Description

Robin: A Hero Reborn                      Trade Paperback
Writers: Chuck Dixon & Alan Grant
Artists: Norm Breyfogle & Tom Lyle
Inkers: Steve Mitchell & Bob Smith
Colorist: Adrienne Roy
Letterers: Tim Harkins & Todd Klein
Editors: Dennis O’Neil & Dan Raspler
Cover by: Brian Bolland

After being deemed worthy by Batman to become the new Robin, Tim Drake sets off for France to study specialized fighting techniques under an ancient master. But before long, Robin’s training is sidetracked when he finds himself working together with a maverick DEA agent and a deadly female assassin in order to stop the modern day release of the Bubonic plague. Learning street fighting and martial arts from his new companions, Robin endures a baptism of fire as he discovers the danger of living a life based on anger and revenge.

Stories/Spoilers
First in part #1, It is almost dawn in Gotham City when Batman responds to gun shots. He encounters a masked gunman who shoots four people, killing two. Batman disarms the gunman and slams into him. Pulling off the mask he finds a sixty-seven-year woman who later explains her actions as a whim. Meanwhile reporter Vicki Vale takes pictures of some homeless people for an article in View Magazine. As she leaves, another criminal, wearing an identical mask as the old woman, arrives and attacks the homeless men with an axe. Tim Drake has a dream where he is tormented over his mother’s death by images of Batman and Nightwing. In the dream, Tim seems most distraught by the heroes’ masks. Batman wakes him up and reminds him that today is his mother’s funeral. Vicki develops her photographs and discovers that she has an image of the masked criminal who attacked the homeless men. Bruce and Alfred watch a news report of, yet another man dressed in the same mask who killed eight people in a store before being shot/killed by policemen. He is identified as Josef Macky. Tim is in the Batcave looking at Jason Todd’s Robin costume and begins to understand the desire to wear a mask and take revenge. Bruce advises Tim to accept his anger instead of fighting it. They leave for the funeral. Vicki watches a news report of the homeless men who were attacked. After killing three of the homeless men, the killer was pushed by the others into their fire. He is identified as a bus driver. Vicki reinspects the photos thinking she may have evidence that the police can use. She enlarges a car leaving the scene in order to get the license plate number. At the funeral Dick Grayson offers Tim his help and speaks with Bruce who tells him that Tim wants to wear the Robin costume, but that Bruce doesn’t want that. Vicki takes the photo of the license plate to the police. Lt. Kitch tells her that they already had the number and had traced it to Rico Marcuse who said he was driving by on his way to work. They could find no connection between him and the ax-killer. Vicki’s not convinced and decides to track Rico down herself. After Tim searches unsuccessfully on the computer all afternoon trying to link the various murderers, Bruce decides to hit the streets and denies Tim’s requests to join him. Batman tells Tim he doesn’t think Tim’s ready for the responsibility that comes with the mask. Tim says he doesn’t understand, and Batman tells him that, when he does, he might be ready. Batman orders Tim to stay put or he’ll never get the chance to be Robin. Meanwhile, Vicki tracks Rico to his workplace and finds his car. As she decides her course of action, she is confronted by a sledgehammer wielding masked man.

Next in part #2, Batman stops another skeleton-masked criminal dressed as a Santa Claus, at Gracey’s Department Store where he had injured eight people. A reporter indicates this is the 43rd “crime of whim.” Afterwards Batman talks to Lt. Kitch who tells him there’s no trace of chemicals or hypnosis. Kitch tells Batman about Vicki’s lead with Rico Marcuse. Vicki is attacked by a skeleton-masked man while Rico Marcuse provides his henchmen with info about their next victims. One of his henchmen spots the struggle with Vicki and they go down to see what’s going on. Rico recognizes Vicki from the morning near the homeless men. They take her with them to see the boss. Batman has been watching and decides to follow them silently. At the Batcave, Tim continues searching on the Batcomputer any information that would help him solve the crimes. He’s driven to find the solution to prove himself to Bruce that he deserves to be Robin. Alfred tries to get Tim to help wrap Christmas presents but Tim refuses to give up on his search. Rico takes Vicki to Gotham Chemical, an abandoned factory. They call the boss to tell him about Vicki, then escort her up. On the stairs Vicki manages to get away from the henchmen but runs straight into the boss. Batman decides to try to sneak into the building. Tim has a daydream where he is confronted by the two previous Robins who lecture him on not giving up. He wakes up and contemplates the situation and realizes that a whim is just a momentary lack of fear. He calls the Batmobile, but Batman is not there to answer. So, he calls Commissioner Gordon and asks him to activate the Bat-Signal to tell Batman what he’s deduced. Batman spots the signal but has no time to respond. He continues his infiltration but activates a booby trap and is captured by the Scarecrow. Tim debates whether he should go into action, in defiance of Batman’s orders, or stay put and hope for the best. He ultimately decides he must help and takes a taxi.

Next in part #3, Scarecrow has Batman and Vicki Vale captured and reveals his plan. He had Christmas cards and skeleton masks sent to 50 people chosen at random. The cards were coated with one of his new hypno-toxins that removed a person’s fear. After the toxin had time to take effect, Scarecrow called them all and suggested they try killing, which removed of their inhibitions, and they did. While a city in fear was pleasing to him, it was all just an elaborate trap to bring Batman to him so he could use his various fear toxins on him and slowly “unwrap” his mind…the ultimate Christmas present to himself. While beginning Batman’s fear sessions, Rico Marcuse and his henchmen drive away with the bonus money Scarecrow had given them. When Rico opens the envelope, he is doused with Scarecrow’s gas and, in a fit of rage, attacks the driver. The car, now out of control, crashes into a storage pile of toxic waste. Tim Drake has taken a cab to the Scarecrow’s hideout and searches for the Batmobile to see if Batman fell into the trap. He sees it and decides he must attempt a rescue. Tim traps two henchmen and knocks out a third before coming upon Scarecrow and Batman. Donning a ski mask to avoid being recognized, Tim orders Scarecrow to free Batman. However, he forgot to survey the scene and he is attacked by the henchman who was holding Vicki out of Tim’s sight. As Tim disables him, Scarecrow grabs the latest fear gas he was using on Batman, called “Essence De Trauma”, and throws it at Vicki and Tim. While Vicki suffers from reliving having her puppy run over by a car, Tim is tormented by the Obeah Man. Tim is paralyzed with fear when images of the two previous Robins appear telling him not to fight the fear but to live with it. They remind him that feeling fear doesn’t mean you can’t still act. Taking their advice, Tim manages to get to his feet and slam Scarecrow into the shelves holding all his other fear toxins which douse and effectively disable him. Tim takes off his mask in front of Batman who, still somewhat delirious, calls him Robin. Tim frees Batman then goes back to the Batmobile to avoid being seen. Some policemen arrive having been called by Tim’s taxi driver who was concerned leaving a kid alone near a deserted factory. They take the Scarecrow into custody and Vicki to the hospital. Batman finds Tim. Tim fears he will never be Robin now for disobeying Batman’s orders but had deduced it was a trap set by Scarecrow. Batman asks Tim why he didn’t don the Robin suit and Tim says he was afraid that, if he failed, he would disgrace it. Batman tells him that sometimes, when justified, heroes get to break the rules and calls him Robin. Back at the Batcave Tim admits his apprehension of wearing the previous Robins’ suit due to the history it carries. Batman acknowledges the weight the symbol carries and presents Tim with a new, upgraded suit which he dons for the first time.

Next in part #4, Batman provides Tim Drake with a brand-new Robin costume, unlike any worn by his predecessors. He tells him that he will soon be ready to become his partner, but first he needs training from the greatest masters in the world. Bruce books Tim on a flight to Paris, where he enrolls in an exclusive school specializing in Tibetan fighting techniques. The instructor at the school is the aging Rahul Lama, who lives and trains with his son, Shen Chi. Tim discovers that he is currently the only student at the dingy, spartan dojo. Rahul spends several nights teaching Robin meditative healing arts, while Shen instructs him in physical combat. One evening, Shen and Tim take the night off. Shen takes Tim out to a trendy nightclub in the Chinese district of Paris, but Tim is uncomfortable in this strange environment. A young woman named Lynx approaches Tim at the club and strikes up a conversation and baits him into following her outside. Lynx is part of a street gang known as the Ghost Dragons. Billy Hue, leader of the Ghost Dragons approaches them in an alley and violently drags Lynx away. Tim attempts to stop him, but Billy knocks him down with a solid kick to the face. Tim races back to the dojo to retrieve his Robin costume and then hits the rooftops. He tracks the Ghost Dragons to a decrepit warehouse and witnesses the gang members torturing an American named Clyde Rawlins. Robin swings down to defend Clyde, from the gang members. Despite being bruised and beaten, Clyde still has a lot of fight left in him, and together they force the Ghost Dragons to scatter. From above, an assassin named Lady Shiva watches them with great interest.

Next in part #5, Robin and Clyde Rawlins continue to fight off the Ghost Dragons while Lady Shiva watches on. Clyde proves that he is no pushover, and easily mows down just as many of the gangsters as Robin does. The Ghost Dragons retreat, and Robin and Clyde take off to tend to their wounds. Billy Hue and the other Ghost Dragons report their failure to the boss, the King Snake. King Snake does not tolerate Billy’s shortcomings and promptly kills him with a swift blow to the face. He places Lynx in charge of the Ghost Dragons and sends her on a mission to retrieve a mysterious Nazi weapon. Meanwhile, members of the British Secret Service hire a French mercenary named Henri Ducard to assassinate the King Snake. Henri negotiates for a steep price and accepts the contract. Robin brings Clyde to the Hotel St. Germain. The following morning, Lady Shiva appears in their room and warns them that they are both in danger. Members of the Ghost Dragons have tracked them to the hotel and are presently coming up the stairs. Robin and Clyde follow Shiva out the window and the proceed to scale the side of the hotel. They escape from the Ghost Dragons and part company. Robin has no idea who this strange woman is. Robin takes Clyde to a cottage safe house, far away from Paris. While Clyde recuperates, Robin does a background check on him and learns that Clyde once worked as an undercover DEA agent, but when Clyde’s investigations brought him too close to the King Snake’s doorstep, the drug lord had his family killed. Clyde has spent the past two years trailing King Snake’s every movement in the hopes of getting revenge. Clyde is grateful to Robin for saving his life and decides to expand upon his physical training by showing him a few basic combat techniques. When Robin finally manages to tap into his anger and beat Clyde in combat, Lady Shiva appears to offer her services in training.

Next in part #6, Lady Shiva arrives at the safe house occupied by Robin and Clyde Rawlins. She wants their help in stopping King Snake’s latest scheme. She tells them about his plan to steal a fifty-year-old Nazi cache of a bio-engineered plague. Clyde doesn’t trust Shiva, but Robin agrees to help her stop King Snake and the Ghost Dragons from stealing the plague samples. They travel to an old, buried bunker at the Maginot Line in France. They sneak inside and find the Ghost Dragons unloading two large crates bearing Nazi seals. Shiva splits up from them and begins attacking the Ghost Dragons on her own. Robin and Clyde get caught in a crossfire, and Robin discovers that Lynx is now leading the street gang. When she seems to have Robin at a disadvantage, the echoes of gunfire disturb a colony of bats that had been nesting in the cavern. The bats provide Robin and Clyde with an ample distraction, and they use the animals as cover to get away from the Dragons. The gang gets ahead of them, and they arrive in time to find that Shiva has captured one of the crates, but the Ghost Dragons have escaped with the other in a helicopter. They destroy the crate and give chase. Meanwhile, King Snake visits a Moorish clock tower somewhere on the Iberian Peninsula and makes a bid to purchase it from its caretaker. He orders that it be dismantled and shipped to Hong Kong, where it is to be reconstructed. He receives a call from Lynx, who lies when asked whether she and her group have disposed of Robin and Clyde. Robin uses his computer hacking skills to learn where King Snake is having the plague delivered. He, Clyde, and Shiva board a plane headed for Hong Kong, hoping to meet the Dragons there before it is released. They become more desperate when they realize that the virulent disease, they are up against is the Bubonic Plague.

Next in part #7, Robin, Clyde Rawlins and Lady Shiva arrive at the port city of Kowloon in Hong Kong. They stalk the streets until they find members of King Snake’s Ghost Dragons. Shiva is prepared to kill all of them, but Robin convinces her to allow him to interrogate one of the Dragons, asking him where Snake is having the plague weapon delivered. The gang member tells them about an airfield where the plague is being delivered. They stake out the airfield and follow the trail back to King Snake’s penthouse in the central district of Hong Kong, despite Robin’s urging that the plague is more important than Clyde or Shiva’s vendettas. After surveying the estate, they retreat for the evening to one of Lady Shiva’s safe houses. The following morning, Lady Shiva decides to give Robin some pointers on combat techniques. Robin thinks Shiva is a homicidal maniac but respects her martial prowess. She offers him his choice of a weapon from her own private collection. He chooses a collapsible battle staff, despite Shiva’s urging that he should choose a more lethal weapon. The two spars, but Shiva easily beats him. Later, Robin carves notches into the tip of the staff enabling it to generate a whistling effect whenever he swings it. He uses it during their next sparring competition and the distinctive warbling distracts Shiva long enough for Robin to get the upper hand. That evening, the mercenary, Henri Ducard, arrives in Hong Kong. He stakes out King Snake’s operations by the shipyard and prepares to make his move. Ghost Dragons in disguise as police officers discover him and attack him inside of their car, but he fights back and succeeds in killing several of them. Meanwhile, King Snake looks down upon the city from his penthouse suite. Using the newly reconstructed Moorish water-clock that he bought in Iberia, he plans to release the plague so that the city of Hong Kong will be a wreck before it falls into the hands of communists.

Finally in part #8, Robin, Clyde Rawlins and Lady Shiva stake out the Dorrance Building in Hong Kong. Clyde’s hunger for revenge forces him to depart from the others and he begins to make his way into the skyscraper’s front lobby. Robin has reviewed all of the building’s security measures, and sneaks in from the basement levels. He disables the security systems allowing Clyde and Lady Shiva to continue without interference. Clyde eventually tracks King Snake down and faces off with him in a trophy room. King Snake is in his element however and easily outfights Rawlins. He describes how he made Clyde’s wife scream before he killed her. He kicks Rawlins in the back, snapping his spine, before wheeling around to deliver a fatal chop to his neck. Robin, meanwhile, makes his way towards the clock tower room where King Snake’s men have planted the plague virus. King Snake’s chief lieutenant, Bobbo, sees Robin on the catwalk and opens fire on him. Robin uses his sling and fires a screw into the chamber of Bobbo’s gun. The gun backfires and resulting explosion kills Bobbo. Robin then makes his way to the trophy room where he finds Clyde’s dead body. King Snake emerges and the two begin fighting. Robin remains silent, so as to keep what little edge he has against a blind opponent. Despite his blindness, King Snake manages to beat Robin back with several brutal kicks. Robin knows that he has little chance of defeating King Snake in the dark and uses his fighting staff to create a whistling sound to distract his opponent. While King Snake is disoriented, Robin kicks him through the window. Lady Shiva finally emerges from the shadows and finds King Snake hanging on a ledge over a fifty-floor drop. Robin refuses to finish Dorrance for Shiva, and races back to the clock tower room to secure the plague. As he leaves, he hears King Snake’s screams as he falls to his apparent death. The Hong Kong authorities are called in and the virus is safely contained. Robin meets Henri Ducard who informs him that King Snake sent a cargo vessel filled with laundered money to Gotham City. He had intended on establishing a new headquarters there after destroying Hong Kong. Robin returns to Gotham City and stops King Snake’s shipment of money. He also encounters Lynx, who now possesses only one eye – punishment for her failure to kill him. Robin lets Lynx and the rest of the Ghost Dragons go. He reunites with his mentor, Batman, and the two swing off into the night.

Collects: Batman (1940) Issues #455-457 & Robin (1991) Issues #1-5.  DC Comics

Trade Paperback is bagged & double boarded and will be carefully / securely packaged then shipped via USPS Priority Mail to ensure that it arrives to you perfectly and quickly.

First Printing
Publisher: DC Comics
Publication Date: 1991
Format: FC, 192 pages, TPB, 10.25″ x 6.75″
ISBN-10: 1563890291
ISBN-13: 9781563890291

Collectible Entertainment note: Trade Paperback is in Fine condition (very light discoloration from sticker adhesive on bottom right of front cover)  Nice!  Please See Scans!!  A must have for any Batman and/or Robin collector / enthusiast.  A fun & entertaining read.  Highly Recommended.

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