Saturday Splash Page #213

"Top o' the Heap," in Robin #85, by Chuck Dixon (writer), Pete Woods (penciler), Jesse Delperdang (inker), Noelle Giddings and Jamison (colorists), Willie Schubert (letterer)

Robin was the first DC title I bought monthly. Starting with this very issue, in fact. I had issues from the various mini-series they used to start Tim Drake out with. Mostly the one where he has to face the Joker while Batman's out of town. I had a handful of issues from the Chuck Dixon/Tom Grummett run which started this ongoing. Mostly tie-ins to larger linewide events. Knightfall. Knightsend (Knights End?). The Zero Hour issue where Tim meets a young Dick Grayson Robin.

Also issue #4, which was my introduction to Stephanie Brown, aka Spoiler.

Chuck Dixon wrote the book for about 100 issues, often with the approach of Tim's civilian and superhero lives getting in each other's way. Crimefighting causes Tim to miss class, or leaves him unable to account for his whereabouts when his father wants to know where he was last night, if not at home. Missing a date with his school acquaintance Ariana, or trying to have a relationship with a fellow vigilante when he knows her secret identity, but won't buck Big Daddy Bats enough to share his own.

By the time I was buying the book regularly, Tim and Batsy were having more frequent falling outs, as Batman was fully into his early-2000s, Paranoid Dickhead Era. Tim was also attending a private school, which gave Dixon and penciler Pete Woods a way to introduce new plots and problems, via Tim's various classmates. It did seem to get a little much when one kid turns out to be the potential rightful ruler of some Middle Eastern country, and ends up with a demon set on him, and another turns out to potentially be the next head of Kobra, both in about a 10-issue span.

As much as I like Tom Grummett's work, I do prefer Pete Woods on Robin. His Tim was skinnier, maybe even wiry (I don't think he's tall enough to qualify as "lanky.") That seemed to fit the approach Dixon was going with for Tim, compared to the earlier Robins. Tim wasn't the athlete, certainly not the acrobat, Grayson was. He had to be more cerebral, just to stay alive. I only saw Dixon write a few issues where Tim was dealing with what I'd call a mystery, but his adventures still usually boiled down to him having to think his way through a problem, because his opponent outmatched him physically.

Might have been why I liked him. That and the bo staff, the Ninja Turtles influence still strong in me. The long pants and ditching of the pixie boots didn't hurt, either. Apparently the costume design was strong enough it keeps getting adapted for Dick Grayson in other media, like Batman: The Animated Series and the Teen Titans cartoons.

Dixon left, Jon Lewis took over as writer, as Tim moved back into Gotham proper. Some of the plots Lewis trotted out were weird, or I just didn't get what he was going for. Two kids in some traveling rural roadshow who could heal from terrible injuries, but had to stay close to each other. Batman testing Tim by having Alfred pretend to time travel with a dire warning that one of their friends turns totalitarian. That plot was undercut by Batman criticizing Tim for not dismissing the idea outright on the basis of time travel, when Tim was literally on a team with a kid from the 30th Century, and it was still in continuity that Batman was on a Justice League roster with Booster Gold, who was from the 25h Century.

Then Bill Willingham took over as writer, and the Bat-Editorial took a sledgehammer to Tim's life. Spoiler died in War Games. Tim's dad died in Identity Crisis. Willingham sent Tim to Bludhaven, and had him fight magic-using losers and a bunch of other goofy villains. Also sent Tim's step-mom along, after she had a mental collapse, but oops, she got blown up with the city by Deathstroke in Infinite Crisis. Geoff Johns kept teasing futures where Tim would become some Authoritarian Batman in his depressing Teen Titans run. Then One Year Later, and Adam Beechen, and the whole Cass Cain mess, and boy did I regret not pulling the ripcord 30 issues sooner. Better late than never, I suppose.

All told, I bought Robin for about 5 years, but only 16 issues remain in my collection.

Random Back Issues #141 - Harley Quinn #8

Gymnastics 101 with Dr. Quinzel was very popular, but also had a high drop rate. Dropped into a pit of hyenas, that is.

A three-person team's trying to catch Harley Quinn for theme park tycoon Jack Happi, and figure a fake ceremony awarding Quinn's old psychiatry professor, Dr. Markus, the 'infamous Wertham Award' is the perfect trap. Too bad Harley's watching in the rafters as they set up and Markus practices his speech, which says his work revolves around the idea people only ignore society's rules when they commit a crime, or when they're in love.

Cue flashback! Student Harley, inviting Markus to her dorm room to pitch him on that very idea to convince him to get her into the graduate program, despite her lousy grades. Markus, in a weak attempt to maintain professional decorum, recommends an independent experiment, supervised by him, of course. Harley's already got an idea: What's the worst thing a person can do and still be loved? But who would agree to be the subject?

How about her boyfriend, Guy? He barges in, frantically looking for his paper on Chaos Theory, wondering if his professor will accept losing the paper is connected to the Joker escaping. In an effort to remember, Guy grabs his own special "think drink", right as Harley hands him the paper. Setting aside the drink, he kisses her and rushes out, minus the paper, as Harley notes he'd do anything for her. 

In the present, Bo Donner and Dr. Carrie Chispazo spotted Quinn and tracked her to an equipment room. They've got her now! Or not. They get trapped between two sets of double doors, as part of some goofy attempt by Harley to create a romance between them. She's seen them arguing and thinks they're clearly into each other, indicating Harley spends too much time on early-2000s DC's equivalent to Archive of Our Own. The third guy was patrolling the exterior and is locked out, leaving Harley free to learn why Markus would help lure her out. Answer? The doc wanted to know what happened with Harley's experiment.

Flashback! Guy comes in, remarking the city should bow to the Joker's demands to pay him a smile tax so he doesn't poison the water supply. Plus, Joker smiles more than anyone, and he won't pay the tax, so they can bust him on tax evasion. Hey, the Timmverse cartoon established the Joker does not want to tangle with the IRS.

As Guy takes a swig of his drink, Harley's sitting on the couch, depressed that she ran a red light. Guy blows it off, until Harley admits she was fleeing the cops. In a car she stole after trying to blackmail Markus into letting her in the program by claiming he tried to rape her. Except Markus had a tape recorder and a gun and threatened to call the cops. She lunged for the gun - which she still has - and it went off. And Guy's off, hopefully to another state.

There's a couple of pages about how two of the guys in Harley's crew - which she calls the Quintets, though they can't keep more than 4 alive - are plotting to get her killed, but whatever. Harley's got Markus flailing on a balance beam before she finishes the story.

Flashback! Quinn finds Guy at the same gym. He killed a homeless guy, thinking it was Markus. He sticks the gun under his chin, asking her to pull the trigger. Her hands are on the gun as she pleads with him, but somebody pulled that trigger, and Markus wants to know who. Because he saw the aftermath, Harley back in her dorm room, crying and laughing about how everything's chaos, that Guy and the Joker both understood this. She recorded that initial conversation with Markus, with her asking why he wanted to meet in her dorm room, so he's got to get her an internship at Arkham so she can meet the Joker, or else. In the last panel we see of the Joker, Woods shifts his appearance towards the later, simplified Bruce Timm look, which in this series was shorthand for Harley divorcing herself from reality.

We never do find out who actually pulled the trigger.

In the process of the flashback, Harley remembers Markus poured the rest of Guy's drink down the drain, and in the present confronts him about that. Markus pulls out his pen, claiming it's loaded with Joker Venom. The last of a sample he acquired illegally, some of which he put in Guy's drink, thinking the euphoric effects would counteract the stress Quinn's test would place on him. Again, not sure why, as that's way too many variables in that experiment, but it means the whole thing is only sort of Harley's fault!

Markus smashes the pen on her head, but Quinn's immune to Joker Venom. Markus, who cut his hand in the process, is not. He's dead, Harley's gone, but Chispazo thinks she's got a bead on a way to use herself and Bo to trap Harley. Assuming the backstabbing in Quinn's gang doesn't get her first. . .

{5th longbox, 60th comic. Harley Quinn (vol. 1) #8, by Karl Kesel (writer), Pete Woods (penciler), Mark Lipka (inker), Alex Sinclair (colorist), Ken Lopez (letterer)}

Random Back Issue #6 - Robin #89

Really surprised Alfred would let Tim have such an unhealthy snack on the flight.

This is set during Tim's time attending a private school, where naturally all his classmates ended up in some trouble. Off the top of my head, one guy was there because anger issues jeopardized his sports scholarship, one guy got in trouble for winning too much money off poker websites, and Tim's roomie turned out to be an alcoholic. Plus there was the kid who had a demon trying to kill him. No, not Etrigan.

This go-round, Danny Temple turns out to be potential heir to the throne for Kobra. Danny gets kidnapped by Servitors (which Tim says Bruce has filed under "SSSSSSSSSS"). Plus they lose their deposit on the jet skis. I wonder if the guy they rented from was the same one who made the mistake of renting a jet ski to Frank Castle that one time?

Tim gets Alfred to fly him to the Himalayas to find Danny, while insisting he's just doing recon, he'll totally call for help if he finds anything. Spoiler alert: He does not call for backup. Deadman was probably pretty offended to not get an invite. I mean, he hangs out somewhere in the Himalayas, and he's a ghost. It can't be that long of a trip for him.

There turns out to be a whole power struggle, where Danny doesn't know what the hell is going on. There's a mysterious hooded figure eagerly waiting to see if Danny really is who they think he is, who turns out to be someone Robin knows really well. Tim's also not the only person making tracks for the secret base, as it turns out the previous leader of Kobra isn't quite ready to surrender his throne to anyone.

What was of more interest to me at the time was the subplot Tim mentions in the first panel up there. Batman had one of those brief blips of insight where he decides to train Spoiler, rather than just ineffectually tell her to stop. But when he needs Tim checked up on, he sends her to the school (because of some falling out with Alfred I forget the details of), after revealing Tim's secret identity. This after telling Tim he couldn't tell Spoiler who he was under the mask for a long time (and Bats doesn't reveal his identity to her, naturally). Expert Batdickery, right there. Reveal someone's secret without asking, meddle in their relationship, and be too scared of Alfred to just handle things yourself.

I'd been buying this book regularly about 5 months at this point. Dixon has another year to go as writer before Jon Lewis takes over, but Pete Woods will remain as the primary artist until the end of Lewis' stint around issue #120. I actually prefer Woods' version of Tim to Tom Grummett's, despite being a big Grummett fan if only because Woods doesn't draw him quite as ripped. Tim's just looks like a fairly athletic teenager. Maybe he should look more muscular, but considering he was usually portrayed as nowhere near the athlete Dick Grayson is, it didn't seem too off-base.

[Longbox #9, 7th comic. Robin #89, by Chuck Dixon and Scott Beatty (writers), Pete Woods (penciler), Andrew Depoy (inker), Noelle Giddings (colorist), Willie Schubert (letterer)]