07 March 2010

Reason for Robin, #10

Yesterday I discussed the Spectre, DC Comics’s most powerful character—a godlike embodiment of vengeance. Today we see him discussing the nature of life with a little girl.

Okay, a little dead girl, or ghost, who was murdered by her brother and got the job of escorting souls to the afterlife. She was named Greta, and has been using the name Secret as a member of the Young Justice team of 1990s kid sidekicks and teen heroes. That team had its own quirky comic book, mostly written by Peter A. David and mostly drawn by Todd Nauck, from 1998 to 2003.

At this point in DC Universe history, the man inside the Spectre is Hal Jordan, the second Green Lantern. (Long story.) And he’s explaining life as he sees it.But then Secret has an idea for someone who’s even less evil than Harrison Ford. This exchange reflects how, in the Young Justice saga, Secret is working through a crush on Tim Drake as Robin. But it also expresses an important element of how the character of Robin functions in the DC Universe.

Reason for Robin, #10: Robin isn’t evil.

COMING UP: But aren’t all superheroes, by definition, not evil? And what about Jason and Damian?

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