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buggeryI had to get myself a copy of this month's Wizard magazine. It cost as much as two actual comic books, so the magazine-about-comics is not going to become a regular purchase, but this issue (which just arrived in comics shops yesterday) includes a mini-comic, exclusive to Wizard, that spoils the surprise of who the new Robin debuting in issue #126 will be.
(The cover art for Robin #126 has already been released. I found a nice-sized copy at ToonZone. Their server doesn't allow direct-linking to images, but you can copy-and-paste the URL into your browser window: http://news.toonzone.net/images/2004-02/robin126.jpg)
The Wizard website has been dishing quite a bit about the upcoming shakeups in the Robin title, including this article and this interview which appeared earlier this month.
The flames of speculation about what's going to happen with Tim, Robin, and the new Robin have been -- heh -- fanned to fever pitch in some quarters. Me, I maintain that grumping and swearing to stop reading Robin if Tim is replaced, even temporarily, is equivalent to grumping and swearing to stop reading the Bat-titles when Jean-Paul put on the cowl in Knightfall/KnightQuest/Knight'sEnd... it just means a lot of catch-up later. And I was saying so before I got my hands on the Wizard issue.
But rather than going off on a ranty tangent, let me just share what I found inside the magazine.
[This is the full text of the article accompanying the Wizard exclusive mini-comic, "Street Cred," written by current Robin scripter Bill Willingham and both pencilled and inked by artist Damion Scott, who's about to become a regular on the Robin team. Any notations I've made in the text appear blue, or as hyperlinked footnotes.]
the wizard preview:
ROBIN
Fabled scribe Bill Willingham teams with rising star
Damion Scott to give the boy wonder a dose of girl power
by DAVE MARSHALL
There's a new boy wonder in town -- only thing is, he's a she. Tim Drake's sometime girlfriend the Spoiler makes her debut as the first female Robin in DC continuity1 this May in Robin #126. Written by Willingham, the issue also marks the series debut of regular penciller Damion Scott2.
When Jack Drake discovers his son's identity as Robin, Tim quits the caped life3. Frustrated with her third-tier superhero career as the Spoiler, Stephanie Brown trades her purple hood for green tights4 -- before asking the permission of ol' Bats.
"She breaks into the Batcave with her homemade Robin suit all sewn up -- which actually looks pretty bad," says Willingham5. "While Tim showed up ready for the job, Stephanie has a lot to learn."
Although Batman accepts Stephanie as the new Robin, his reactions remain ambiguous. Does he really think she's right for the job, or is it just a ploy to lure Tim back to his post?6
"We're not going to look inside Batman's head because I want to keep his real motivations secret for a while," explains Willingham. "All we know about him is from Stephanie's point of view. He's big, he's mean, he screams a lot7 and nothing seems to be good enough for him."
Once training begins, Stephanie quickly realizes that running with the Bat isn't all that easy. "Batman's looking for her breaking point," says Willingham. "Can she be provoked into losing it? The greatest challenges facing her will be psychological more than physical."
Worse than any villain she might face, Stephanie's doubts threaten to defeat her. "It's like being the first girl at West Point8," suggests Willingham. "She's the fourth in what's becoming a long line of Robins. Is she every bit as official as they were? Is she good enough for this job?"
And, of course, the successes of her predecessor looms [sic] large over everything she does. "Bruce is constantly comparing her unfavorably to Tim," says Willingham. "All through training, he's saying things like 'Tim mastered this in the second week and here you are in week three and you still haven't got it.' For a while, she's definitely going to be under Tim's shadow."
After her training has progressed, Stephanie still sticks close by her Dark Knight. "Stephanie is a Robin who, unlike Tim, absolutely needs Batman there for a while," asserts Willingham. "The whole idea of doing a teenage sidekick is to look at how someone learns to be a hero. At least, that's what's interesting to me9."
Yet, even with all the growing pains, there's no question that Stephanie's living a dream come true. "She comes into Robin with a sense that she's been kind of mopey, but once she finally gets the big job, she brightens up and just has a wonderful time," notes Willingham.
But Stephanie isn't the only one joyful over Robin's new direction. Willingham could hardly be more enthusiastic about seeing Scott's pencils for the first time.
"Damion really understands these characters," gushes Willingham. "Getting the art from him is like a constant extension of Christmas -- all of these wonderful things are coming to me."
Thanks to Wizard, wonderful things are also coming to you. For a peek into a night in the life of the Spoiler -- and a first-ever look at Scott's art on these characters -- check out this seven-page original story10, written and drawn exclusively for Wizard!
Notes:
(The cover art for Robin #126 has already been released. I found a nice-sized copy at ToonZone. Their server doesn't allow direct-linking to images, but you can copy-and-paste the URL into your browser window: http://news.toonzone.net/images/2004-02/robin126.jpg)
The Wizard website has been dishing quite a bit about the upcoming shakeups in the Robin title, including this article and this interview which appeared earlier this month.
The flames of speculation about what's going to happen with Tim, Robin, and the new Robin have been -- heh -- fanned to fever pitch in some quarters. Me, I maintain that grumping and swearing to stop reading Robin if Tim is replaced, even temporarily, is equivalent to grumping and swearing to stop reading the Bat-titles when Jean-Paul put on the cowl in Knightfall/KnightQuest/Knight'sEnd... it just means a lot of catch-up later. And I was saying so before I got my hands on the Wizard issue.
But rather than going off on a ranty tangent, let me just share what I found inside the magazine.
[This is the full text of the article accompanying the Wizard exclusive mini-comic, "Street Cred," written by current Robin scripter Bill Willingham and both pencilled and inked by artist Damion Scott, who's about to become a regular on the Robin team. Any notations I've made in the text appear blue, or as hyperlinked footnotes.]
ROBIN
Fabled scribe Bill Willingham teams with rising star
Damion Scott to give the boy wonder a dose of girl power
by DAVE MARSHALL
There's a new boy wonder in town -- only thing is, he's a she. Tim Drake's sometime girlfriend the Spoiler makes her debut as the first female Robin in DC continuity1 this May in Robin #126. Written by Willingham, the issue also marks the series debut of regular penciller Damion Scott2.
When Jack Drake discovers his son's identity as Robin, Tim quits the caped life3. Frustrated with her third-tier superhero career as the Spoiler, Stephanie Brown trades her purple hood for green tights4 -- before asking the permission of ol' Bats.
"She breaks into the Batcave with her homemade Robin suit all sewn up -- which actually looks pretty bad," says Willingham5. "While Tim showed up ready for the job, Stephanie has a lot to learn."
Although Batman accepts Stephanie as the new Robin, his reactions remain ambiguous. Does he really think she's right for the job, or is it just a ploy to lure Tim back to his post?6
"We're not going to look inside Batman's head because I want to keep his real motivations secret for a while," explains Willingham. "All we know about him is from Stephanie's point of view. He's big, he's mean, he screams a lot7 and nothing seems to be good enough for him."
Once training begins, Stephanie quickly realizes that running with the Bat isn't all that easy. "Batman's looking for her breaking point," says Willingham. "Can she be provoked into losing it? The greatest challenges facing her will be psychological more than physical."
Worse than any villain she might face, Stephanie's doubts threaten to defeat her. "It's like being the first girl at West Point8," suggests Willingham. "She's the fourth in what's becoming a long line of Robins. Is she every bit as official as they were? Is she good enough for this job?"
And, of course, the successes of her predecessor looms [sic] large over everything she does. "Bruce is constantly comparing her unfavorably to Tim," says Willingham. "All through training, he's saying things like 'Tim mastered this in the second week and here you are in week three and you still haven't got it.' For a while, she's definitely going to be under Tim's shadow."
After her training has progressed, Stephanie still sticks close by her Dark Knight. "Stephanie is a Robin who, unlike Tim, absolutely needs Batman there for a while," asserts Willingham. "The whole idea of doing a teenage sidekick is to look at how someone learns to be a hero. At least, that's what's interesting to me9."
Yet, even with all the growing pains, there's no question that Stephanie's living a dream come true. "She comes into Robin with a sense that she's been kind of mopey, but once she finally gets the big job, she brightens up and just has a wonderful time," notes Willingham.
But Stephanie isn't the only one joyful over Robin's new direction. Willingham could hardly be more enthusiastic about seeing Scott's pencils for the first time.
"Damion really understands these characters," gushes Willingham. "Getting the art from him is like a constant extension of Christmas -- all of these wonderful things are coming to me."
Thanks to Wizard, wonderful things are also coming to you. For a peek into a night in the life of the Spoiler -- and a first-ever look at Scott's art on these characters -- check out this seven-page original story10, written and drawn exclusively for Wizard!
Notes:
Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns featured a girl Robin named Carrie, but is not in continuity -- it's a story of a Batman of another time and place. (Though not quite as distant a time or place as the female Robins in 1996's Detective Comics Annual #9 and Robin Annual #5, both part of an Elseworlds "Legends of the Dead Earth" theme: EARTH IS DEAD. Those who once might have called it home are long scattered to the stars. But in that scattering, on a thousand different worlds, by a thousand different ways... Earth's greatest heroes live on. These are... LEGENDS OF THE DEAD EARTH. ) Bill Willingham's Stephanie-as-Robin story will have ramifications in Robin and a dozen or so other titles, probably Batman: Gotham Knights and Teen Titans most particularly, for years to come.
Scott previously pencilled Batgirl for a couple of years, up through issue #36 or so. [If someone with the relevant issues can tell me the exact length of his run, I'll add that information here.] Scott has also said, as reported by Brian Cruz of toonzone.net, that he will be both pencilling and inking on Robin.
That Jack would find out Tim is Robin has already been spoiled in various places; the usual wording suggesting Tim would be "forced" to stop being Robin is absent here.
A lot of people had leapt to the conclusion that the new blonde female Robin would be Stephanie. DC had said "it's not who you think," and I fell for it, ruling Steph out because she was the obvious blonde. But it turned out to be exactly who we thought.
Before we all start burning Bill Willingham in effigy, consider what he said in this interview with PULSE webzine's Jennifer M. Contino...
- THE PULSE: What role will Spoiler have in your run? She seems to have been fleshed out a lot with Jon Lewis's work, are you going to keep her an active part of Robin's life?
WILLINGHAM: Future plans with Spoiler were pretty much locked in, before I came onboard. For that reason I don’t think it’s my place to comment on them. Sorry for the cryptic answer, but there you go.
I have no idea, but I'm looking forward to trying to figure that out. Colour me fascinated. ::happysigh:: I love my fucked-up Batfamily.
I'm trying to give Willingham the benefit of the doubt. Why does he have to say stuff like this?
Because Batman? Anger management issues out the wazoo. But. Not a screamer.
Now there's an interesting comparison.
That's nice, Bill, that that's what interests you. I haven't been bored with Tim even when he wasn't 'learning to be a hero' -- which is a good thing, because that's not what most of the Robin run to date has been about.
I don't have access to a scanner right now, but if nobody else gets the "Street Cred" minicomic scanned in and put up within a week or so, I'll at least transcribe the captions (and describe the art) from this Wizard exclusive Spoiler-&-Batman story. To sum up, for now: Steph is doing some good work, despite being hamstrung by her lack of backup and name-recognition... and Batman is watching. The story is set while Tim is still Robin (or as far as Steph knows, he is, anyway).
Yes, I put in ten footnotes. Yes, I'm anal.
Edited: Gah. GAH. I'm really sorry if anyone was inadvertently spoiled by my jizzing up the cut-tag. It's fixed now, as is the toonzone direct-linking issue.
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no subject
Date: 2004-02-26 08:09 pm (UTC)man, DC, why must you do this to me when I LOVE YOU SO?
of course I'll buy and read it anyway, I'm a total whore, but. but. --and I LOVE the idea of a girl robin! I am all ABOUT that idea! But not...this girl.
whine whine whine. yeah.
no subject
Date: 2004-02-26 08:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-02-26 10:15 pm (UTC)I think DC just has problems making interesting female characters, *especially* female characters who are Good Guys. I mean, there's Barbara, and...yeah. (If I'm wrong, PLEASE point me!!)
no subject
Date: 2004-02-27 07:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-02-27 06:42 pm (UTC)Well, I *totally* love the new Batgirl (Cassandra.) And I always kind of liked Steph, too, so I'm willing to give Robin!Steph a shot.
no subject
Date: 2004-02-27 08:31 pm (UTC)and we can call this one footnote 12
Date: 2004-02-28 01:26 pm (UTC)Barbara as Batgirl (no, she didn't interest me as much then)
Barbara as Oracle
Cassandra / Batgirl (and even if she's not Batgirl, actually)
Helena / Huntress (never did much for me)
Dinah / Black Canary (enh, though she's growing on me)
Detective "Josie Mac" MacDonald (you didn't specify capes, and Gotham's got some cool cops)
Detective Renee Montoya (more so than ever since Gotham Central outed her)
Lieutenant Sarah Essen-Gordon
Captain Maggie Sawyer (Gotham Major Crimes Unit; formerly of Metropolis)
Captain Amy Rohrbach (Dick's first partner on the Blüdhaven PD)
Dr. Leslie Thompkins (There are few better examples of how a civilian can be a hero.)
Sasha Bordeaux
Lois Lane (bores me silly, but that's a minority opinion; Lois is interesting enough to have had her own title, way back in the Silver Age)
Jennie-Lynn / Jade (I first got interested in Jade during Judd Winick's run on GL, and I'm delighted she's joined Dick's new Outsiders.)
Grace Choi (Another Outsider, and just guh.)
Anissa / Thunder (Black Lightning's daughter; how cool is that?)
Indigo (the remaining 'female' Outsider... who may yet grow on me more)
Koriand'r / Starfire (I'm actively resisting liking her at this point, actually. I can admit when I'm being petty.)
Cassie / Wonder Girl
Cissie / Arrowette (retired, but this doesn't actually make her less interesting)
Raven (not grabbing me yet, and her Wolfman incarnation scared me in ways other than, I think, the ones intended; but I see this changing)
Donna / Troia (dead now, but again, still interesting, and something tells me we'll see her new incarnation again)
Lian Harper (hardly ever seen or even mentioned, but I'm interested just the same)
Diana / Wonder Woman (Not my thing personally, but -- Wonder Woman. Iconic.)
Zatanna (I am interested in her, I just don't know anything about her yet...)
Power Girl
Hawkgirl
Supergirl (She's had enough incarnations that one of them has to interest most fans.)
Katma Tui (the GL who trained John Stewart)
Killowog (hey, fanon says she's a she)
Selina / Catwoman (I don't follow Selina's adventures well enough to second
Talia Head (currently occupying a similarly grey moral middle ground)
Lady Shiva Woosan (Not a good guy, though seeing her next to Cheshire over the last few issues of Birds of Prey has made her look a lot 'gooder' by comparison. In any case, a woman who can defeat Batman hand-to-hand? Yeah, interesting.)
Cheshire (I find her annoying, but I suspect I'd be intrigued if I got to see more than a couple issues of other people's books with her in them.)
Poison Ivy (not interesting to me personally, but objectively? interesting)
Harley Quinn (ditto)
Plenty there to choose from, I'd say. And somewhere there's a site all about the women of the DC universe -- I think
Re: and we can call this one footnote 12
Date: 2004-03-20 09:16 pm (UTC)Technically Barbara Gordon was the 2nd Batgirl The first one, Bette Kane (Flamebird), was the niece of the original Batwoman. Batwoman was retconned out of existance and Bette was transferred into becoming Flamebird from the start.
Around Geoff Johns board, it's already out that Donna is on her way bac,. I'm actually very anti-revivalist and not happy about that.
I preferred the pre-crisis daughter of Earth 2 Batman version Huntress. Long story to explain all that.
Here's for the "DC majorly sucks" big news. I don't know if you've heard me mention it, but they're rebooting Doom Patrol. While that means some great characters are coming back, they're coming back at the expense of other characters (especially Beast Boy) and other comic book series (such as Titans and all of the later Doom Patrol series). What's really annoying is there have been posts about John Byrne saying he'd love to start Doom Patrol over again, but he's claiming its not his idea, it's an editorial decision. However, Byrne's been caught in lies before....
Um... what?
Date: 2004-03-21 12:15 am (UTC)Huh? I haven't posted on any boards except TWOP, and I haven't even lurked over there for more than a year. Is someone impersonating me somewhere?
Batwoman was retconned out of existence
Yeah, I deliberately ignored pre-Crisis continuity because... well, those characters and/or those versions of the characters are no longer current. And I generally prefer the post-Crisis versions and characters. There are only so many "happy accidents" that can come out of the crack the creative teams smoked back in the Silver Age.
Around Geoff Johns board, it's already out that Donna is on her way back.
Hunh. I hadn't heard anything about that; I'm surprised it would happen this soon. It was pretty obvious from the way "Graduation Day" was resolved that they were leaving themselves a reasonable way to bring her back, though.
I preferred the pre-crisis daughter of Earth 2 Batman version Huntress. Long story to explain all that.
I didn't, at all; short story why. I much prefer a continuity where Bruce has never so much as slept with Selina. (And I don't mind his not having slept with Talia, for that matter, though I do think Ibn made an interesting character.)
Here's for the "DC majorly sucks" big news. I don't know if you've heard me mention it, but they're rebooting Doom Patrol.
Nope, haven't heard anything about that either. (Do I know you...?) But then, I don't have the investment in Doom Patrol that you seem to; I've ridden out reboots of my favourite characters' (Bruce, Dick, Jason) origins enough times that I'm mostly at peace with it. But then, I usually agree with the creative teams in question that the changes wind up being for the better.