ROBIN

A team-up of Batman and Robin does not sound like anything that could be considered a special occasion, but this one certainly was ... since it wasn't The Batman's own Robin he was meeting.

The career of the Golden Age Robin does parallel that of the modern Robin up to a certain point. Residing on Earth-Two, the original Robin's aerialist parents were also killed, and the Batman took the boy under his wing to bring the killers to justice. The main difference is that those events took place right before World War Two. The Earth-Two Robin fought along side Batman, Superman and other heroes for many years, growing to adulthood and eventually becoming a US Ambassador. The older Dick Grayson also took over for the retiring Batman, and even joined up with the Justice Society (along with his guardian's daughter, The Huntress).

Unfortunately, one of the after-effects of the Crisis on Infinite Earths was to completely erase the existence of the Golden Age Robin from the DC Universe. Sad, because it was nice to see Robin finally grow up and come into his own. He does live on in spirit though, in the form of the adult Nightwing in the regular continuity, and in Red Robin in the Elseworlds tale Kingdom Come.

The Brave and The Bold #182

Batman and Robin, The Ex-Boy Wonder in "Interlude on Earth-Two"

Script by Alan Brennert
Art by Jim Aparo

Cover by Jim Aparo

SYNOPSIS: On Earth-Two, Dick Grayson, now grown and a US Ambassador, is investigating a freak electrical storm that has beset Gotham City with Ted Knight, also known as Starman. As Robin, he and Starman head for the source of the storm, which was caused by the supposedly long-dead Professor Hugo Strange. Using the storm, the madman attacks the pair, and steals Starman's Cosmic Rod, promising Robin that he will destroy Gotham City within 24 hours.

In the meanwhile, the Earth-One Batman wandered into a cemetery and was almost hit by lightning. It caused a dimensional rift that transported the Dark Knight to Earth-Two, winding up in front of the grave of that world's Bruce Wayne, who perished in battle several months earlier. Batman meets up with the older Robin at Justice Society headquarters, and soon after they begin to be attacked by weapons and machines out of the past, including the Catwoman's Pantherjet, the Spinner's giant tops, and the original Batmobile.

Along the way, they meet up with Batwoman, a heroine whose Earth-One counterpart was killed several months earlier (by the Bronze Tiger). They determine that since Strange has access to so many items from the past, he must be hiding in the old Batcave, and take the Whirly-Bats there. Strange continues to use the Batcave against them, animating the mechanical Tyrannosaurus and even a robot of the original Batman, until he finally appears before our heroes.

Strange's body was shattered and mangled by the fall he took in his first encounter with the original Batman, and claimed to want to destroy Gotham in revenge. Batman, however, realizes that Strange in fact wants them to kill him, since he didn't have the courage to commit suicide. Faced with that realization, Strange uses the power of the Cosmic Rod to disintegrate himself.

A recovering Starman sends Batman back to Earth-One, and he and Robin are left wondering what drew him to that cemetery in the first place.

COMMENTS: Another great story for those of us who are DC nostalgists. From the cameo appearance of Starman and the small but welcome role played by Batwoman, to the appearance of all the vehicles and weapons from stories of years past, everything was very enjoyable. The original Hugo Strange is much different than his Silver Age counterpart (and even more different from the character after he was beset with retroactive continuity (though his was one of the few changes I found to be an improvement on the original), and was used splendidly as the archetypical "mad scientist".

I don't know about anyone else, but I never had any difficulty with the multiple Earths concept that DC used for about 30 years. Practically every issue that featured a parallel Earth had a couple of blurbs in the story explaining it and I never found it hard to follow. Apparently this wasn't true for the casual readers, though why the casual reader would care about that bit of continuity is beyond me.

This issue also features another episode of Nemesis, "Enter: Greyfox" by Cary Burkett & Dan Spiegle.