More early adventures of the first kid sidekick

Showcase Presents Robin, the Boy Wonder tpb
DC Comics
Creators: Too many to mention
Release date: 2008

I marveled recently about how Robin, the Boy Wonder, had a number of solo adventures in Star-Spangled Comics as early as the 1940s and 1950s. Dick Grayson is one of my all-time favorite characters, and I had not known that he headlined his own solo series that far back. Those stories are collected in the Robin Archives Volumes 1 and 2.

I bought this giant phone-book sized black-and-white trade paperback collection when it came out back in 2008, but at that time, trades like this one were tossed onto a pile of stuff to read when I had more time. I decided to make the time after reading those Robin Archives volumes, and I’m glad I did.

This collection covers stories from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s. It begins with a re-telling of Robin’s origin from Batman No. 213 from 1969. From there, it drops back to 1964 for World’s Finest Comics No. 141 and the formation of a Robin-Jimmy Olsen team. The junior partners fake their own deaths in an effort to aid their respective mentors.

Several other Robin-Jimmy Olsen team-ups follow from the pages of World’s Finest Comics and Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen, as well as Robin solo stories and team-ups with Batman, Batgirl, Superman and the Teen Titans from the pages of World’s Finest Comics, Batman and Detective Comics.

The adventures also see the Boy Wonder leave high school and Wayne Manor for the campus of Hudson University and the new name, the Teen Wonder. There’s even a two-part adventure with the Justice League of America and the Justice Society of America in 1971 in issue Nos. 91 and 92 of the League’s own title. That last even has the Earth-1 Dick Grayson meet his Earth-2 counterpart and briefly adopt a new costume.

As sometimes happens with Silver-Age stories, some of these tales seem a bit dated now. But most all of them are fun reads showing the continuing growth and development of a classic comics character. I’m definitely calling this a worthwhile purchase!

Showing Some Golden Age Love

Showcase Presents All-Star Squadron tpb
(Collects the first 18 issues of the 1980s series, the first annual
and the preview story from Justice League of America 193 which started things off)
DC Comics
Roy Thomas, writer
various artists

The All-Star Squadron is a group of heroes brought together by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the days before the United States entered what would become known as World War II. According to the story Roy Thomas crafted, the U.S. government had heard rumors of some kind of sneak attack planned for Dec. 7, 1941. FDR wanted to gather all of the members of the Justice Society of America (a roster made up of most of the A-list heroes DC published at the time, and a group formed in part at the suggestion of FDR himself), as well as any other masked mystery men (and women) of the time who were not part of the JSA, and have them help defend the nation against the threat of attack.

Unfortunately, most of the heroes of the JSA are unavailable to answer FDR's call. The villainous Degaton, a time-traveling villain from 1947, has chosen the sneak attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor as cover for one of his own schemes, and has captured most of the JSA -- Superman, Batman and Robin, the Spectre, Dr. Fate, Green Lantern, the Flash, Sandman, Johnny Thunder, Starman and even the future member-to-be, Wonder Woman.

Only Hawkman, Dr. Mid-Nite and the Atom evaded capture by Degaton, but the trio also received FDR's summons too late to prevent the Pearl Harbor attack. The three are joined by Robotman, the Shining Knight, Plastic Man, Johnny Quick, Liberty Belle and later Hawkgirl and Firebrand to form the All-Star Squadron, rescue the trapped JSA and defend the home front during the bulk of the war.

Roy Thomas is a master at crafting stories that expand upon past continuity without wiping away anything from previously published stories. The original tales of the Justice Society were published in the 1940s when World War II was unfolding for real. These tales of the All-Star Squadron, written in the 1980s occur between the adventures published prior.

And I absolutely love these Showcase collections. They are an economical way to experience older series without the time and expense of hunting down countless back issues. To keep the costs low, these reprints are on (relatively) cheaper newsprint rather than the more expensive papers used in today's comics and trades, and they are printed in black and white, much like Marvel Comics' Essentials reprint series. To offset the absence of color, they collect many more issues per volume for a huge, 500-plus page phone-book sized amount of comics greatness. I hope the format sticks around although neither DC nor Marvel have been producing as many of these volumes of late.

Enter The Lair Of The Beast

We’re not going to be talking about new comics this time. Nor will we delve into a typical retro-review posting. There’s a third category of comics reading I engage in, or maybe it might be more appropriate to say I’ve been neglecting it of late, and that’s why we haven’t discussed it here.

For almost a year, I concentrated my back issue purchases on completing the runs on Warlord and Jon Sable, as well as securing some coveted individual back issues fondly remembered from childhood. Those books were placed where they belong in my collection, and I’ve been reading them for the first time as I go back through everything in “chronological” order. Obviously that process started before I was regularly posting about comics on my blog, but maybe someday we’ll go back and do some retro-reviews on stuff even older than the mid-1980s.

Anyway, once I started going back through re-reading my collection, I didn’t stop buying back issues. Other old titles have become available and been snatched up. Trade ads in some of these older comics have prompted me to go in search of other titles and/or issues. In cases where I’ve bought something else and already passed the point where it should be inserted in my collection, I’ve set those issues aside as something to read once I’ve finished this initial run through. For instance, I’ve always been curious about Infinity Inc., but never purchased an issue except for #45 which was part of a crossover with The New Teen Titans. Recently I found a good deal on the first 12 issues of that title and bought them to finally give it a try. The title began in the early 80s, however, and our current retro-reviews have us in 1986, well past where these books “occurred.” So they’ve been added to the stack of stuff to read later.

Also in this stack are trades or hard-bound collections which are not “in continuity” such as Marvel Essentials or DC Showcase reprints. I have several of each of those, as well as a couple Marvel Masterworks and DC Archives editions. There’s also copies of Batman Illustrated by Neal Adams vols. 2 and 3. And some comics-themed magazines, both current and back issues which were of interest. Basically, it’s a hodge-podge stack of anything I’ve bought which either doesn’t fit nicely into continuity or is older than where I’m currently reading. And all of these books are set aside in this stack to read when I finish going through my collection in “chronological” order.

Except, that’s taking longer than I expected it would.

And the stack of other stuff is getting very large.

Very, very large.

Almost rivaling the stack of prose books I haven’t gotten around to reading yet. But that’s a whole other issue, and, of course, I’m working on it, too.

But I digress.

Back to the stack of comic “also-rans.” I decided I needed to start working on that stack, even if only occasionally, so that it doesn’t become too overwhelming. And at the top of the stack was ...

The Essential Tomb of Dracula, vol.1 (Marvel Comics) — This huge black-and-white trade collection assembles Tomb of Dracula #1-25, Werewolf By Night #15 and Giant-Size Chillers #1 for an entertaining romp through the most popular early 1970s Marvel Monster title. The tales are set in then-contemporary times and begin with American Frank Drake traveling to an ancestral castle in Transylvania, Castle Dracula. He brings along his girlfriend, Jeanie, and his “friend,” Clifton Graves. The trio are hoping to cash in on Drake’s infamous family name. Of course, the corpse of Dracula is discovered, the remaining stake is removed, the dark prince of the undead is revived and once again unleashed on an unsuspecting world. Many of these tales take place either in Transylvanian or London, and an assortment of vampire hunters are introduced to challenge Dracula. Some are descendants of famous vampire hunters, such as Quincy Harker and Rachel Van Helsing. This collection also includes the introduction of Blade, another vampire slayer who has gone on to a successful movie series starring Wesley Snipes.

Tomb of Dracula is a fun read, and I’m not even a fan of vampires, typically. And, the Essentials volums are a great price for this much comics reading. Well worth the price of admission.