Comic Reviews by Walt

I got my introduction to the concept of the comic book way back in 1988 or so, when my mom and grandfather introduced me to comic books with a stack of Silver Age DCs. But my REAL start into comics was with those earliest comics that my parents bought me. This week, I’m providing a brief look at what my earliest comics were.

In this second installment: Batman, Detective Comics, and a dead Robin!

I wasn’t familiar with Clayface at the time, so didn’t know this gang of multiple Clayfaces from anything else. But the cover stood out big-time, as this mud statue of Batman, and then seeing it within the issue, getting smashed by the guy on the cover. So this was Batman, but I was without context…just sorta took it as it was, at face value.

I didn’t know who this guy on the cover was–didn’t know about Nightwing, didn’t know that he was the original Robin, etc. And this being the conclusion of a story, I really didn’t follow. Just something about some book everyone was after, and this guy and Batman not getting along. There was a sense of some history, yeah, but I didn’t even know what questions to ask at the time to catch up. Still…like with the Superman stuff from the other day…this lack of understanding and comprehension failed to turn me off to the character and comics…

This being part of the story that introduced (cameos) of Tim Drake is part of why I like the Tim Drake character–he was introduced into comics at the same time I got my start in “collecting” comics.

This issue was probably just about THE most eye-opening comic of my youth. Turns out that Robin died some time back, as here’s Batman at the grave with a ghost of Robin pointing a blaming finger. The way Batman acted inside, that someone took the appearance of Robin, bringing back the memory of his dead partner…yet again, it’s just something I took at face value. Something that had happened sometime between the comics my grandpa had and these. It just WAS.

(I then found out from a friend some time later that Joker was the one who killed Robin, with a crowbar. It was yet more time later before I tracked down that story as Death in the Family, and still later before I got to actually READ the story.)

After those first several Batman comics, I found myself with this “Part 1 of 5” of “A Lonely Place of Dying.” It had TwoFace in it, and I continued to have this sense of HISTORY about the characters involved. I knew that this comic took place long after Grandpa’s comics, but I’m quite certain that at this point in time, I’d still never even heard of a Crisis NOR Infinite Earths, still had no real concept of continuity or that there could be multiple continuities.

I’d seen an ad by this point showing someone holding a Robin costume and talking about his past coming back to haunt him or not being able to go home again. I’m pretty sure that’s where I first started to figure out that there had been another Robin, and that the original Robin–that I knew–had grown up.

While I didn’t understand the concept of newsstands or the direct market, even at the time I knew there were issues that I was missing. Especially to have two issues of Batman in a row, yet one was part 1 and one was part 3 of this story. Didn’t know what a New Titan was nor how to find that comic (in retrospect, I’m not even sure that title was available outside the direct market or not).

I’m pretty sure this issue was the one where Tim yells at Dick that Batman needs a Robin, and has hope that Dick would put the costume on again, but then he’s in the Nightwing costume and rides off out of the cave.

My next Batman comic–whatever it was–was after this story ended, so I didn’t even realize the story itself HAD introduced Tim Drake AS the new Robin, that there was a new Robin. Yet again: that’s just what it was for me, getting bits and pieces. I accepted it, and I kept coming back.

The original TPB of Lonely Place of Dying–which I still have to this day–is where I first got to read the full story. The 5-issue TPB cost $3.95 or so…

Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT | Tagged: Batman, Detective Comics, Lonely Place of Dying, Mud Pack, Robin, Year 3 |