When Batman Was Forced to Relive Robin's Death Over and Over Again

Today, we seek out a Batman story where the Dark Knight was forced to relive Robin's death over and over again!This is the Great Comic Book Detectives, where readers send in requests for the names of comic books that they remembered reading years ago and I try to find them for them! Send any future requests to brianc@cbr.com!Recently, I asked my followers on Twitter and on Facebook what was the first Batman comic book that they remember reading. A few of the responses involved comic book stories that the people remember reading as kids, but can't recall exactly WHICH comic book it was, as obviously decades had passed in the meantime. Yesterday, I discovered one of these Batman stories and today, we'll find another one of them!RELATED: How Batman and Robin Nearly Died on the Moon...While Never Leaving Earth!

THE BATMAN COMIC BOOK MYSTERY DESCRIBED

Reader Juan Castro replied on Twitter to say that the first Batman comic book that he ever read was, "1970's. Some villain puts Robin through many deathtraps. It happens in a wax museum. In the climax, Batman grabs a plate from a figure depicting Salome with John the Baptist's head, and throws it to stop a guillotine's blade from beheading Robin. Can't find it for the life of me."

Ironically, this very same issue was the answer for another reader!

So let's get to the bottom of what was behind that super creepy Neal Adams cover!

THE BATMAN COMIC BOOK MYSTERY SOLVED!

The comic book in question is Batman #246's "How Many Ways Can a Robin Die?" by Frank Robbins, Irv Novick, Dick Dillin and Dick Giordano, with the aforementioned Neal Adams and Dick Giordano cover.

Here's an interesting aspect about this comic book, from a Batman historical standpoint. As you may or may not know, in the VERY late 1960s, the Batman comics wrote Robin out of the series. As I detailed in a recent Comic Book Legends Revealed, it was in part due to Denny O'Neil, even before the writer technically wrote a Batman story, as he explained to Dan Greenfield:

Dan Greenfield: I was gonna ask you about that. Actually, last night I went back through my comics and the one thing that always strikes me is that before you came onto the character, they’d already made the decision to have Robin leave. Robin was up at Hudson University and was used sparingly from that point forward.Denny O’Neil: Well, that was a conscious decision of mine.Greenfield: Oh!O’Neil: Yeah, I mean … I had been offered Batman a year before I did it.Greenfield: No kidding? I wanna hear this.O’Neil: Because that was in the (Batman TV show) camp thing.The comics were very half-heartedly following in the footsteps of the camp because it was having a palpable effect on circulation. That’s not always true but it was in that case.Camp as in the sense — as opposed to the more erudite sense — this one-line joke about: “I loved this stuff when I was 6 and now that I’m 28 and I have a bi-weekly appointment with a therapist and a little, mild drug habit and two divorces, ‘Look how silly it is.'”I would go into the most literary bar in Greenwich Village on (Wednesday) or Thursday evenings and there would be writers and poets and college professors, all looking at Batman! But when that was over, it was over. It was like somebody turned a switch.And that’s when (editor) Julie (Schwartz) said, in his avuncular way, did I have any ideas for Batman? And at that point, I wasn’t going to be asked to do camp. I was going to be asked to do anything within the bounds of good taste, etc., that I wanted to.

However, once Robin was out of the series, he kept coming back, but specifically for Adams to draw covers where Robin was in danger! The debut of Ra's al-Ghul came with a cover showing Robin getting shot!

Five issues later, in the classic Halloween issue that saw Batman headed to the Rutland, VT Halloween celebration, Robin is once again in danger...

So the cover for Batman #246 was right in line with those other covers (and it is certainly understandable why that would be someone's first comic book, as it certainly drew you to buy the comic, right?)...

The comic book opens with Batman seemingly seeing Robin die, but when he gets there, he sees that it is a dummy, but it contains a taunt...

Batman quickly deduces that the ways that "Robin" keeps getting killed in these macabre deathraps are recreations of the killers who are on Gotham's Death Row but when Batman investigates, he learns that there is a fifth killer who was released on a technicality (check out Robbins' bizarre usage of scare quotes in this page. Why in the world is "technicality" in a scare quote?)...

Batman realizes that the fifth killer, Ravek, the Butcher (making his first and ONLY appearance), has now finished paying homage to his fellow killers and is about to ACTUALLY kill Robin in a recreation of HIS last killing at a wax museum!

And sure enough, there is the Salome and John the Baptist sculpture that John mentioned!

And yep, there's Batman using the plate to save the day...

Batman then takes care of Ravek...

Robin ends the issue with a weird joke, "Ironic, isn't it, Batman...if I'd been awake through it all...this Robin would have died a thousand deaths!" That's not ironic, that's just a dumb joke!

In any event, there ya go, Juan! The mystery is solved!

Okay, that's it for this installment of the Great Comic Book Detectives! If anyone else has a story that they'd like me to track down, drop me a line at brianc@cbr.com!