Description

Robin II – The Joker’s Wild                               Variant Comics Lot
Featuring the Complete Kevin Maguire & Dick Giordano “Newsstand” Cover Art Collection.  Awesome!!
Writer: Chuck Dixon
Artist: Tom Lyle
Inker: Bob Smith
Colorist: Adrienne Roy
Letterer: Tim Harkins
Editors: Dennis O’Neil & Kelley Puckett
All “Newsstand” Covers by: Kevin Maguire & Dick Giordano

The Joker is on the loose, and with Batman out of town, it falls to Robin to stop him before he destroys Gotham. This second Robin limited series begins with the Joker once again breaking out of Arkham Asylum. Then, with the help of a captured computer genius, the Joker breaks into the city’s computers, infecting them with a cleverly written virus. Unless the city pays his ransom, he threatens to shut it down.

Each issue came with up to five different covers, many of which featured special holograms. In addition, DC packaged the various editions together in a number of regular and deluxe “Collector’s Edition” sets.

Stories/Spoilers
In issue #1N, “The Funniest Thing Happened…”, At Arkham Asylum, bureaucrats’ debate whether or not the Joker should be allowed to visit his mother. Conditions are arranged so that his mother can visit him in the asylum, but when a bible she gifts him turns out to be a device that expels Joker Gas into the room, things go awry. The Joker manages to escape, and his ‘mother’ is simply a man under his influence. Meanwhile Robin goes on his first patrol in Gotham City without the accompaniment of Batman, who is in Rio De Janeiro. Things are slow until he notices that the Bat-Signal is lit. When he arrives at Gotham City Police Headquarters, Commissioner Gordon is disappointed that Batman isn’t with him, especially since it’s the Joker who’s escaped. Tim is unsure of his readiness to deal with the Joker on his own, but Alfred tries to be reassuring. The next day, Tim goes to school, where he is invited to a party by a jock named Karl. He turns down the invite, but he disappoints his real friends when he has to turn down plans with them too for his duties as Robin. That night, he goes to Arkham to investigate the Joker’s cell. Inside, he finds a number of computer related magazines, and wonders what reason they might be of interest to the Joker. He finds a number of references to a Dr. Osgood Pellinger, who has theories about the pervasiveness of computers. Robin stakes out Pellinger’s home and follows him when he goes out in his car at a suspiciously late hour. Unfortunately, Dr. Pellinger’s car is scooped up by a plow driven by the Joker, and he is kidnapped. Robin jumps down onto the hood of the plow, and the Joker is surprised to see him alive, not realizing that there have been other Robins before. He knocks the boy off of the vehicle and escapes. Tim is worried that the Joker will realize that Batman is out of Gotham, and go on a rampage. In order to keep him in line, Tim and Alfred agree to form a plan that will convince the Joker that Batman is still in the city.

Next in issue #2N, “Tomorrow a Tragedy”, Robin develops a plan to project holograms of Batman around Gotham City in order to convince the underworld that he is still around, and to draw the Joker out of hiding. All the late nights are wearing on Tim, though, and his studies in school are suffering. Thanks to the help of his friend Ives, he escapes embarrassment in class. Later, Ives notices that Tim is obviously wealthy enough to afford a private school, but Tim suggests that the public school was chosen to build character. Somewhere in Gotham, the Joker is drugging a kidnapped Dr. Osgood Pellinger, forcing him to work on a project that will involve commandeering the technology and computers of the city. Later, he holds an audition for a struggling actress, wherein all that he requires of her is that she be able to scream convincingly. Tim and Alfred struggle with all the equipment they need to make their holographic projections work. While they are loading up a van, they receive a call on the shielded line, which they assume is Batman, but it’s just static. Later, they set up the equipment in a location that will allow them to project the image on about half a dozen rooftops. When Robin hears about a suicide attempt on his police radio, he runs off. The suicide attempt is the same actress that the Joker has hired, and she is meant as a distraction. Joker is put out that Batman and Robin have appeared, but he moves his plan forward anyway. He and his men follow Dr. Pellinger’s plans, confounding the city’s telephone systems to be controlled at their whim. Outside, the actress slips, and Robin is forced to tie a Batarang around her ankle and support all her weight by himself. Fortunately, she is saved. As the Joker escapes, he sees the Batman hologram and opens fire on it, revealing the illusion. With the Joker distracted, Robin drops down, knocking the villain to the ground. The Joker is unphased, however, and soon beats Robin into submission – noticing that this is a different Robin than the one he had already killed. When the police arrive on the scene, Joker releases some gas, and escapes as Robin struggles to get away from the lethal poison. Back at his hideout, the Joker celebrates his success, and eventually comes to the realization that Batman is not in Gotham, and Robin is protecting the city by himself.

Next in issue #3N, “…A Comedy Tonight!”, The Joker hacks into the computers in Gotham City, including emergency services and government computers and sets the city into disarray, with power outages and fires everywhere. He has sent a tape to the Mayor, which he decides to withhold from the public in order to save face. This leaves it up to Commissioner Gordon to deal with it all. Gordon is forced to confer with Robin, because Batman is out of town. The next day, the Joker hacks into the Jumbotron at Gotham Stadium during the Hammer Bowl. He demands one billion dollars as ransom to set the city back in order, but with the catch that it must be delivered by Batman personally. Alfred realizes that the Joker has called Tim’s bluff and is well aware that Batman isn’t in the city. Later, Tim plays Warlocks and Warriors with his friends as the Dungeon Master. When faced with the challenge of creating a scenario for his friends to play out, Tim sets up something similar to what is actually happening in Gotham. The king is away, and a mad wizard has taken over the country, leaving only the king’s son to deal with it. Ives recommends that the prince follow the flow of the wizard’s magic to track him down. This causes Tim to realize that he should follow the Joker’s trail over the internet by hacking and leaves the game without explanation. Tim attempts to use the Batcave’s two Crays to hack his way into the Joker’s mainframe. After hours of digging his way through the server’s shell, Tim realizes that the Joker has actually used the connection Tim established to hack into the Crays themselves. Desperately, Tim cuts the power before the Joker can get any information from them. The Joker causes even more havoc for Gotham, such that the mayor asks to have the city declared a disaster area. Tim decides to stop reacting and do some real detective work. He sneaks into the kidnapped Dr. Osgood Pellinger’s house seeking clues. Eventually, he comes across a shoebox flield with photos and memorabilia of Pellinger’s childhood dog. Meanwhile, the Joker delivers his demands to the mayor’s office, and a frustrated Commissioner Gordon warns Robin against facing the Joker alone…

Finally in issue #4N, “Chill Factor”, With no one to really share his feelings and worries with, Robin visits his comatose father Jack Drake in the hospital. Later, Tim and Alfred prepare for a plan that will evade the Joker’s ransom trap, and simultaneously trace back to the location of Dr. Osgood Pellinger, who the Joker had kidnapped to enact his plan to technologically cripple Gotham City. The police deliver a red truck, as requested, leaving it to be picked up by Batman, who is not in the city to collect it. Instead, Robin arrives, and sets up a system by which he can control the truck by a remote. Elsewhere, Alfred sets up a laptop at a payphone, from with which he will run a program set up by Robin to get a response from Dr. Pellinger so his location can be traced by the GCPD. The program shows a picture of Pellinger’s childhood dog Pixie, and he emails Alfred, allowing the trace to occur. Meanwhile, Robin drives the truck through a blizzard onto a suspended bridge. The Joker drives to a viewpoint on a snowmobile. He spies Batman in the truck’s driver seat through his binoculars, falling for Robin’s ploy. Rather than collecting the promised billion dollars in cash, the Joker opts to simply blow up the truck to kill his adversary. When he investigates, he discovers that the Batman in the truck is a fake and has little time to contemplate it before Robin swoops down and knocks him to the ground. Robin takes down the Joker’s thugs, but the Joker himself begins escaping on skates across the river. Robin follows on snowmobile to a sewage treatment plant, unaware of whether or not it is a trap. When he arrives, he is ambushed by the Joker. Robin is quick on his feet and manages to dodge the Joker’s blades before ultimately knocking the villain into a vat of sewage. The police arrive in time to apprehend the Joker and inform Tim that they have traced Dr. Pellinger’s location. At home, Tim is served tea by Alfred, and they congratulate themselves on their success. Finally, Batman returns home, wondering what’s happened. In Arkham Asylum, the other inmates make cracks about the Joker’s accompanying smell of sewage, while he swears revenge on Robin.

Variant Comics lot contains: Robin II – The Joker’s Wild {Complete Newsstand Edition Cover Collection} (1991) Issues #1-4.  DC Comics

Variant Comics are bagged & 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 per comic: FC, 32 pages, Comic, 10.25″ x 6.75″
UPC: None Stated

Collectible Entertainment note: Variant Comics 1N,2N,3N,4N are in Very Fine condition.  Beautiful Set!  Please See Scans!!  A must have for any serious Robin and/or Joker collector / enthusiast.  A fun & entertaining read.  Highly Recommended.

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