Damian and Maya continue their chosen path in Robin: Son of Batman #3 written and drawn by Patrick Gleason, inks by Christian Alamy and Mick Gray, colored by John Kalisz.
Damian and Maya continue down Robin’s list to atone for his past. However things are not going smoothly and they fight. Maya knocks out a tooth (a baby tooth) in their scuffle but Damian tries to convince her to change her goals. Turns out she’s been continuing her father’s hit works and she’s been neglecting her jobs. Damian convinces her to quit.
Meanwhile Talia has been found by the mysterious faction Lu’un Darga who takes her to Undr’urr
in a special mineral chamber where the cloaked figure who claims Ra’as had defiled Talia for so long corrupting her and between that and her amnesia they perform a ritual to sift through the shards to “restore what they need before issuing your ultimate fate”. Small orbs of memory, a green one for Damian, and a blue one for a mother’s love are created and returned back into her head, while red, orange, yellow and black for hate, confusion, fear and madness are removed. Talia then wakes up and attacks the figure, smashing three of them, while palming the black one (whichever that may be). She vows to escape and finds herself at a Dragon’s Pit, a Lazarus heart. She calls out for Ra’s angrily. The issue ends with the person Maya quits on: Deathstroke.
POSITIVES
Action packed, starting with a flashback to Damian’s Year of Blood and fast forwarding to the comedic missteps of atonement in the present with Damian and Maya trying to return a crystal Damian stole. It’s all good fun but their banter is quite deep as Damian tries to explain that Maya does not have to follow what her parents, what her family designed and left for her. It’s all good stuff and Damian does indeed work best with older teenage girls. Maya thus far is filling a great void the reboot left when removing Steph Brown as Batgirl in regards to a bantering partner for Damian.
The “removal” of all the negative aspects of Talia while showing the memory of Damian and a mother’s love being put back in seems to indicate a hardcore 180 turn from Morrison’s final take on Talia and will, I would hope, mark a turning 
point under Gleason’s pen to making her an anti-hero or at the least an anti-villain again. She’s always worked best in my opinion as a chaotic agent bent on destroying her father by her own means. Hopefully she’s out for blood.
NEGATIVES
Not the best art we’ve gotten from Gleason on Robin, some scenes were terribly simple, but it’s stylish enough. I really like Robin and this book is very much worthy of being DC’s “Robin” ongoing. So check it out if you haven’t yet.
VERDICT
I enjoy this immensely. Robin: Son of Batman is everything I want in a comic book. The possibilty of redemption for Talia along with Damian is so important to me and I think should make a lot of people happy. Go get it already!
