The Robin Archives, Vol. 1 by Bill Finger

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Some modern re-imaginings of Robin have him as a somewhat useless and lame sidekick but the golden age Robin was an awesome character who massively increased the popularity of Batman with his introduction in 1940.

In this book, the full awesome power of Robin is on display in his first twenty-one solo adventures in Star Spangled Comics from 1947-48. Each story runs about 11 pages including the cover. While the story's length is short by modern standards, each adventure is a plot-driven romp. In this book, Robin travels to India, gets stranded on a desert island and single handedly takes on a troop of escaped Nazis on a desert island, he stars in a movie, travels through time, and even gets his own supervillain in the Clock.

My big question is how could you be a preteen in this era and not being reading Robin? He's what every boy wants to be boy: tough, smart, courageous, and encountering adventure every turn. He's also a role model as he's also compassionate, but not sappy, and several stories feature a strong anti-juvenile delinquency message. This book is the ultimate boyhood fantasy. It's even freed from bounds of political correctness as Robin uses a gun to hunt in the wild and even goes whaling with Eskimos.

This is an great book tells stories from a time in American history when being a boy was great and being the Boy Wonder was pure awesome, full of fantasy and wonder. This is Robin at his finest.



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