{"id":34650,"date":"2025-12-30T16:49:18","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T16:49:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/?p=34650"},"modified":"2025-12-30T16:49:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T16:49:18","slug":"showcase-presents-robin-the-boy-wonder-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.comicsreview.co.uk\/nowreadthis\/2025\/12\/30\/showcase-presents-robin-the-boy-wonder-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Showcase Presents Robin The Boy Wonder"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"
\nBy E. Nelson Bridwell<\/strong>, Ed Hamilton<\/strong>, John Broome<\/strong>, Leo Dorfman<\/strong>, Gardner F. Fox<\/strong>, Cary Bates<\/strong>, Mike Friedrich<\/strong>, Frank Robbins<\/strong>, Denny O\u2019Neil<\/strong>, Bob Haney<\/strong>, Elliot Maggin<\/strong>, Bob Rozakis<\/strong>, Ross Andru<\/strong>, Curt Swan<\/strong>, Sheldon Moldoff<\/strong>, Pete Costanza<\/strong>, Chic Stone<\/strong>, Gil Kane<\/strong>, Irv Novick<\/strong>, Murphy Anderson<\/strong>, Dick Dillin<\/strong>, Rich Buckler<\/strong>, Bob Brown<\/strong>, Mike Grell<\/strong>, A. Martinez<\/strong> Al Milgrom<\/strong> & various (DC Comics)
\nISBN: 978-1-4012-1676-4 (TPB)<\/p>\n

This book includes Discriminatory Content<\/strong> produced in less enlightened times.<\/em><\/p>\n

As previously mentioned, there are a lot of comics anniversaries occurring in this otherwise dreadful year. The ultimate and original sidekick is probably the most significant of DC\u2019s representatives, and indeed there have been a few intriguing collections released to celebrate the occasion. This one, however, is probably the best but remains criminally out of print, if not utterly unavailable…<\/em><\/p>\n

Robin the Boy Wonder<\/strong> debuted in Detective Comics<\/strong> #38 (cover dated April 1940 and on sale from March 6th<\/sup>). Co-created by Bob Kane, Bill Finger & Jerry Robinson, he was a juvenile circus acrobat whose parents were murdered by a mob boss. The story of how Batman took the orphaned Dick Grayson<\/em> under his scalloped wing and trained him to fight crime has been told, retold and revised many times over the decades and still regularly undergoes tweaking to this day.<\/p>\n

Grayson fought beside Batman until 1970 when, as an indicator of those turbulent times, he flew the nest, becoming a Teen Wonder college student. His creation as a junior hero for younger readers to identify with has inspired an incomprehensible number of costumed sidekicks and kid crusaders, and Grayson continued in similar innovative vein for the older, more worldly-wise readership of America\u2019s increasingly rebellious youth culture.<\/p>\n

The first Robin even had his own solo series in Star Spangled Comics<\/strong> from 1947 to 1952, a solo spot in the back of Detective Comics<\/strong> from the end of the 1960s – a position he alternated and shared with Batgirl – <\/strong>and a starring feature in anthology comic Batman Family<\/strong>. During the 1980s he led the New Teen Titans<\/strong>, initially in his original costumed identity but eventually in the reinvented guise of Nightwing<\/strong>, all while re-establishing a (somewhat turbulent) working relationship with his masked mentor.<\/p>\n

This broad ranging easy on the eye monochrome compilation covers the period from Julie Schwartz\u2019s captivating reinvigoration of the Dynamic Duo in 1964 until 1975 with Robin-related stories and material from Batman <\/strong>#184, 192, 202, 213, 227, 229-231, 234-236, 239-242, 244-246, 248-250, 252, 254 and portions of 217; Detective Comics<\/strong> #342, 386, 390-391, 394-395, 398-403, 445, 447, 450-251; World\u2019s Finest Comics<\/strong> #141, 147, 195, 200; Superman\u2019s Pal Jimmy Olsen<\/strong> #91, 111, 130 and Justice League of America<\/strong> #91-92.<\/p>\n

The wonderment begins with the lead story from Batman<\/strong> #213 (July-August 1969) – a 30th<\/sup> Anniversary reprint Giant – which featured an all-new retelling of \u2018The Origin of Robin\u2019<\/em> courtesy of E. Nelson Bridwell, Ross Andru & Mike Esposito, perfectly reinterpreting that epochal event for the Vietnam generation. After that, the tales proceed in (more or less) chronological order, covering episodes where Robin took centre-stage.<\/p>\n

First up is \u2018The Olsen-Robin Team versus… the Superman-Batman Team!\u2019<\/em> (from World\u2019s Finest<\/strong> #141, May 1964, by Edmond Hamilton, Curt Swan & George Klein). In a stirring blend of science fiction thriller and crime caper, the underappreciated sidekicks fake their own deaths to undertake a secret mission even their adult partners must remain unaware of – for the very best of reasons of course. A sequel from WF<\/strong> #147 (February 1965) delivers an engaging drama of youth-in-revolt as \u2018The New Terrific Team!\u2019<\/em> quit their assistant roles to strike out on their disgruntled own. Naturally there\u2019s a perfectly reasonable – if incredible – reason here, too…<\/p>\n

Detective Comics<\/strong> #342 (August 1965) featured \u2018The Midnight Raid of the Robin Gang!\u2019<\/em> by John Broome, Sheldon Moldoff & Joe Giella, wherein the Boy Wonder joins a youthful gang of costumed criminals, after which Superman\u2019s Pal Jimmy Olsen<\/strong> #91 (March 1966) delivers \u2018The Dragon Delinquent!\u2019<\/em> (Leo Dorfman & Pete Costanza) as Robin and the cub reporter, unknown to each other, both infiltrate the same biker gang with potentially fatal consequences.<\/p>\n

\u2018The Boy Wonder\u2019s Boo-Boo Patrol!\u2019<\/em> – originally a back-up in Batman<\/strong> #184 (September 1966, Gardner Fox, Chic Stone & Sid Greene), shows the daring lad\u2019s star-potential in a clever tale of thespian skulduggery and classic conundrum solving, before \u2018Dick Grayson\u2019s Secret Guardian!\u2019<\/em> (Batman <\/strong>#192, June 1967, Fox, Moldoff & Giella) depicts his physical prowess in one of comic books\u2019 first instances of the exo-skeletal augmentation gimmick.<\/p>\n

\u2018Jimmy Olsen, Boy Wonder!\u2019<\/em> (SPJO <\/strong>#111, June 1968, by Cary Bates & Costanza) finds the reporter trying to prove his covert skills by convincing the Gotham Guardian that he was actually Robin, whilst that same month in Batman<\/strong> #203 the genuine article tackles the \u2018Menace of the Motorcycle Marauders!\u2019<\/em> (Mike Friedrich, Stone & Giella) consequently learning a salutary lesson in the price of responsibility…<\/p>\n

Cover-dated April 1969, Detective Comics<\/strong> #386 featured the Boy Wonder\u2019s first solo back-up in what was to become his semi-regular spot for years. \u2018The Teen-Age Gap!\u2019<\/em> (as described by Friedrich, Andru & Esposito) depicts a High School Barn Dance which only narrowly escapes becoming a riot thanks to his diligent intervention, after which Gil Kane & Murphy Anderson assume the art-chores with #390\u2019s \u2018Countdown to Chaos!\u2019<\/em> (August 1969), bringing the series stunningly alive. Friedrich concocted a canny tale of corruption and kidnapping leading to a paralysing city \u2018Strike!\u2019<\/em> for the Caped kid to spectacularly expose and foil in the following issue.<\/p>\n

Batman<\/strong> #217 (December 1969) was a landmark in the character\u2019s long history as Dick leaves home to attend Hudson University. Only the pertinent portion from \u2018One Bullet Too Many!\u2019<\/em> by Frank Robbins, Irv Novick & Dick Giordano is included here, closely followed by \u2018Strike… Whilst the Campus is Hot\u2019<\/em> (Detective<\/strong> #394 from the same month, by Robbins, Kane & Anderson) as the callow freshman stumbles into a campus riot organised by criminals and radical activists, forcing the now Teen Wonder to \u2018Drop Out… or Drop Dead!<\/em>\u2018 to stop the seditious scheme…<\/p>\n

Detective<\/strong> #398-399 (April & May 1970) ran a 2-part spy-thriller with Vince Colletta replacing Anderson as inker. \u2018Moon-Struck\u2019<\/em> has lunar rock samples borrowed from NASA apparently causing a plague among Hudson\u2019s students until Robin exposes a Soviet scheme to sabotage the Space Program in \u2018Panic by Moonglow\u2019<\/em>. The 400th<\/sup> anniversary issue (June 1970) finally teamed the Teen Wonder with his alternating back-up star in \u2018A Burial For Batgirl!\u2019 <\/em>(Denny O\u2019Neil, Kane & Colletta): a college-based murder mystery which again heavily references the political and social unrest then plaguing US campuses, but which still finds space to be smart and action-packed as well as topical, before chilling conclusion \u2018Midnight is the Dying Hour!\u2019<\/em> wraps up the saga.<\/p>\n

Never afraid to repeat a good idea, Superman\u2019s Pal Jimmy Olsen<\/strong> #130 (July 1970) sees Bob Haney & Murphy Anderson detail the exploits of \u2018Olsen the Teen Wonder!\u2019<\/em> as the boy reporter again apes Batman\u2019s buddy – this time to infiltrate an underworld newspaper – whilst World\u2019s Finest<\/strong> #195 (August 1970) finds Jimmy & Robin targeted for murder by the Mafia in \u2018Dig Now, Die Later!\u2019<\/em> by Haney, Andru & Esposito. Simultaneously in DC <\/strong>#402 \u2018My Place in the Sun\u2019<\/em> (Friedrich, Kane & Colletta), embroils Grayson and fellow Teen Titan Roy <\/em>Speedy <\/strong>Harper<\/em> in a crisis of social conscience, before our scarce-bearded hero wraps up his Detective<\/strong> run with corking crime-busting caper \u2018Break-Out\u2019<\/em> in the September issue.<\/p>\n

Robin\u2019s romps transferred to the back of Batman<\/strong>, beginning with #227 (December 1970) and \u2018Help Me – I Think I\u2019m Dead!\u2019<\/em> (Friedrich, Novick & Esposito) as ecological awareness and penny-pinching Big Business catastrophically collide on the campus, beginning an extended epic seeing the Teen Thunderbolt explore communes, alternative cultures and the burgeoning spiritual New Age fads of the day. Inked by Frank Giacoia \u2018Temperature Boiling… and Rising!\u2019<\/em> (#229, February 1971) continues the politically-charged drama, albeit uncomfortably interrupted by a trenchant fantasy team-up with Superman sparked when the Man of Steel attempts to halt a violent campus clash between students and National Guard.<\/p>\n

Crafted by Friedrich, Dick Dillin & Giella, \u2018Prisoners of the Immortal World!\u2019<\/em> (WFC<\/strong> #200, February 1971), has brothers on opposite sides of the teen scene abducted with Robin & Superman to a distant planet where undying vampiric aliens wage eternal war on each other. A return to more pedestrian perils in Batman<\/strong> #230 (March 1971) sees \u2018Danger Comes A-Looking!\u2019<\/em> for our young hero in the form of a gang of right-wing, anti-protester jocks and a deluded friend who prefers bombs to brotherhood, courtesy of Friedrich, Novick & Dick Giordano. \u2018Wiped Out!\u2019<\/em> (#231, May 1971) then offers an eye-popping end to the jock gang whilst #234 sees a clever road-trip tale in \u2018Vengeance for a Cop!\u2019<\/em>, when a campus guard is gunned down forcing Robin to track the only suspect to a commune. \u2018The Outcast Society\u2019<\/em> has its own unique system of justice, but eventually the shooter is apprehended in the cataclysmic \u2018Rain Fire!\u2019<\/em> (#235 & 236 respectively).<\/p>\n

The Collective experience blooms into psychedelic and psionic strangeness in #239 as \u2018Soul-Pit\u2019<\/em> (illustrated by new penciller Rich Buckler) finds Grayson\u2019s would-be girlfriend, \u201cJesus-freaks\u201d and runaway kids all sucked into a telepathic duel between a father and son, played out in the \u2018Theatre of the Mind!\u2019<\/em> before exposing the \u2018Secret of the Psychic Siren!\u2019<\/em> and culminating in a lethal clash with a clandestine cult in \u2018Death-Point!\u2019<\/em> (Batman<\/strong>#242, June 1972). After that eerie epic we slip back a year to peruse the Teen Wonder\u2019s participation in one of the hallowed JLA\/JSA<\/strong> summer team-ups, beginning in Justice League of America<\/strong> #91 (August 1971) and \u2018Earth… the Monster-Maker!\u2019<\/em>, as Supermen, Flashes, Green Lanterns, Atoms and a brace of Hawkmen from two separate Realities simultaneously and ineffectually battle an alien boy and his symbiotically-linked dog (sort of) on almost identical planets a universe apart. There\u2019s still time to painfully patronise the Robins of both until \u2018Solomon Grundy… the One and Only!\u2019<\/em> gives everyone a brutal but ultimately life-saving lesson on acceptance, togetherness, youthful optimism and lateral thinking…<\/p>\n

Elliot Maggin, Novick & Giordano then set \u2018The Teen-Age Trap!\u2019<\/em> (Batman<\/strong>#244, September 1972), with Grayson mentoring troubled kids – and finding plenty of troublemakers his own age – whilst \u2018Who Stole the Gift from Nowhere!\u2019<\/em> is a delightful old-fashioned change-of-pace mystery yarn. However, \u2018How Many Ways Can a Robin Die?\u2019<\/em> by Robbins, Novick, Dillin & Giordano (Batman <\/strong>#246, December 1972) is actually a Dark Knight story with Teen Wonder helpless hostage throughout, whereas #248 opens another run of solo stories with \u2018The Immortals of Usen Castle\u2019<\/em> (Maggin, Novick & Frank McLaughlin) wherein another deprived-kids day trip turns into an episode of Scooby-Doo, Where are You?<\/strong> The \u2018Case of the Kidnapped Crusader!\u2019<\/em> (pencilled by Bob Brown) then puts the Student Centurion on the trail of an abducted consumer advocate and \u2018Return of the Flying Grayson!\u2019<\/em> (Maggin, Novick & McLaughlin from #250) painfully reminds the hero of his Circus past after tracking down pop-art thieves.<\/p>\n

Batman<\/strong> #252 (October 1973) sees Maggin, Dillin & Giordano\u2019s light-hearted pairing of Robin with a Danny Kaye pastiche for charming romp \u2018The King from Canarsie!\u2019<\/em>, before \u2018The Phenomenal Memory of Luke Graham!\u2019<\/em> (#254 January\/February 1974 and inked by Anderson) causes nothing but trouble for the hero, his college professors and a gang of robbers…<\/p>\n

It was a year before the Teen Wonder\u2019s solo sallies resumed with \u2018The Touchdown Trap\u2019<\/em> in Detective Comics<\/strong> #445 as new scripter Bob Rozakis and artist Mike Grell catapulted our hero into a 50-year-old college football feud that refused to die, whilst \u2018The Puzzle of the Pyramids\u2019<\/em> (#447 and illustrated by A. Martinez & Mazzaroli) offers another clever crime conundrum. This eccentrically eclectic monochrome compendium concludes with an action-packed, chase-heavy human drama by Al Milgrom & Terry Austin as \u2018The Parking Lot Bandit!\u2019<\/em> & \u2018The Parking Lot Bandit Strikes Again!\u2019<\/em> (DC<\/strong> #450-451, August & September 1975), giving the titanic teen one last chance to strike a bit of terror into the hearts of evil-doers…<\/p>\n

These stories span a turbulent and chaotic period for comic books: perfectly encapsulating and describing the vicissitudes of the superhero genre\u2019s premier juvenile lead: complex yet uncomplicated adventures drenched in charm and wit, moody tales of rebellion and self-discovery, and rollercoaster, all-fun romps. Action is always paramount, and angst-free satisfaction is pretty much guaranteed. These cracking yarns are something no fan of old-fashioned Fights \u2018n\u2019 Tights fiction should miss.
\n\u00a9 1964-1975, 2008 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n

Today in 1922, Belgian auteur Marc Sleen<\/strong> was born. We still haven\u2019t seen English versions of his Nero<\/strong> yet, but have slavishly and repeatedly begged you all to tune in to the oeuvre of Ronald Searle<\/strong>, who left us all far less today in 2011.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By E. Nelson Bridwell, Ed Hamilton, John Broome, Leo Dorfman, Gardner F. Fox, Cary Bates, Mike Friedrich, Frank Robbins, Denny O\u2019Neil, Bob Haney, Elliot Maggin, Bob Rozakis, Ross Andru, Curt Swan, Sheldon Moldoff, Pete Costanza, Chic Stone, Gil Kane, Irv Novick, Murphy Anderson, Dick Dillin, Rich Buckler, Bob Brown, Mike Grell, A. Martinez Al Milgrom … <\/p>\n

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