This week in Future State we get the conclusion of Tim Drake’s story with Robin Eternal 2. In many ways, the story of Tim Drake stands out as unique in the Future State world. It runs a bit longer than an average title, and it does not carry any secondary stories in it. It focuses solely on Tim, Stephanie Brown (Spoiler), and Darcy.

The thing I love most about this storyline, especially part 2, is that it’s 100% mental. This entire issue revolves around Tim Drake and his new state of mind. Remember near the end of Robin Eternal 1, Tim Drake died, but thanks to the Lazarus serum death was only temporary. Robin now fights with the strength of a dozen cybers, with a vitality he has never known.

Too bad the serum comes with a rather nasty side effect. they designed it for cybers. In humans, the serum has a nasty habit of driving humans insane and then kills them, but the test subjects lacked what Tim possesses. An outstanding moral compass and the mentoring of a man dressed as a bat.

Robin Eternal 2 – Ghosts From Within

Robin fights with unstoppable power, but at the same time hallucinations take over and he sees every fear, doubt, and pain he’s ever experienced. Everything from Twoface to Batman denouncing him, to Nightwing and Damien belittling him haunt him, but he fights through it while simultaneously kicking Cyber-butt.

In the background, Spoiler and Darcy do everything they can to help Tim and destroy the serum. Spoiler needs to talk Tim down from killing a soldier, which he normally would not do, but things get worse when Peacekeeper-13 shows up. He grabs Darcy while a soldier grabs Spoiler. Spoiler and the guard jettison in an escape pod, but Peacekeeper-13 still holds Darcy.

The ghost of Batman appears and tries to tell Tim he has never been good enough. Unfortunately for Peacekeeper-13, all this does is piss Tim off. Tim takes out Peacekeeper-13 with one blow, but what about the train? They must crash it into the water to destroy the serum. To anyone else, this might be a problem, but to the new and improved Tim Drake, it’s simply an annoyance. What can kill him? He’s already dead!

Tim grabs Darcy and jumps. He throws her to safety, but he plummets to the waters below, only to meet death once more. WRONG! Tim’s hand surges out of the water. Perhaps Robin eternal is exactly that – immortal Robin!

Robin Eternal 2 – The Trail of the Unresolved

I love the internal conflict within Tim throughout this issue and how he handles it. It makes this one of the top Future State comics, but two issues pop up that is becoming a trademark of the Future State titles.

The first involves the ‘ending/not ending’ of the titles themselves. In Robin Eternal 2, the final caption reads “Never the End”. Like I said in the Dark Detective review, this makes for a great universe ending, but terrible story endings. The reader will feel like the story isn’t complete while the story itself lends credence to a multiverse that goes on beyond this. It becomes both a bold ending and a frustrating conclusion.

The second problem I do not shrug off as easily. On page 21, at the bottom of the panel where the soldier ejects with Spoiler, a box reads “Spoiler’s adventures continue in the pages of Future State: The Next Batman #2.” This would be all well and good except – it dropped 3 weeks ago! While this does explain the confusion I had at the time because characters were showing up in multiple places at once, a reader should not have to track down another title from 3 weeks ago.

Overall, though, I think Robin Eternal ranks amongst the top titles of the Future State event so far. What did you think of their conclusion to Robin Eternal? Head on over to DC Fanatics on Facebook and let us know what you thought.