That's extremely kind of you, my good man. Thanks much for the encouragement!

It might be more fair to say that Conway struggled with writing for deadlines. He would turn out some truly awesome stuff alongside utter crap that was clearly rushed. Once Wein takes over as editor, Conway starts making a much stronger effort and turns in some of my favorite Batman stories of all time (especially The Haunting of Boss Thorne and the death of The Squid), so don't be too quick to count him out.

And, in this case, a change of editor seemed to help him start caring more.

For what it's worth:

5 more reviews until Batgirl's solo feature is cancelled
roughly 25 more reviews until Jason Todd replaces Dick Grayson

After that, this thread will accelerate through the years pretty quickly, as Barbara Gordon doesn't do very much until Crisis on Infinite Earths (and then only has six truly significant appearances after that), and Dick doesn't do all that much evolving beyond becoming Nightwing and occasionally mentoring his replacements.


At the very latest, I think I'll have this thread completed in 2024, but it could be as early as next year!

New Teen Titans #22 (August 1982)



"Ashes to Ashes!"

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's role in this story).
Want my thoughts on this issue itself? You can check out that review here.



While it's been a given almost from the start that Robin's depiction in New Teen Titans does not align with his depiction in the Batman franchise, we see the contrast most sharply here, in August of 1982. In Batman #350, the entire basis of the story is that Dick is weak-willed and gives in to Dala's influence immediately, without any sense of a struggle:



Repeatedly throughout the story, we are reminded of how thoroughly under her influence Dick is and just how thoroughly he has jeopardized Bruce as a result.

Meanwhile, in NTT #22, Wolfman and Perez take nearly an entire issue just to show us how much of a willful, disciplined bada$$ Dick can be when the entire team is down and he is the only remaining hope:





...even when he believes the rest of the team is dead and there is no hope of escape.






And yet, Wolfman is careful to acknowledge Bruce's role as mentor and parent here, showing Dick truly concerned that he has let Bruce down by dying with his final thoughts:



but there is no doubt here that he tried his damnedest and likely did at least as well as Bruce would have done in the same situation.


Were Wolfman and Perez directly responding to what Conway was writing in the Batman titles? Probably not. Still, the contrast is remarkable.

Detective Comics #518 (September 1982)



"The Millionaire Contract"

Script: Gerry Conway; Paul Levitz
Pencils: Don Newton
Inks: Bruce Patterson
Colors: Adrienne Roy
Letters: Ben Oda

Grade: n/a (only exploring Robin's role in this story)


Apparently, the multi-part Monk/Dalia Vampire storyline ran so long that the final pages of that story needed to be published here, even though it's almost entirely unrelated to the story that follows, in which The Human Target has assumed the role of Bruce Wayne while Boss Thorne is looking to kill him. Thus, the first few pages also give us a possible final answer to how Levitz and Conway want us to see Dick Grayson. Is he foolish, reckless, and rebellious, or was that just the influence of Dalia in the previous storyline?

The initial answer seems to be that Dick is a good kid, after all. he is quick to regret everything he did while under Dalia's spell and wastes no time asserting his renewed confidence as a capable costumed crimefighter:



It's just the right amount of playful sarcasm; confident without being cocky or disrespectful.

"Hey," one might start to think. "It's finally the same Dick Grayson we've been reading in the pages of New Teen Titans!"

Well, no.



A few short pages later, we get this exchange, in which Dick is technically right, and his rage is somewhat understandable, but his behavior is that of a rebellious teen once again, and hardly the cool, calm leader we just watched bravely stare down death in the most recent issue of New Teen Titans.

Then again, we've all been that independent 19 year old, out on their own, confidently figuring out their place in the world, who is inexplicably transformed back into an angsty and rebellious teen every time they return home. Maybe this is the same character after all. What would really help would be some introspection--a frame or two where Dick reflects on this--but this issue isn't really about him. Much like last time around, Dick is really there to service the plot. Last time, he was the bait needed to ensnare Batman in a horror story. This time, he is simple exposition, there to explain the problem and the solution before being forgotten and never once shown again in the issue.

Sure enough, Bruce gets a tip and goes off as Batman, no question as to whether Robin should be brought along:



It's frankly weird to continue to see Dick get such a prominent role in these stories WITHOUT actually getting to play the role of hero's sidekick. What the heck?


For what it's worth, several letters this time include praise for the return of Robin to these pages:



Whether or not it's yet been decided to replace Dick with a younger Robin, the response here might just as well serve as Levitz' justification for that decision. They're not moving backward, but they do feel Batman needs a Robin by his side.




"He with Secrets Fears the Sound..."

Script: Barbara Kesel
Pencils: Trevor Von Eeden
Inks: Trevor Von Eeden
Colors: Jerry Serpe
Letters: Milt Snapinn

Grade: B


Carey Burkett is out and Barbara Kesel is in..at least for the next two issues until the feature gets cancelled before she even gets the chance to prove herself.

I know precious little about Barbara Kesel. Looking at her writing credits, it looks like DC used her almost entirely as a fill-in writer, Hawk and Dove and Who's Who being the only two places where she lasted more than four issues. A few years from now, we'll see DC making a concerted effort to feature women writers writing for female readers (Mindy Newell on Catwoman, Lois Lane, and Wonder Woman, and Sharon Wright on Black Canary immediately come to mind), but while this feels similar to those attempts, I guess Kesel was a few years too early. And, with such a short stint here, I'm not sure we'll get much of a sense of how good she was or wasn't before her time runs out.

For what it's worth, I never cared for Newell nor Wright, but, then, I wasn't the target audience either.


What I can tell you about Kesel's writing here is that she is definitely aiming for a more mature audience. Last issue, Burkett had Babs becoming a snake lady in order to fight a snake lady, few questions asked or answered. Here, we're dealing with corporate fraud and a crime of passion in-the-making. It's a welcome change for me, but I pity that one eight year old who was really digging this feature and found themselves in for a hell of a surprise with this issue.




And yet, abrupt as the shift in tone is, Kesel and/or Levitz are very careful to acknowledge past continuity far more carefully than Burkett ever did with his own stories:




At the same time, Kesel is working hard to redeem Batgirl from the ridiculous third-rate bumbling hero Burkett had turned her into, and that's immediately evident here:






Kesel seems to have taken a very personal interest in sorting through this recent continuity and redeeming Barbara in the process. It's work she'll get a second crack at completing less than three years from now with the Batgirl Special, though that will prove to be its own spectacular train-wreck.


The other notable change in this issue is Trevor Von Eedon replacing Jose Delbo on art. Say what you will about Delbo's work anywhere else, but this feature clearly wasn't one that was the recipient of his hard work and talent:



So Von Eedon is a very welcome change, bringing a maturity to the look of this feature which matches what Kesel is writing:



though I'll admit that he does make one unusual choice: In attempting to create a darker, more visually imposing Batgirl, Von Eedon tries depicting her from the point of view of a terrified informant, and it just...doesn't work:



I'm wondering if Von Eedon was a big fan of Close Encounters of the Third Kind.




I really would have liked more than one more issue to see where this new creative team goes. Curious that Levitz would make the decision to bring in a new creative team two issues before deciding to kill the feature and replace it with Joey Cavalieri on Green Arrow (incidentally one of the worst written features I've ever suffered through!). There's no way any kind of meaningful fan feedback or sales data could have trickled in that quickly.

A little about her origins....



There are more clips on Youtube