. Hell, become the new Ravager (piss Deathstroke off!).

Sadly, his reasoning for Bruce's being alive was even weaker (though more emotional): he has no one left, so he has to believe Bruce is still alive. OK, I get that, very tragic and sweet at the same time. (Psst, Tim - Bart's back! And so is Conner! Check your Twitter, dude.) I would rather he believed--as Morrison emphasized so well in "R.I.P."--that Bruce is ready for anything, and if anyone can cheat death/Omega Sanction/Oprah, it's Bruce.

One minor quibble about the art - please decide what body size Tim has, because he looks like a 25-year-old in costume and a 15-year-old out of it. Otherwise, the art was very good, stylistic enough to give the book a unique look.

BONUS: Booster Gold #21 gets points for being the first appearance of Dick/Batman is a non-Bat-title, and very well done too - the costume was accurate to Quitely's redesign, and Jurgens even drew Dick's face and body movements so as to leave no doubt who was beneath the cowl. I wish more had been shown of Dick's reaction to finding out that Booster had gotten his ass kicked over and over trying to save Barbara from getting shot--I think that was underplayed, but maybe Dick's trying to adopt Brucian stoicism already (especially after trying to play tough with Booster initially). (And there was even a nice mention of Blue Beetle, to link the main feature with the back-up - which was great, BTW.)