Robin 4: Turning Point Paperback – July 25, 2017

Contrary to another review posted on Amazon, there are a solid handful of issues collected here for the first time. Most surprising to me was a new Robin/Huntress team up crossing over the Robin series with Showcase '95, printed here in its entirety. This collection then veers into KnightsEnd territory before spending some time with the Zero Hour event--a "crisis in time" that for one issue pairs Tim Drake and a young Dick Grayson together--before dipping into Batman crossover territory again with chapters from Prodigal.It's fair to criticize this collection for not being entirely focused on its central character, however the exclusive additions found here are noteworthy. It's also commendable that DC has committed to reprinting this Robin series 100% intact, which has given us several unexpected gems already, even if it winds up shorting readers on a larger storyline here and there. The integral part of this is this is exactly how the Robin books were published, and if you were reading them exclusively, this was what you got.What surprised me was just how well the KnightsEnd chapters here held up on their own. Being a story largely centered around Bruce Wayne, the Robin issues mainly focus on his point of view during this whole thing, which makes sense when you think about it: often times Robin does fly solo on his own missions, but when he does help Batman on something bigger, he only sees what he's present for.

The book itself is great - you can’t beat Chuck Dixon’s writing for any Batman related title, especially for Tim Drake’s Robin or Dick Grayson’s Nightwing. However, the book came in awful condition. Entire corner, not just the cover, was bent, price labels on the book, adhesive residue all over the cover. I don’t worry about my trades getting a bit damaged, but this is gross. I don’t even want to put it on my shelf.

I do not recommend buying this. You can read this exact same story (and more) in Batman: Knight's End of the Knightfall trilogy. That book contains every single issue that this book has and about %40 extra reading content on top of that (for an extra +$5.00 price difference). I wouldn't be mad if this were about $15.00, but it's $25.00 retail price is WAY too much. The worst part is that this isn't even a Tim Drake centered collection of stories. In this, Tim Drakes is in it a lot, but he is definitely not the focus. It mainly deals with Dick Grayson taking up the mantle of the bat after Azrael fails. I loved the other Tim Drakes as Robin trades because I enjoy his character (and still want more). This book just doesn't satisfy that. As I've said before, this story line is already in Knight's End (AKA Knightfall Vol. 3). That makes this book release completely pointless. In a way, that is almost like releasing fragments of Catwoman appearances in Batman Year One as a "Catwoman comic-trade", and then calling it its own self contained book, when you are clearly missing information. I would have MUCH preferred it if we got a collection Robin issues that have never been featured in a DC trade since their release. I particularly would have loved it if we got Robin issues that skipped this story line all together and moved on to the following set of issues in chronological order. To me, comic trades like this are almost like re-runs on TV. This is your chance to see something that has not been seen easily in years, and they waste it on this. These issues have already been reprinted a number of times. This story has already been easy to find and readily available for years, and that annoys me. It was frustrating waiting months for this, only to get disappointed. Guess I'll need to look forwards to the next Robin trade. Even if you don't own Knight's End, this is useless. You will likely not know anything about the events which led up to this. You may as well jump to the 3rd movie in a trilogy, but only watch the 2nd half. This book is of a completely separate story line from the 3 previous Robin trades, so I have no idea why they decided to do this. If you are still interested in reading about this story line, please just skip this and read the Batman: Knightfall series. I hope I've helped you out. Thanks for reading my review! Edit: Maybe I was a bit harsh. There are a few issues in this, but for the most part, this is Knightsend. TI gave this an extra star to be a bit more fair. This still doesn't change that I am mostly disappointed with this though.