“Yesterday’s” Comic> The Batman Adventures #14

The first Batman Adventures comic in the queue, and it’s a Robin solo story.

The Batman Adventures #14

DC Comics (November, 1993)

With Batman dealing with Ra’s Al Ghul elsewhere, Dick fills in as Robin, and is considering dropping out of college and being Robin all of the time again. That decision gets put on hold when Scarface and The Ventriloquist escape. Scarface’s new plan is actually a movie the Ventriloquist saw, where bank robbers pretend to be terrorists to cover their escape. However, Robin easily gets in and has to pull the Ventriloquist away from Scarface, who is more interested in the money and the puppet gets blown up by his own dynamite without the Ventriloquist losing his hand. After the adventure Dick decides to return to college.

What they got right: I do like seeing what Robins can do on their own, and Dick does pretty well. For a change Commissioner Gordon isn’t freaking out that all they have is Robin with no sign of Batman. That’s nice to see, especially considering Robin’s age and experience at this time in the show. They also come up with an explanation for why Scarface’s “b”s are all “g”, that his lips were ripped off while in prison (which covers the fact that “b” is a hard sound for a ventriloquist to pull off without moving his or her lips).

What they got wrong: The subplot about Dick considering leaving college wasn’t properly worked out. Alfred talks about choosing following his father’s footsteps as a butler versus theater and I don’t know why that convinced him to complete his education. Plus, Batman studied everywhere he could so that would be incentive for Dick to continue his education if he really wants to take over being Batman someday, and this is before they had the falling out.

Recommendation: It’s a fair Robin story but not a must-own one. Good for a completist or the curious, though.

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