Robin III Part 31: Detective Comics #636 (Late September, 1991)

Tim helps Bruce in one of the most ridiculous stories I’ve ever read.

I have this issue.

In the Batcave, Tim tries to convince Bruce to let him help solve what’s going on at Arkham. The discussion doesn’t last long, as the cave turns into a digitized world with dinosaurs, alien spaceships and demons. Tim’s familiar with the elements of the game, and shouts out how to defeat each creature. The battle ends with the appearance of a floating head that tells them that despite being crazy, it will be back to play a different game. Having shown that he knows much more about the games than Bruce does, Tim is allowed to accompany Bruce back to Arkham.

Tim watches as Bruce uses the Bat-computer to discover the identity of the floating head – Finnegan Fidel the Third, a videogame wizard who won all sorts of competitions until his grades started to drop and he was not allowed to play anymore. Fidel threw a fit, which resulted in the deaths of both his parents due to what was called “video hallucinations”.

Armed with the knowledge of what they’re getting into, the duo head back to Arkham.

Upon arrival, the “hallucinations” return…along with the floating head…and Tim shouts out maneuvers and commands as they work their way into and through the building. One of the creatures spits out poisonous gas, and the heroes get surrounded, when the floating head reappears offering them a way out: jumping down its throat.

They arrive in a room where they find Fidel bound to a table with wires connected to his head as a man in a doctor’s coat stands next to him. The man goes to a computer console, and Tim finds himself surrounded by wires as they connect themselves to his head.

Notes of Interest:

1) Tim shows his concern for Bruce, fearing that returning to Arkham alone with no knowledge of how the games work could kill him.

2) He also has no problem telling Batman…who’s been fighting crime for a while now…what to do and how to do it, no matter how ridiculous it may seem.

3) We get confirmation that this story takes place after the Robin mini-series when Tim mentions that one of the games came out “…while I was in Europe”.

WTF? Moment: Where to start? I could go off for a day about this story, but I’m going to focus my attention on Tim…who saved Bruce’s bacon throughout the issue. Tim knew the games being used, which is surprising since practically every creature they encounter comes from a different level of a different game.

I guess he’s had a lot of time off since returning to Gotham…

Anyway, the whole issue is downright laughable. You’re telling me that Bruce trusts Tim enough to jump into the mouth of a disembodied head that just happens to drops them in the exact room their looking for?

In a way, I’m glad someone tried to bring the videogame craze into comics – since many a game has been made based on comics – but this story came out in 1991. Sorry Louise Simonson, but video games have been around since the 1970’s. This is the best you could come up with?

As for artist Jim Fern, he really needs to work on his backgrounds…because in this issue there are practically none. His interpretation of Tim isn’t bad, but he’s no Tom Lyle.

The best thing I can say about this issue, the whole story in fact, is that it was done better on “What is Reality?” – the 48^th episode of Batman: The Animated Series which aired November 24, 1992. Of course, in that show Robin was Dick Grayson instead of Tim, but we’ll let that slide…for now.