New Teen Titans #20 (June 1982)



"Dear Mom and Dad"

Script: Marv Wolfman
Pencils: George Pérez (breakdowns); Romeo Tanghal (finished art)
Inks: Romeo Tanghal
Colors: Adrienne Roy
Letters: Ben Oda

Grade: N/A (only exploring Robin and Batgirl's roles in this story)


While this issue is generally not pertinent to this thread (you can find a full review of it here instead), there's one moment within that must be discussed: for the first time in over a year, Wolfman acknowledges Dick's dual roles as leader of the Titans and as Batman's sidekick,



something that Wolfman hasn't done since he was abruptly removed from writing the Batman titles at the conclusion of The Lazarus Affair.

It's a big gesture, especially as the Batman titles have still never once mentioned the New Teen Titans since their creation two years earlier, but it also presents problems. Even if we're going to accept the idea that Dick has the time to go to college, lead the Titans, and assist Batman/stalk Dalia, how does he navigate the geographical difficulty of being in Gotham while in the Batman titles and New York while in the pages of New Teen Titans?



Heck, he is being held against his will by The Monk in the pages of Detective Comics and will continue to be out of commission in that title for the next two months, but we won't see him absent from the Titans during that time. In fact, he's about to spend a week camping with the team in the pages of Tales of The New Teen Titans:



So no one is considering any of this very carefully. Still, the acknowledgement that Dick exists in both franchises is a welcome one.

It's not that simple in this case. Wolfman was abruptly/unexpectedly released from his job as writer for Batman and 'Tec around the same time that it became apparent the way that he was writing Dick Grayson was at odds with what Paul Levitz wanted. Beyond it being obvious that Levitz wanted a return to the old Dynamic Duo and that Wolfman wanted to move Dick forward as his own independent hero, the fact that Dick's involvement with the Titans has never been mentioned in any book edited by Levitz/Giordano up to this point certainly doesn't seem like an oversight or accident. You can have a total lack of inter-office continuity and still acknowledge that Dick is spending some time in New York with the Titans, just as Wolfman just acknowledged that Dick is spending some time back in Gotham with Batman.

It's not nit-picking. There is a clear agenda at work.

I don't think there was any ill will between Wolfman and Levitz. Wolfman has spoken favorably about Levitz in several interviews about The Lazarus Affair. I suspect it had more to do with marketing/licensing interests scrutinizing Levitz and the books he oversaw while totally being oblivious to the New Teen Titans, where Wolfman was free to play.

Of course, that's just my own speculation.

The whole Batman Family is regularly included in epic storylines wherein the villain (say, for example The Joker ... or Hush) can take out the entire bunch quite easily, frequently in only a single page, and use them as hostages against Batman.

I suspect somebody in editorial hates the Bat-Family, and this mania results in some very bad writing.

Detective Comics #516 (July 1982)



Batman: "Academy of Crime, Part Two: Final Exams!"

Script: Gerry Conway; Paul Kupperberg
Pencils: Don Newton
Inks: Frank Chiaramonte
Colors: Adrienne Roy
Letters: Ben Oda

Grade: N/A (only exploring Robin and Batgirl's roles in this story)


My theory continues to seem correct that Giordano and Conway are playing around with Robin in order to test reader reaction. We've seen young/naive Robin, mature/capable Robin, side-character Dick (who never suits up), and foolish/love-sick teen Robin, but what happens if (in this story) they give us no Robin at all? No panels of Robin recovering in a hospital with that strange priest watching after him (seen at the end of Batman #349 this month), nor Batman even expressing any further concern that neither he nor Alfred were home to answer the phone when he called Wayne Manor late at night last issue (and, by the way, why didn't Alfred answer?). Instead, it's as if Batman has no sidekick once again; will the readers care?

Well, this issue's letters seem to indicate that they don't. Exactly one letter focuses on Robin at all, and the response is another clear tease intended to provoke more fan reactions:




...but there are no more fan reactions. In one other letter, a fan mentions needing to maintain their grades, and the response works desperately to connect that to Robin:



But it would appear that no one is all that interested in the different characterizations and levels of importance Conway and Giordano are putting out there for Dick right now. All this careful work, and no one seems to care.


So, if the rest of my theory is correct, if the entire point of this is that Warner merchandising wants Robin back by Batman's side for licensing purposes, and that Giordano is concerned with whether or not the fans will accept a total reset after a decade of exploring the two as solo characters and is looking for the best possible way to make this happen, the best answer would seem to be, "Just give him a new kid in the same costume because no one is going to care much anyway. Oh, and let Wolfman grow Dick Grayson up however he wants, but in a different costume." And that's exactly where we are going with this Robin problem beginning in eight more months.


Oh, no Babs Gordon in this story either. Now that she's got her dad feeling better, both he and Jason Bard seem to have totally forgotten she exists:



and Conway assumes that you, the reader, will do the same.








Batgirl: "Sleep While the Serpent Smiles!"

Script: Cary Burkett
Pencils: José Delbo
Inks: Joe Giella
Colors: Tom Ziuko
Letters: Janice Chiang

Grade: C- (There's exactly one reason why this story wasn't a D-)


Dick Giordano: Hey, Cary.

Cary Burkett: Oh, uh, hey, Dick.

D: So have you worked out a plan for your next Batgirl story?

C: Ummm, sure. Like, maybe some random villain will nearly kill her, and that will give her the strength to become better than ever?

D: Haven't you written that story like four times already?

C: uhh, so what's Conway writing for you these days?

D: Oh, it's going to be AMAZING. It's a multipart storyline in which both Batman and Robin get bitten by an actual vampire, and Batman BECOMES a vampire!

C: Cool.

D: Yeah, so really, what's your plan for the next Batgirl story?

C: Well, it's going to be AMAZING. See, Batgirl fights this monster...maybe like a lady serpent or something...and it bites her, and so SHE becomes one too!

D: That's AMAZ...wait.

C: ...

D: ...You're fired after this storyline.





It's really hard to chalk the timing of this story up to coincidence when it so closely mirrors what's happening in Conway's script, only...ya know...it isn't good. But at least Burkett is writing Batgirl as a little more capable again. After all, whereas Dick got bitten in Batman #349 and collapsed helplessly, Babs at least puts up a fight to stop the infection:



even if it ultimately isn't enough to save her without additional help.

And I really REALLY love that Burkett brought back Shamrock, Slugger, Poet, and Good Queen Bess, four loveable homeless characters who assisted Batman waaaay back in Batman #307. A fan wrote in, praising the characters and asking for their return, but Paul Levitz (editor at the time) flatly said "no". Shamrock returned in Batman #322, but without his friends. So here they all are again.



This is the first time Burkett has done something to make me happy in a very long while now, thus the C- grade instead of the D- this crapfest deserves.

And yet, really, how was this loveable homeless band caring for an unconscious Batgirl for multiple days without removing her costume?



How is she going to the bathroom? Wouldn't it have made far more sense for these well-meaning souls to have brought her to a hospital??


On a more tragic note, we see for the first time that Burkett clearly doesn't know this is his final storyline, as (for only the second time ever) he is beginning to tease a future plotline, one that he'll never get the opportunity to write:





Minor Detail:

- So the Lady Viper terrorizes Gotham for multiple days, and we're supposed to believe NO ONE else stops her?



Even assuming Burkett knows Robin is out of commission and Batman is in Hollywood (though is he in Hollywood for multiple days?), what about Man-Bat, or Huntress, or even the new buddy cop team of Jason Bard and Jim Gordon? Are we just supposed to assume that, since she is Batgirl's villain, everyone is going to politely wait around for Batgirl to stop her?

So let me get this straight.. they took out Dick Grayson by TYING HIM TO A CHAIR? What the hell? No Drugs or weirdness? I could escape from that.

Yep.

Like I said, Giordano and Conway are toying with Dick quite a bit. We've seen an issue where he is actually more capable than Batman, a few where he is Batman's equal, others where he is an adequate sidekick, and then a few like this one -- where he is pretty much just a normal teen who knows how to swing on a bat rope.

The crazy part is less that Conway and Giordano did it, and more that the letter writers didn't seem to care. And, let's be clear -- they are looking to provoke fan reaction, so I doubt they just aren't publishing letters complaining about this.