The title and credits seem to have crept in from #507.

Batman #338 (August 1981)



Robin: "Murder on the Midway, Part Two: Killer Under the Big Top!"

Script: Gerry Conway
Pencils: Don Newton
Inks: Steve Mitchell
Colors: Adrienne Roy
Letters: Pierre Bernard Jr.

Grade: C

When you spend two issues slowly developing a murder mystery, only to have Robin find the gun and then suddenly cut to this excessively cramped epilogue, resolving pages worth of information in three panels:



it's safe to assume Gerry Conway isn't giving the Robin feature much consideration right now. Heck, the A feature for this issue, featuring the origin of The Sportsmaster, is easily one of Conway's worst stories in this run. Could be that the demands of writing Batman, Detective Comics, World's Finest Comics, AND the Robin backup feature all at the same time each month were beginning to wear down on him.

Whatever the case, it's clear that expecting Conway to carefully consider Robin's dual lives as solo adventurer and leader of the New Teen Titans here is an exercise in disappointment. Sure enough, Dick is still presented as if being a solo hero and working with Hill's Circus are the only things going on in his life right now:



Again, Dick has been leading the New Teen Titans for nine months now, and it's never once been mentioned in any of the Batman titles yet: Batman (even while Wolfman was writing it!), 'Tec, World's Finest, Brave and the Bold, and even DC Comics Presents--there's just no way it's sheer carelessness. The omission is too omnipresent. Thus, it continues to feel like there's some kind of a pissing match happening between these offices. Hopefully the arrival of Dick Giordano as editor this month will put an end to that.

Anyway, Conway continues to present a less capable, less sure of himself Dick Grayson who contrasts oddly with the increasingly confident and capable leader of The New Teen Titans. He can't even handle a simple whodunnit, explaining as much to every suspect he meets:



And he seems to nearly get himself killed once per issue:



It feels like Conway is writing more of a cliche detective from a B-noir film as opposed to any kind of hero here:



Pick up your damn trash, Robin.

and it still bothers me how both Dick and Babs can continually relocate around the country and not arouse suspicion when their crime-fighting alter egos immediately follow suit. In this case, the very first person Robin encounters in costume questions his being there:



How does no one--especially no one in Batman's rogues gallery--connect the dots?


As much as Conway is not giving this feature much thought at all, it's still more interesting than Dick's Hudson University adventures. I just wish it could somehow resolve with Dick's adventures with the Titans. Somehow, Dick is travelling with Hill's circus WHILE living at Titans' Tower at this point, and yet Conway won't even acknowledge the existence of the New Teen Titans. Wolfman went out of his way to acknowledge that Dick was now working at Hill's circus two months back in New Teen Titans #8, but Conway isn't reciprocating in kind.

That definitely fits what we see here. Conway will go on to write some truly Killer stuff for the Batman and 'Tec titles, but I don't think he ever takes a particular interest in writing Dick's solo adventures.

I mean, I think that was the nature of the beast. Doug Moench said pretty much the same about his time at Marvel:



The difference being that Moench wrote some of his most iconic stuff at that point and turned in very little crap. We often judge writers by the quality of their output alone, but perhaps it's more fair to consider the quality of their output with respect to the quantity of their output.

Anyway, I still really respect Conway's writing. I'll readily admit I couldn't do better, especially with that magnitude of demand placed upon me.

Batman #339 (September 1981)



Robin: "Yeserday's Heroes!" (sic)

Script: Gerry Conway
Pencils: Irv Novick
Inks: Bruce Patterson
Colors: Adrienne Roy
Letters: John Costanza

Grade: B+

If Conway's last Robin story was a rush job that didn't seem to get much of his care nor attention, he certainly tries to make up for it here with a deep character study, almost entirely devoid of obligatory conflict. Dick reflects upon his past while performing for Hill's circus.



It's a unique take on Dick that places more emphasis on his parents' influence than we've seen before:



but also draws a sharp contrast between a maturing Robin and Batman in a way that aligns neatly with what Wolfman and Perez are doing over in the pages of New Teen Titans.



And yet, still no mention of the Titans anywhere in this story. Sure enough, Dick spends the first two pages reflecting on his current situation and recent past--two pages discussing Batman, Hudson University, and his career as Robin--and not one reference to leading a superhero team, even nine months after New Teen Titans #1 hit stands:





Once more, this doesn't seem to be a careless omission. There appears to be an explicit edict not to reference the Titans in the Batman titles. Whether new editor Dick Giordano will relax that remains to be seen.

While I'm honored, I feel a little bad taking away your rose-colored glasses. Most of the time, reading and analyzing in-depth like this leads me to enjoy the stories more. Occasionally, it does this though.

I grew up a few years after you, I suppose, getting into comics in 1989. I distinctly recall looking at all those three digit-numbered books and assuming it meant hundreds of issues of continuous and meticulously adhered to continuity. I had no idea that there'd been reboots, rebrandings, and folks winging it for most of those issues.