We move from Detective Comics to the first two issues of Robin’s ongoing solo book.
Robin #1
Story by Chuck Dixon
Pencils by Tom Grummett
Inks by Scott Hanna
Letters by Tim Harkins
Edited by Jordan B. Gorfinkel & Denny O’Neil
We pick up where Detective Comics #668 left off, with AzBats having Robin by the throat. Robin breaks free and out of AzBats grasp – as Jean-Paul breaks free of The System. Jean Paul-tries to explain, but Robin says nothing to him as he takes the Redbird and goes.
Elsewhere, at the Gotham City Country Club, some goons are boosting some sports cars from a fundraiser, when security shows up. The goons gun down one of the guards before bailing.
Back at the Drake home, Tim stashes the car in the carriage house, and takes the bus to school the next day, before he has a date at the school dance with Ariana, who has come up a couple times before.
However, those thieves from earlier? Also, planning to steal some cars from the dance.
At the dance we get Tim’s Flash Thompson, who Tim saves from being shot by the car thieves.
Because the dance is out in the burbs, we’re not under the jurisdiction of GCPD – which means we have the re-introduction of a character who hasn’t been seen since before Crisis on Infinite Earths – Shotgun Smith. Shotgun Smith was a GCPD cop who frequently butt heads with Batman back in the ‘70s.
At Blackgate Prison, Cluemaster is putting together a crew for a breakout. Cluemaster is joined by Czonk, Electrocutioner, and The Cypher (who you may remember from the stories where Azrael was joining the Bat-Family in the buildup to Knightfall. We don’t get the full plan, but we know it involves The Cypher mind-whammying the prison psychologist.
Back at the Drake place, Tim has a line on the gang of car thieves, the “Speedboyz” (because Poor Literacy is Kewl) and heads out on patrol in the Redbird. He encounters a car tailgating him. It looks like the guy wants a race, so Robin pulls over to let him pass, partly because he’s not down for that and partly because if it’s a Speedboy he wants to tail him. What happens instead is the driver runs him off the road and into the trees.
When robin comes too, he’s being hauled out of the Redbird, and is looking down the barrels of a sawed-off shotgun carried by Shotgun Smith.
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