By the way, can you confirm that in the late Bronze Age her stories were set in New York?  

That panel's dialogue makes no sense at all; unless he was referring to the new characters (i.e. Raven, Cyborg, et al.), he has known and worked with the others for a very long time. Continuity be damned, I guess, even though Wolfman would make references to their earlier incarnation in the years to come.

Of the six other members of the team, he'd previously worked with two. That's a very different dynamic than the team he'd worked with before.

He is referring to the unit as a whole. These folks are going into life or death combat without knowing even the basics of how the others think or fight.

I don't see the issue.

^^ Always though that the cover above was a bit of a nod to this one:

My suspicion is that the empty space was left because Aparo anticipated a portion of the artwork being cut off to make room for the standard frame used on this title:



The cover to the previous issue also has a lot of empty space, almost entirely on the sides.

Such a frame hadn't been used in several months by this point, but who knows how far ahead Aparo first did breakdowns for these covers?

The Lazarus Affair vs. New Teen Titans #2-7 (Robin in December 1980 thru May 1981)

In the pages of New Teen Titans, Robin is slowly finding himself again and evolving into a team leader. We see the first signs of this in issue #2,





and witness Robin finally and truly fall into the role with the culmination of the first major storyline in issue #6:



After which, Raven essentially admits to grooming Robin into the team leader both she and he needed him to be:



A fully self-actualized Dick Grayson follows in the next issue, comfortable in his role and at home with his new team, which necessitates his pushing away from Batman, confident in his own approach and destiny.






One would think that Marv Wolfman assuming writing duties on Batman as of this month would allow for this vision of Robin to continue there. In fact, this marks the first time that the Batman title acknowledges Robin leaving college and the strain it has placed on his relationship with Batman:



...and the second time.



...and the third.



...and, well, Wolfman reiterates it A LOT.

But that's where the alignment between Batman's depiction of Robin and the New Teen Titans' depiction of Robin ends. Even with the same writer taking on both major works (the first Trigon storyline and The Lazarus Affair, both starting and ending at the same time!), the Robin in the pages of Batman is far more foolish. Instead of having any sense of what to do, he runs to Catwoman for help when he thinks Batman is making a mistake and allows first her, and later King Faraday, to call most of the shots. And he doesn't end up helping much by the end anyway. He and Batman yell at each other a lot over the course of five issues, and both secretly still care about the other, but it all feels far more immature than the Robin we are seeing lead The Titans.

In a sense, The Lazarus Affair is a metaphor for any kid who has had a divorced parent take on a new live-in girlfriend or boyfriend.



Robin's reactions are powerful and immediately understandable, but more for an adolescent than a college-aged man in his late teens.

But most surprising of all is where The Lazarus Affair ultimately takes the Bruce Wayne/Dick Grayson relationship:





Not only is their relationship suddenly healed (something we do not see reflected in New Teen Titans #7):



but what does Dick mean that he's going to "stay, for a while at least"? He's been living in Titan's Tower for three months by this point.

Come to think of it, his involvement with the New Teen Titans is never once mentioned across this massive story arc. Odd, since Wolfman was the one writing that title.


I realize I've turned Paul Levitz into a bit of an editorial boogeyman in these reviews, but this smells like his doing all over again. We know he wanted Robin in the pages of Batman as a happy-go-lucky sidekick again. So Wolfman tries to write an angry, independent Robin, and he ends up delivering a conclusion that absolutely doesn't match what he has been building towards and outright contradicts what he is writing in the pages of New Teen Titans--a conclusion that fulfills Levitz' agenda for the character and flies in the face of Wolfman's. And then Wolfman is abruptly gone from the Batman title immediately following that issue, a Bob Rozakis filler story taking his place until Gerry Conway can assume the reigns.

Sure seems like editorial interference to me.

Robin will return to getting his own solo feature in the back of the Batman title in two months' time, now written by Gerry Conway. I'll review those individually and will be curious to see if they align with Wolfman's depiction of the character at all.