A Year of Cool Comics

CBR

A Year of Cool Comics - Day 212

By Brian Cronin

Published Aug 1, 2010

Here is the latest in our year-long look at one cool comic (whether it be a self-contained work, an ongoing comic or a run on a long-running title that featured multiple creative teams on it over the years) a day (in no particular order whatsoever)! Here's the archive of the moments posted so far!

Today we look at a nice couple of issues of Robin where Robin begins to date the Spoiler...

Enjoy!

One of the cool aspects of Chuck Dixon and Staz Johnson's run on Robin was how realistically wholesome the book was. You still had interesting drama and action, but Tim Drake really came across as just a nice high school sophomore.

That's why the Spoiler was such an interesting character in the book. Dixon had introduced a girlfriend for Tim, but the readers really took a liking to Stephanie Brown, the Spoiler (so named because her dad was a supervillain and she went around spoiling his crimes).

She began appearing more and more in the books, and the chemistry between her and Robin was quite good.

This story begins in Robin #56, while Robin and Spoiler have been patrolling together, but Spoiler would like it to go further...

Johnson does a nice job with the facial expressions.

So Tim begins to develop a problem, he's happy with his girlfriend, but there's just something about Spoiler...

Finally, Dixon comes up with an interesting idea - Robin can't reveal his identity to her, but maybe they can date AS heroes...

So, naturally, Tim has to break up with his girlfriend (it would probably have been better had he done that first, but hey, he IS a teenager, they don't always follow the book)...

This sets up #57, where Robin and Spoiler share their first date!

Spoiler has an idea to get around the costume problem...

They later end up going out for pizza (again, Johnson is killing it with the facial expressions)...

Of course, being a superhero also allows you to take scenic routes...

By the way, there's a separate plot about the supporting character Sheriff Shotgun Smith taking down Cluemaster's gang (as Dixon makes sure to get some action into the comic).

Here's a great scene with Tim and Stephanie just chatting. Dixon had a nice ear for dialogue in this title...