Robin / Spoiler Special #1 Review

ROBIN/SPOILER SPECIAL
Written by Chuck Dixon
Art by Rafael Albuquerque and Victor Ibáñez

This was a fun read that re-establishes Spoiler and Robin's relationship after her recent return to the land of the living last month. The issue is broken into two parts. The first is a present day story that has Tim and Stephanie going on a "date" of sorts and the second gives some background on what Stephanie was doing in Africa with Leslie over the past couple of years and shows why she came back to Gotham.

While both stories were fun reads, neither reached out and grabbed me like I was hoping. In the first half, Spoiler narrates the story with her diary entry, which was a nice touch by Dixon, staying in line with her previous appearances, and has Spoiler asking Tim to come out and help "babysit" Stephanie's friends as they "creep".

I must be getting old because I've never heard the term creeping before and it's constant use reminded me of the recent parkour useage in Amazing Spider-Man that beat the reader over the head. Creeping is basically where a bunch of teenagers go hang out in a restricted area and this issue sees them break into an old steelmill factory and just chat and hang out.

It quickly turns sour as the cops break up the party, but not before one of Steph's friends picked up a random doll she found and they found themselves being shot at by some mysterious thug. Turn out, a little girl was kidnapped and the doll belonged to her. Robin and Spoiler suit up and track the thugs to their hideout and rescue the girl.

It was standard super heroing and the only thing that really stuck out to me was Albuquerque's art, which I really enjoy, even if it's not at the level of a Hitch or McNiven, and the little bit at the end where Robin, who had been cold to Stephanie all issue, seems to be warming up to her again.

The second half of the issue was a much better story, but didn't really do much to explain Spoiler's days in Africa. At least, it didn't really have to be told. It's basically just Steph and Leslie treating some villagers, Steph going off to help find one child's lost dog and then some militants taking over the village and Steph donning some African garb and putting a stop to it. This seems to be enough to spark her desire to return to Gotham and that's all she wrote. It was a pretty straight forward story and, to be honest, I was quite happy with the two or three lines of recap in the last Robin issue where she told them pretty much the same thing about her being in Africa with Leslie. This didn't need to be told and didn't really offer much.

Verdict - Check It. I wasn't blown away by this issue like most of Dixon's Robin issues, but it was still a purchase I was ultimately happy with, but that's more with my love of Spoiler than with the actual contents of the issue. It was probably similar to how the recent Thunderbolts one-shots by Gage were okay outings, but don't really compare to the actual series by Ellis. That's how I view this in relation to the Robin series. Fills in some stories and is a decent read for fans of the characters but nothing that's absolutely a must read for anyone.

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