Robin is the latest DC character to celebrate 80 years o publication, following in the footsteps of Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman. The issue, titled The Robin 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular #1, will be on sale on March 11, almost exactly 80 years after Robin’s first appearance in Detective Comics #38, which hit the stands on March 6, 1940. If Batman was the first science-fiction hero in comics, Batman was the first major caped-and-cowled detective hero, and Wonder Woman was both the first major female hero as well as one of DC’s earliest fantasy heroes, then Robin gets credit for establishing the idea of the kid sidekick, which was pervasive in comics for years and has morphed into the idea of legacy heroes in the intervening decades.
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The 100-page deluxe format issue will feature a main cover by Lee Weeks and a number of decade-specific variants, in the same way they did with Action Comics #1000 and Detective Comics #1000. You can see the list below.
- 1940’s variant cover by Jim Lee and Scott Williams
- 1950’s variant cover by Julian Totino Tedesco
- 1960’s variant cover by Dustin Nguyen
- 1970’s variant cover by Kaare Andrews
- 1980’s variant cover by Frank Miller
- 1990’s variant cover by Jim Cheung
- 2000’s variant cover by Derrick Chew
- 2010’s variant cover by Yasmine Putri
The interiors will also feature a number of short stories by comics all-stars and a number of pinups by top artistic talent. Per DC, tribute images will be used to celebrate different incarnations of the character, and will be drawn by folks like Kenneth Rocafort, Nicola Scott, Andy Kubert and Frank Miller.
DC says that the issue includes stories from of comics’ greatest Robin writers and artists, and will pay tribute to each of the various iterations of Robin to come through DC’s main continuity, including Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown and Damian Wayne. The Talent list for these stories includes Marv Wolfman, Tom Grummett, Chuck Dixon, Scott McDaniel, Devin Grayson, Dan Jurgens, Norm Rapmund, Tim Seeley, Tom King and Mikel Janin, James Tynion IV, Peter J. Tomasi, Judd Winick and others.
Dixon and Grayson, both key parts of the Batman offices in the ’90s and 2000s, rarely work for DC anymore, so for fans of a certain age, that should be a treat. With a little luck, Tim Drake fans may get to see Dixon team with Tom Grummett again — the creative team that defined Tim Drake’s solo book.
