Retracing even more of Robin’s roots

Robin: The Bronze Age Omnibus hardcover
DC Comics
Creators: Gardner Fox, Mike Friedrich, E. Nelson Bridwell, Frank Robbins, Denny O’Neil, Elliot S. Maggin, Bob Rozakis, Cary Bates, Gerry Conway, Jack C. Harris, Paul Kupperberg, Marv Wolfman, Mike W. Barr, Ernie Chan, Sheldon Moldoff, Chich Stone, Ross Andru, Gil Kane, Irv, Novick, Dick Dillin, Rich Buckler, Bob Brown, Mike Grell, A. Martinez, Al Milgrom, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez (Praise Be His Name), Jose Delbo, Curt Swan, Don Newton, Marshall Rogers, Don Heck, Lee Elias, Jim Aparo, Juan Ortiz, Kurt Schaffenberger, Alex Saviuk, Charles Nicholas, Trevor von Eeden, Joe Giella, Mike Esposito, Murphy Anderson, Vince Colletta, Frank Giacoia, Dick Giordano, Frank McLaughlin, Jose Massaroli, Terry Austin, Bob Wiacek, John Celardo, Dave Hunt, Bruce Patterson, Dan Adkins, Frank Chiaramonte, Jack Abel, John Calnan, Larry Mahlstedt, Steve Mitchell, Mike DeCarlo and Rodin Rodriguez
Publication date: March 20, 2020

This is the latest volume I’ve read in tracing the history of one of my favorite characters – Dick Grayson, the original Robin and later Nightwing. Last spring, I read the two-volume Robin Archives, which collect Robin solo stories from Star-Spangled Comics in the 1940s and 1950s, which I talked briefly about on Facebook. A few months ago, I discussed the massive Showcase Presents Robin trade collection, which reprints a number of stories featuring Robin from 1969 to 1975.

Now I’ve finished reading through this even more massive Bronze Age Omnibus of Robin reprints. This volume collects stories featuring Robin from Batman, Batman Family, Detective Comics, DC Comics Presents and World’s Finest Comics originally printed between 1967 and 1983. As one might expect from comparing those original publication dates, there are a number of duplicate stories reprinted in both the Showcase and the Omnibus. In fact, out of the 49 stories in the Showcase volume and 79 in the Omnibus, 35 stories are reprinted in both. I admit that’s quite a bit of overlap, but there are still enough stories unique to each volume that it is worth it to own both, at least to me.

The stories reprinted in the Robin Omnibus take the character from being The Boy Wonder, fighting alongside Batman and in solo adventures across Gotham City, to becoming The Teen Wonder, first at Gotham High School, then later at Hudson University in New Carthage, and beyond. Robin teams up less and less with the Dark Knight in these stories, but he goes through a period of frequent pairings with his Dynamite Duo co-star, Batgirl. And later stories in the Omnibus collection coincide with the formation and early years of The New Teen Titans.

In fact, if there is a failing in this Omnibus collection, it is in the scattershot inclusion of some of these later stories. For instance, Dick Grayson and Robin spend a great deal of time in New Carthage on the campus of Hudson University in these tales. Dick attends classes and works at the campus newspaper while also solving crimes alongside the campus police.

In the very first preview appearance of The New Teen Titans — first printed in DC Comics Presents No. 26 (released on July 10, 1980, according to Mike’s Amazing World of Comics) and not reprinted in this volume, by the way — it is mentioned that Robin has left college. In “The Gotham Connection,” reprinted from Detective Comics No. 495, which came out shortly before The New Teen Titans debuted with their own first issue, Dick is threatened with expulsion for missing classes and opts to leave campus to pursue a ring of drug runners instead of dealing with the academic troubles. But that storyline goes nowhere. Other plot threads from Dick’s time at Hudson U are simply dropped, never to be addressed again, including a new romance with a girl named Jennifer Anne. The end of “The Gotham Connection” story seems to indicate the tale will be picked up again next issue, but it doesn’t appear that it ever was resolved in any story. At least not one I could find reference to anywhere.

I guess you can’t really fault this volume for not reprinting a story that was never printed anywhere to begin with. But other choices for what is included are not as easily ignored. The very next story in the Omnibus, “Shanghaied” from Batman No. 333, teams Robin with Catwoman in search of a missing Batman. I assume this story was selected for inclusion as it features Robin heavily and teams The Teen Wonder with someone he’s not usually paired with. But “Shanghaied” is a middle chapter of a multi-part story that begins and ends with cliffhangers, but no other chapters of this multi-part epic are reprinted here. Readers of this volume are simply dropped into the middle of the action and given no resolution.

Despite a few odd choices like that here and there in this hardcover volume, I can still heartily recommend it to any fan of Robin’s. Many of these stories show the beginnings of both Robin’s and Dick Grayson’s character development that later creators like Marv Wolfman, George Perez and Chuck Dixon would build upon to great effect. For instance, Gerry Conway pens an arc that begins in DC Comics Presents and continues in backup stories in five issues of Batman from 1981. First Robin runs into Superman and an old circus performer friend while visiting the Sterling Circus appearing in Gotham City. Later, Dick Grayson follows the circus clown, the old friend, to Hill’s Circus, where the young aerialist stays for a time, performing and rediscovering his circus roots. No mention of the Titans is made in these stories, but they all coincide with the issues early in the second year of The New Teen Titans comic.

As evidenced by the extensive list of creators above, this volume is an excellent showcase for a number of fine writers and artists, each lending their talents to shaping the character Dick Grayson and Robin would become and making it possible for other characters to take on the name Robin while Grayson moved on to become Nightwing. Some of these stories I’d read before in single issue form, either when they were first published or later after buying them as back issues. But many of these stories were new to me with this reading.

If you share my love of the character of Dick Grayson, you might also enjoy a podcast I discovered not long ago. “Taking Flight: A Robin and Nightwing Podcast” is by a gentleman named Tom Panarese. The podcast covers a lot of the stories and history included in this volume as well as other stories about The New Teen Titans and fellow Robins Jason Todd and Tim Drake. I heartily recommend you check out both Robin: The Bronze Age Omnibus hardcover and “Taking Flight.”

But what do you think?

Amazing Spider-Man by Nick Spencer tpb Vol. 15: What Cost Victory
Marvel Comics
Creators: Nick Spencer, Federico Vicentini, Ze Carlos, Mark Bagley, Carlos Gomez and Alex Sinclair
Release date: November 2021

Got something a little different this time: I want YOU to tell ME what you think of Nick Spencer’s recent run on Amazing Spider-Man.

I like Spider-Man, but I’ve never been a regular reader of his adventures. I read some random issues that I bought as a kid in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but most of them were truly random. The only continuous run I read during that time included some issues with Spidey facing off against Silvermane, Green Goblin and other gangsters. At the time, everyone assumed the Goblin was Harry Osborn again, but it didn’t turn out to be him in the outfit. I borrowed these comics from a friend, and I currently own a trade collecting some of them: Amazing Spider-Man: A New Goblin, reprinting Amazing Spider-Man Nos. 176-180 by Len Wein and Ross Andru.

I bought many of the then-current Spidey titles in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but I’ve since sold off most of those issues. I kept Amazing Spider-Man No. 267, “When Cometh … the Commuter,” a very amusing stand-alone issue written by Peter David. I had the original six issues that told the story that came to be known as “Kraven’s Last Hunt,” but I’ve since sold them and bought a hardcover of the story instead.

All of this is to say I am no stranger to Spidey stories. I’ve read a lot of them, but I don’t still own most of the stories I’ve read. And I don’t follow the character regularly.

But I do like Spider-Man, and I really like some of his villains. I’ve always been partial to the Green Goblin in his various incarnations. I also like Doc Ock, Kraven, Chameleon and some of the others.

I hadn’t paid much attention to Nick Spencer’s recent run on the title. Nothing against the writer; I haven’t read many Spidey stories in more than a decade by anyone. And I’m not familiar with other things Spencer has written.

But the solicitation image for the trade collection of “The Chameleon Conspiracy,” which was the 14th trade collection of Spencer’s run on Amazing Spider-Man, caught my eye. The cover image shows the Chameleon sitting in a darkened room surrounded by masks of the faces of many of Spider-Man's friends and enemies. There are nearly 30 masks pictured, and the cover brought to mind the first appearance of Chameleon in Amazing Spider-Man No. 1, of which I own a reprint. I don’t know if there is a previous image similar to this trade’s cover, but it made me thing of that initial appearance of Chameleon, and piqued my curiosity.

I pre-ordered the trade and then ordered the next one, Vol. 15, when it was solicited. I don’t think I knew when I ordered Vol. 15, “What Cost Victory?” that it would be Spencer’s last. But it did seem like a resolution he’d been building to, and I thought I might need this trade to complete the story begun in Vol. 14. Turns out I was both right and wrong about that.

Both these two trades very clearly wrap up a lot of plotlines from Spencer’s run and stories from past creators, too, including a story arc I’ve never read but heard a lot about, “Sins Past.” Both of these trades were decent reads, but I got the feeling frequently that I wasn’t getting the entire story. I was very aware I hadn’t read everything that came before. I didn’t feel lost, exactly, but still like I was missing something.

So I’m curious to hear from others who have read all of Spencer’s run, and perhaps even more. What did you Spider-Man fans think of his run on the title? Is it worth it to seek out and buy the earlier Spencer trades? What say you, Spider-fans? I’d like to hear from you for a change.

Where’s the difference between inspiration and temptation?

Whispers tpb
Image Comics
Creators: Joshua Luna
Release date: June 2014

Welcome back! As promised, here is a trade I recently enjoyed from Image Comics. I picked this trade up a few years ago with no foreknowledge of the story at all. If memory serves, this was an impulse buy to fill out an order for the free shipping; something with a price tag that made it worth a chance at the time. The cover depicts a statue of an angelic figure with a cracked face and a demonic visage peeking out. Based on that alone, I made a few assumptions about the plot that were only sort of accurate.

I was very pleased to finally read this trade one recent afternoon. I very much enjoyed the plot, and several of the twists and turns of the story took me by surprise. As usual, I won’t spoil those plot twists here. I tend to shy away from too many plot details on this blog; if I happen to praise a book here you haven’t read before, I hope my words might inspire you to seek it out and try it yourself rather than me spoiling the possible enjoyment you might feel after reading a new title for yourself.

The story in Whispers — which collects a done-in-one limited series — centers on Sam Webber, a young man with a number of controlling fears and phobias. To his surprise, Sam suddenly manifests the ability to leave his body when he sleeps. During these journeys, Sam cannot be seen or physically affect the natural world, but he can influence the behavior of people he knows. The scene above depicts his second out-of-body experience when Sam “visits” his mother, a woman who was emotionally abusive to Sam as a child and who now leads a lonely, miserable life.

Experimenting with what he can and cannot do while undertaking these astral journeys, Sam must fight the temptation to influence his on-again-off-again girlfriend, Lily, who has just gone through a personal family tragedy. Sam also stumbles onto a dangerous situation with another former girlfriend, Vanessa, whom Sam further endangers despite his good intentions. Sam also begins experiencing visions of total strangers behaving in purely evil ways.

Will Sam be able to save Vanessa from the perilous situation she now finds herself in after Sam’s “intervention"? Will — or should — Sam try to influence Lily to either win her back or get some form of closure? And should Sam somehow act on the demonic visions he is seeing with growing frequency? Exploring each of these questions was an engaging read. If any of this sounds remotely interesting to you, you should give Whispers a try.