Robin 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular is one of those celebratory issues that I enjoy reading because often times they bring back writers and artists who have worked on these characters in the past. This one is no exception on that front. Though it's weird having Marv Wolfman and Tom Grummett working together on a story where Dick Grayson is Robin. There's nothing wrong with it of course, since Marv is the person who wrote all of the Dick Grayson stories in The New Teen Titans/New Titans throughout the '80s. It's just Tom Grummett is the artist, alongside writer Chuck Dixon, who started the Robin ongoing monthly series that ran from 1993 until 2009 and while Dick did appear as Robin in both Robin #10 as an alternate timeline or dimension version of himself and in flashbacks in Robin #0, that series was focused on Tim Drake, who was the current Robin at the time. So it's weird, but interesting, to have that artist on a Dick Grayson as Robin story, rather than a Tim Drake as Robin story.
One thing I thought was also weird about this issue is that Jason Todd only gets one story in the entire issue. He appears in one of Tim Drake's story, but he doesn't even get a story with the Outlaws from Red Hood and the Outlaws, even though there's a pinup right after the Jason Todd story that looks like it could've been one of the covers for that series. Meanwhile Dick gets a story with the Titans by the same creative team that produced The Titans in the early 2000s, and Damian gets a story with Jon Kent in the vein of Super Sons.
Speaking of the Super Sons, this is actually my first time reading anything from that series. I've been MIA from modern day comics for a while, poking my head back in from time to time, just to see what's going on with Batman, Superman, Green Arrow and Spider-Man, but I duck out again, once my curiosity has been satisfied. As a result I've never read Super Sons even though I've heard from multiple people that it's a really good series. I've been meaning to, at the very least, pick up an issue of Super Sons and read that, just to say that I've finally read an issue, but none have actually jumped out at me and grabbed my attention (metaphorically speaking that is). At least not in the way that Invincible from Image and Sideways from DC have.
There wasn't very much to their story, "My Best Friend" by Peter J. Tomasi and art by Jorge Jimenez who, I am assuming, are the creative team who came up with Super Sons in the first place. Again, because I'm not up on current comics, I don't know anything about this series or it's creators or anything like that. All I know is this story. It's told from Jonathan Kent's perspective as a paper he's writing for school. He chooses to talk about his best friend, who happens to be Damian Wayne, which is kind of sad considering how much of a jerk Damian is. Except when Tomasi is writing him apparently. It's something I noticed in Tomasi's run on Batman and Robin towards the original run of that series, when Damian is Robin, fighting alongside Dick Grayson as Batman, and during the first arc of the New 52 run on the series. Of course having never read Super Sons, I don't know how representative this story is of the series as a whole. But I liked it. It's not my favourite story in this issue, but it's still a good one, and that's just because I like Tomasi's work.
Another story that I liked in this issue is "Fitting In" by Amy Wolfram with art by Damion Scott. This is the only story where a writer has worked on it, but hasn't had any history with Stephanie Brown as Spoiler, Robin or Batgirl. At least none that I could find. However, Damion Scott was the artist on Robin in 2004 during Stephanie's time as Robin from issues 126 until 128 when a different artist took over for the War Games tie-in issues, before returning for the crossover with Batgirl in Robin #132 and #133 and then three more issues after that. I did a little digging into Amy Wolfram's work and she's mostly done comics based on Teen Titans and Teen Titans GO!, as well as having written episodes of both of those shows. She also wrote episodes for the 2000s Legion of Super-Heroes animated series, and wrote Teen Titans: Year One for DC. Which is interesting.
The two Tim Drake stories are good, but they really aren't much to write about. The first one "Extra Credit" takes place in the era where I wasn't reading new comics at all as a teenager. Tim has the red and black Robin costume that he got following Infinite Crisis in the story, and by the time I got back into new comics, Tim was already Red Robin, having been replaced as Robin by Damian with Dick Grayson as Batman and Stephanie Brown as Batgirl, so I actually missed the red and black Robin costume until I read Grant Morrison's run on Batman from "Batman and Son" to "R.I.P.". Also, it's basically just Tim talking to the new guidance counselor at his school, and it's not that great as there isn't any of Tim's supporting characters from Robin in the story either.
The second Tim Drake story, "Boy Wonders", is set between The New 52 and DC Rebirth, right before Detective Comics #934. I haven't read Detective Comics very much since Scott Snyder's run just before The New 52 started, during "Black Mirror". In fact, the only issue I've read since then was Detective Comics #1,000, which is a special issue like this one, with multiple stories by various writers and artists who have worked on Batman comics before. So it's not really a story I'm invested in. It was still good though as Tim talks to Dick, Jason and Damian to figure out whether he wants to continue as Red Robin or go away to college.
My favourite stories in this issue are three of the Dick Grayson ones. The first one, which is also my absolute favourite is "A Little Nudge" by Marv Wolfman with art by Tom Grummett. I've read quite a few DC books from the '80s at this point, and Marv Wolfman is one of my favourite writers from this period, just based on what I've read of his work on The New Teen Titans and of course, while it's convoluted and insane, Crisis On Infinite Earths is one of my favourite pieces of Wolfman's work. Plus this is actually my favourite era of Batman comic book history, aside from the early to mid '90s with Knightfall and the surrounding issues. Dick is nearing the end of his time as Robin, he's almost full time with the New Teen Titans, and Batman isn't completely standoffish yet as Dick hasn't left yet and Jason isn't Robin yet. So to read a brand new story set in that era and that looks like that era is awesome.
The second one I like a lot is story #2 "Aftershocks" by Chuck Dixon, with pencils by Scott McDaniel and inks by Rob Hunter. The story takes place during the "Aftershock" story arc, following the earthquake that devastated Gotham City during "Cataclysm". I haven't read a whole lot from this particular part of the '90s, but I do have Batman #559 from this period and so it's a bit nostalgic for me. I also haven't read much Nightwing from this period either. I wasn't reading much in terms of new comics at this point either, so I missed out on a bunch of things like the Chuck Dixon run on Birds of Prey, Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E. by Geoff Johns, and the "No Man's Land" arc in the Bat books. I still haven't read "No Man's Land" but I've since read the first couple of arcs from Birds of Prey and I couldn't stand it. I also tried to read an issue of Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E., the first appearance of Courtney Whitmore/Stargirl, but I couldn't get into it. But like I said, I kind of know what Nightwing was up to during this era, so it was fun to read a story set during it.
The third story, "Team Building" is basically a shorter issue of Titans by Devin Grayson with art by Dan Jurgens and Norm Rapmund. Of course Jurgens is known for The Death of Superman but I'm not super familiar with Norm Rapmund. Apparently he's worked for Image, Malibu Comics, and Marvel, among others, and his work for DC has been various and numerous. He's done pretty much everything from Aquaman to Booster Gold. So that's quite the resume. And might explain why I don't know his work as well as I do Dan Jurgens's work. I had a few issues of Titans from the early 2000s and this story felt exactly like those issues, which was great.
One of the reasons I like this story so much is because it is my first comic book encounter with Damien Darhk and H.I.V.E., who I know from Arrow and DC's Legends of Tomorrow on TV. I don't know what he's like in other books, so I can't tell if this story is indicative of Darhk's character generally, but the way he is here is more like how he was on Legends rather than on Arrow. Incompetent and really hard to take seriously. Which I have no problem with since I actually preferred Darhk on Legends than I did on Arrow. Probably because he was actually written better on Legends.
Final Thoughts and Rating: Overall, this is a great issue if you're a fan of the Boy Wonder. No matter what era you prefer or which Robin you like, there's a story in it for every Robin fan. Some stories are better than others, but they're all pretty good. The artwork is pretty great too. Though I do question why they'd use cover art from All-Star Batman & Robin the Boy Wonder for the Dick Grayson section instead of reprinting or recreating a classic cover from the '40s and '50s or the '60s and '70s. That book is hated by so many people that it's insane for them to use a cover from a book that is that hated. Regardless, I'm glad they pulled from all of the Robins, though I do feel like Jason Todd and Stephanie Brown got shafted in favour of Dick, Tim and Damian. Oh and I appreciate that they limited Carrie Kelley's appearance to a single pin-up since you can't really tell many stories with her since she's been limited to Frank Miller's Dark Knight saga and that really weird period during The New 52 where Damian was killed and various guest stars replaced him in Batman & Robin. And even then she's never canonically been Robin, so I'm glad they kept the stories to the ones who have multiple stories across many decades. I'm giving Robin 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular 10/10 stars.
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