4. Red Robin #1-26 (Chris Yost, Ramon Bachs, Fabien Nicieza & Marcus To)
When I first heard Robin was being cancelled in the wake of the Battle For The Cowl storyline in DCs Bat books, I was more than a little outraged. When they announced plans to replace it with a Red Robin book I was flat out furious. I figured it would be Jason Todd playing antihero in more forgettable stories that would eventually be retconned or explained away. After I discovered it would be Tim Drake my attitude improved only slightly. My head was still reeling from what could only be described as a gross misrepresentation of Tims decision-making and fighting prowess in Battle For The Cowl, a storyline that initially seemed to be leading to him taking on the mantle of his mentor as the new Batman. This Red Robin thing couldnt be good, I said at the time. Im man enough to admit I was wrong. Yost introduces us to an incredibly well written Tim Drake/Wayne thats more in step with his status quo in the years following the death of both his father (Jack Drake) in Identity Crisis and his best friend (Superboy) in Infinite Crisis. It seemed the lost of Bruce Wayne had finally pushed him over the edge. Alone, violent and brooding the character seemed like hed become Batman in all but name. And in a good way. Traveling the world searching for evidence that Bruce Wayne was still alive while fighting religious nuts, ninjas, Batmans single greatest foe and his own newly-minted self-doubt, Red Robin realizes just how similar (and how very different) he and Batman truly are. Bachs and To both draw a thin, athletic Drake and his strange new world in a clean, easy to follow style that suits the tone of the book perfectly. This is one of the best Bat Family stories ever written and its the main reason I refused to partake in The New 52, which began immediately after issue 26. An underappreciated modern classic.