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Detective Comics (1937-2011)
Millennium Edition: Detective Comics #38
Featuring the first appearance of Dick Grayson! As Batman's sidekick Robin debuts, learn how Dick Grayson went from circus performer to the Boy Wonder to crime-fighter!
64 pages, Paperback
First published February 23, 2000
30 people are currently reading
59 people want to read
About the author
Bill Finger
644 books105 followersWilliam "Bill" Finger was an American comic strip and comic book writer best known as the uncredited co-creator, with Bob Kane, of the DC Comics character Batman, as well as the co-architect of the series' development. In later years, Kane acknowledged Finger as "a contributing force" in the character's creation. Comics historian Ron Goulart, in Comic Book Encyclopedia, refers to Batman as the "creation of artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger", and a DC Comics press release in 2007 about colleague Jerry Robinson states that in 1939, "Kane, along with writer Bill Finger, had just created Batman for [DC predecessor] National Comics".
Film and television credits include scripting The Green Slime (1969), Track of the Moon Beast (1976), and three episodes of 77 Sunset Strip.
-Wikipedia
Film and television credits include scripting The Green Slime (1969), Track of the Moon Beast (1976), and three episodes of 77 Sunset Strip.
-Wikipedia
Ratings & Reviews
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Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
December 6, 2023
5.4/10 ( 7.0/10 for the Robin story )
Before he was Nightwing, before he lead the team of Teen Titans, he was known as "Robin the boy wonder".
So here we have the first appearance and origin of Dick Grayson, Batman's first sidekick.
The story is quite good. A circus comes to Gotham and the main attraction is the "Flying Graysons" a family of acrobats. A terrible accident happens and Dick sees his parents die in front if his eyes. It turns out that there was no accident,but someone purposely had weakened the ropes so they would snap.
You can see why Bruce took Dick under his arms, because he saw himself in the boys lost eyes.
Now beside that story, there are few more in this issue and they all are pretty much a product of their time. Some a bit better then others but still not that great.
Before he was Nightwing, before he lead the team of Teen Titans, he was known as "Robin the boy wonder".
So here we have the first appearance and origin of Dick Grayson, Batman's first sidekick.
The story is quite good. A circus comes to Gotham and the main attraction is the "Flying Graysons" a family of acrobats. A terrible accident happens and Dick sees his parents die in front if his eyes. It turns out that there was no accident,but someone purposely had weakened the ropes so they would snap.
You can see why Bruce took Dick under his arms, because he saw himself in the boys lost eyes.
Now beside that story, there are few more in this issue and they all are pretty much a product of their time. Some a bit better then others but still not that great.
November 7, 2022
Literally the best issue of any literary piece ever in existence nothing will ever top it!
Period. I want Dick.
Period. I want Dick.
February 24, 2022
god, i hate old comics. YES I SAID IT. the art, panels, colours, lettering, all of it is sooo hard on the eyes ahhhh my head hurts.
March 23, 2020
The first appearance of Robin - the Boy Wonder! I can never get enough of a team up between Dick and Bruce, and Bruce being sassy all the time.
I overall loved this issue. It had great stories in it which grabbed my attention to their last panel.
Reading Red Logan’s been quite nostalgic for me since both the font and the illustrations reminded me an awful lot of Hergé’s Tintin which I used to read all the time as a kid.
I overall loved this issue. It had great stories in it which grabbed my attention to their last panel.
Reading Red Logan’s been quite nostalgic for me since both the font and the illustrations reminded me an awful lot of Hergé’s Tintin which I used to read all the time as a kid.
December 28, 2023
Here it is, the arrival of the boy wonder.
Robin’s first encounter with Batman (abridged) after his parents death “You can’t go to the police…come with me…I’m going to hide you in my home for a while.”
We get an oath, a training montage, and a fast forward to their first adventure. Robin’s choice to go pantless will remain a mystery for years to come, but now we are onto Batman #1!
Robin’s first encounter with Batman (abridged) after his parents death “You can’t go to the police…come with me…I’m going to hide you in my home for a while.”
We get an oath, a training montage, and a fast forward to their first adventure. Robin’s choice to go pantless will remain a mystery for years to come, but now we are onto Batman #1!
May 21, 2024
It's amazing how so much has changed since the 1939 comics and yet this still feels like the Dick Grayson I'm familiar with, (well except for when he . The chapter was enjoyable.
August 12, 2025
only read this because of dick grayson's first appearance but kinda annoying that only 14 pages are dedicated to batman and robin
March 23, 2025
Okay, I’ve read the original Robin origin story too many times to count, but I still bought this reproduction because it included all the other stories that were in that comic!
”Spy” by Jerry Siegel is about a guy who works for the U.S. Secret Service named Bart.
Good thing he carries a cigarette lighter! After sticking his nose where it didn’t belong he is thrown down an air-tight trapped door. (Who has that?!?!) But just before he suffocates a damn lets him out.
”Be glad I’m a soft-hearted fool and forget you ever saw me!”
Even though the art doesn’t show her wearing gloves she manages to drop one which Bart figures he can use to find her. No wonder dames stopped wearing gloves!
When he tracks her down due to perfect prints found on the inside of the glove she tells us his last name is Regan! Her name is of course Nell. No wonder they stopped naming dames Nell!
He asks her why she saved him but before she can tell him she is shot dead by a sniper who must have been waiting there for quite a while…
”Stop! Or I’ll shoot!
But as the killer disobeys, Bart fires!
Bart doesn’t call an ambulance or anything, just asks for some last word before the killer dies.
This leads Bart to the Evil Scientist and his ALL-POWERFUL INVENTION! Which Bart turns on him and kills him. The End.
”Red Logan” and his pale Ivan take a stroll through London side streets when they find a dead body. Police show up soon afterwards, but since Login is a know reporter they don’t suspect a thing.
There Coroner’s report comes back in 15 minute as they are all sitting around drinking tea. The victim died of marks around his neck.
Red decides to look at some old newspapers about a vampire scare from some years ago.
He finds out something in the old newspapers that makes him run down to the “Sport Pooley-Bridge £250” place (??!) just in time to see a hulking man rough up another guy and tell him that he has to come with him because his master needs blood!
Red punches the bruiser out. And then leaves cause he doesn’t attach much importance to it.
He visits a surgeon and asks about a Doctor Hydkil. The surgeon tells him that the Doctor was a medical genius but tried to restore people to life after they had been dead a long time so the medical society was forced to oust him.
Red goes to the Doctor’s house and the bruiser he punched out answers the door. Who tells him the doctor is busy. So Red goes home.
He wakes up Ivan tells him he thinks he’s put two and two together and then tells his Driver to go back to the same place. When did he get a driver?!
Red quietly makes his way into the doctors laboratory (the one with no locks on the doors) as sees the doctor about to experiment on the Inspector Red had tea with earlier.
Red saves the inspector, punching the doctor and then leaves to write the news story. Apparently the doctor didn’t realize that draining his victims blood from his neck would cause a vampire scare.
It’s fun to read the reproduced advertisements as well. Did you know you could get a real printing press for $2.98?
”The Crimson Avenger” puts us back in firm super-hero territory, though he does look like a red Zorro.
At the Opera three masked hoodlums (their bandanna masks and suits with hats give them away) decide to pull a stick up Mr and Mrs Duprey at the Opera netting a half million in jewelry.
The Crimson Avenger is in fact another ace reporter, Lee Travis. One of his stringers reports that a cop said that one of the bandits walked with a limb. Lee figures is must be ‘Gimpy’ Malone! Mobs can be so cruel.
The Crimson Avenger goes to their Lodge and eavesdrops as they tell each other that they were paid to steal these fake jewels so the Duprey’s could collect the insurance. The he busts in and beats them up, dosing them with his gas gun.
Him and his Asian chauffeur Wing dump the crooks at the police station where they confess and the chief calls up Mr. Duprey and tells him they’ve got his jewels. But its a trap and they arrest him as soon as he gets there. The crooks confessed and spilled the beans!
”Well, that Crimson fellow, whoever he is, has sent another bunch of criminals to prison-he ought to be in jail himself, for all the laws he’s broken-but he doesn’t seem to give a rap for any law as long as he gets the criminal he’s after-he sure gets results-you’ve just got to admire a guy like that!
I admire anyone who can write a sentence like that.
Read a good book every month. is the heading on the Detective Comics Monthly Book Review. No. ! - Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
Who knew? This is one page (and ad for a Daisy Air Rifle) of text. I’ve never read that book and the review was pretty good!
”Speed Saunders Ace Investigator and the ‘Kidnapped Singer” tells of Speed who enjoys a night at the social theater. What the heck is a social theater??
A new ‘Torch Singer’ Lora De Thiessi performs and Speed’s date tries to get an interview out of her but after the show the singer ducks out of the theater
Next day at the police station Lora’s fiance shows them a ransom note. Speed asks the captain to take personal charge of this case. He finds out that she left willingly and then goes to her house where he finds her maid bound and gagged!
The maid tells him Lora left ”…weeth young man weeth pretee moustache!” . Speed figures its her fiance. Since they’re near an airport Speed goes there and check asks Jim if a young man and a girl were here. Jim says yes, and they take a plane to try to follow them. He spots the plane far ahead!
They start to overtake the plane and Speed gets out on the wing and jumps onto the other plane. Like you do.
Inside the fiance holds a gun on the pilot and tells him to dump Speed off the wing. The pilot slowly tilts the plane and then punches the fiance and helps Speed gets into the plane. Turns out the kidnapping was… well just confusing and contradictory, but Lora is saved because Speed played his hunch.
”Steve Malone District Attorney” starts with him getting a call from the Chief of Police. The Chief suspects an inside man is tipping off the crooks they are hunting.
“Each tie one of my men gets a clue, we find him in the river.”
DA Malone decides to put a fake story in the papers saying he’s going to name this mole! Hoping the mole will come after him to reveal himself.
While him and his assistant Happy wait for results, the Police Commissioner calls Malone and tells him to bring the evidence to show him. On his yacht. At 6pm tonight. They’ll send a launch boat to bring him there. Now you know why it’s called “Detective Magazine”!
On the boat Malone figures out that the Police Commissioner is the mole, so they clobber Malone and throw him into a boat to row him out to sea and throw him overboard. Malone wakes up in the boat and jumps overboard before the thugs can react. They shoot at him but miss.
He can’t swim all the way to shore so he swims back to the yacht and climbs aboard. Unseen he finds a phone and calls the Police Chief and tells the whole tale.
The Boss Smaltz and Commissioner find him on the phone and start to shoot Malone, but then they argue about the wisdom of murder and if they can still get away with it. The Commissioner begs Steve to drop the charges and he’ll turn states evidence against Boss Smaltz. Well, Smaltz then shoots him. Malone punches Smaltz.
Happy brings in the police. This story doesn’t actually say ‘the end’ but it’s over. Punching sure solves a lot of crime!
Cliff Crosby starts by saying Cliff Crosby And Dr. Broussard, Famous Explorers, Are Now At The Arctic Circle.
Okay, first they crash land in Antarctica. Then African natives capture them and take them to their king who informatively tells them that he has a secret serum (in a glass??!) that will permit man to survive the coldest of weather without clothing but you will never know its secret! Thanks dude, I didn’t even know it existed until you told me!
Then he throws them into the polar bear it. In the pit, cliff breaks off a huge icicle and throws it at one polar bear (who is brown). Then he snaps the jaws of the other (brown) polar bear. This Cliff is not to be trifled with.
Cliff and Broussard climb out of the Pit of the Polar Bears and find another African at the top.
”Friend? Weren’t you one of that bunch that put is in the polar bear pit?”
To be honest, they do look a lot alike. But he says that he is the rightful king (Aga) and got banished by the guy with the cold-proof formula. So Cliff goes back with him to help him regain the throne. Cause that’s the kind of guy Cliff is.
”White man stop or I’ll shoot! . They have guns now?!? Why the need for polar bears?!
With Ago and Broussard they fight it out but the Evil King (Sabu) sends more Africans with swords after them. Apparently they only had the one gun. You just saw Cliff rip the jaws off a polar bear!! Think he’s going to have trouble with you guys?
Just then a glacier falls on all of them. Sabu lives and so Cliff punches him so that he falls into the Polar Bear pit. Where one bear is stabbed and the other has a broken jaw. So how bad can it actually be?
The glacier covered King Sabu’s house where the secret formula was kept. So Cliff digs his way through the snow as Aga warns him to look out for the Green Cobra that guards the formula. The other cobras are fine?
Cliff digs down and finds the cobra (who is brown with a green head) and slams the door on it, which kills it.
He comes back up and a grateful King Ago gives him a copy of the formula and sends them on their way.
From the advertising:
”I wish I had some spending money.”
”Here’s my chance! I’ll mail the coupon!”
”Now I have money and a bicycle besides!”
I’d honestly like to know if they ever caught this ponzi scheme.
Next we get a 2 page prose story. ”The Case of the Vanishing Train”. It was told well, but not particularly interesting. On the same page however was an advertisement that was interesting. No, the train doesn’t really vanish.
BE A DETECTIVE
Work home or travel. Experience unnecessary. DETECTIVE Particulars FREE. Write Dept. D.C., AMERICAN DETECTIVE SCHOOL 2640 Broadway, New York, N.Y.
Sadly the school, famous for hiring comic book readers, does not appear to be in business any longer.
”Slam Bradley by Jerry Siegel and Dennis Neville” has no other title. I’ve actually heard of Slam Bradley though I can’t remember why.
On the way to the wrestling matches Tough Detective Slam and his Diminutive partner Shorty hear on the radio about a fire nearby.
So naturally they decide to go there instead. They rescue a few people while continually body shaming Shorty.
When the firefighters are too scared to go up the ladder to rescue a crippled boy, Slam and Shorty go up instead.
While up there they see evidence that the fire was set deliberately!
Slam takes the crippled boy to the roof where he finds a convenient ladder and uses it to walk across to another rooftop with the boy in his arms. The ladder collapses just as Slam leaps to the other roof!
Then they confront - SPOILER ALERT - the Janitor with evidence that he had set the fire deliberately because the tenants in the apartment were assholes to him and he was about to be fired. So he pulls out a gun and confesses at the same time!
But Slam and Shorty take him down!
That was weird…
Now for the main event. The title is ”The Batman Presents the Sensational Find of 1940… Robin the Boy Wonder”
Like the legendary Robin Hood whose name and spirit he has adopted.
I can understand why Boss Zucco talks like Edward G. Robinson, adding “See” to the end of every sentence but I’m a little baffled by Batman’s French ‘Au Revoir!’ And ‘Adieu, Gentlemen…’.?
Can you still send live bats through the post office?
And it really seems too bad the Robin’s stopped using the slingshot.
So when did Robin stop pushing crooks off of skyscrapers to fall to their death?
The signed confession that Batman extracts from one of the henchmen seems to be under duress and the photo of Boss Zucco tossing said henchman off the building also seems like it wouldn’t hold up in a ‘Law & Order’ episode but I understand the law was bit more loose in those days…
So that’s it. I hope I saved you the $6.99 for the reproduction — marked Ages 13+ cause of the gruesomeness.
Well, it looks good on the shelf but frankly the rest of the comic book didn’t really have much to offer — not even the usual ‘Golden Age’ zaniness.
So I can only give it 2 stars, but I’ll probably keep it cause… nostalgia is a helluva drug.
”Spy” by Jerry Siegel is about a guy who works for the U.S. Secret Service named Bart.
Good thing he carries a cigarette lighter! After sticking his nose where it didn’t belong he is thrown down an air-tight trapped door. (Who has that?!?!) But just before he suffocates a damn lets him out.
”Be glad I’m a soft-hearted fool and forget you ever saw me!”
Even though the art doesn’t show her wearing gloves she manages to drop one which Bart figures he can use to find her. No wonder dames stopped wearing gloves!
When he tracks her down due to perfect prints found on the inside of the glove she tells us his last name is Regan! Her name is of course Nell. No wonder they stopped naming dames Nell!
He asks her why she saved him but before she can tell him she is shot dead by a sniper who must have been waiting there for quite a while…
”Stop! Or I’ll shoot!
But as the killer disobeys, Bart fires!
Bart doesn’t call an ambulance or anything, just asks for some last word before the killer dies.
This leads Bart to the Evil Scientist and his ALL-POWERFUL INVENTION! Which Bart turns on him and kills him. The End.
”Red Logan” and his pale Ivan take a stroll through London side streets when they find a dead body. Police show up soon afterwards, but since Login is a know reporter they don’t suspect a thing.
There Coroner’s report comes back in 15 minute as they are all sitting around drinking tea. The victim died of marks around his neck.
Red decides to look at some old newspapers about a vampire scare from some years ago.
He finds out something in the old newspapers that makes him run down to the “Sport Pooley-Bridge £250” place (??!) just in time to see a hulking man rough up another guy and tell him that he has to come with him because his master needs blood!
Red punches the bruiser out. And then leaves cause he doesn’t attach much importance to it.
He visits a surgeon and asks about a Doctor Hydkil. The surgeon tells him that the Doctor was a medical genius but tried to restore people to life after they had been dead a long time so the medical society was forced to oust him.
Red goes to the Doctor’s house and the bruiser he punched out answers the door. Who tells him the doctor is busy. So Red goes home.
He wakes up Ivan tells him he thinks he’s put two and two together and then tells his Driver to go back to the same place. When did he get a driver?!
Red quietly makes his way into the doctors laboratory (the one with no locks on the doors) as sees the doctor about to experiment on the Inspector Red had tea with earlier.
Red saves the inspector, punching the doctor and then leaves to write the news story. Apparently the doctor didn’t realize that draining his victims blood from his neck would cause a vampire scare.
It’s fun to read the reproduced advertisements as well. Did you know you could get a real printing press for $2.98?
”The Crimson Avenger” puts us back in firm super-hero territory, though he does look like a red Zorro.
At the Opera three masked hoodlums (their bandanna masks and suits with hats give them away) decide to pull a stick up Mr and Mrs Duprey at the Opera netting a half million in jewelry.
The Crimson Avenger is in fact another ace reporter, Lee Travis. One of his stringers reports that a cop said that one of the bandits walked with a limb. Lee figures is must be ‘Gimpy’ Malone! Mobs can be so cruel.
The Crimson Avenger goes to their Lodge and eavesdrops as they tell each other that they were paid to steal these fake jewels so the Duprey’s could collect the insurance. The he busts in and beats them up, dosing them with his gas gun.
Him and his Asian chauffeur Wing dump the crooks at the police station where they confess and the chief calls up Mr. Duprey and tells him they’ve got his jewels. But its a trap and they arrest him as soon as he gets there. The crooks confessed and spilled the beans!
”Well, that Crimson fellow, whoever he is, has sent another bunch of criminals to prison-he ought to be in jail himself, for all the laws he’s broken-but he doesn’t seem to give a rap for any law as long as he gets the criminal he’s after-he sure gets results-you’ve just got to admire a guy like that!
I admire anyone who can write a sentence like that.
Read a good book every month. is the heading on the Detective Comics Monthly Book Review. No. ! - Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
Who knew? This is one page (and ad for a Daisy Air Rifle) of text. I’ve never read that book and the review was pretty good!
”Speed Saunders Ace Investigator and the ‘Kidnapped Singer” tells of Speed who enjoys a night at the social theater. What the heck is a social theater??
A new ‘Torch Singer’ Lora De Thiessi performs and Speed’s date tries to get an interview out of her but after the show the singer ducks out of the theater
Next day at the police station Lora’s fiance shows them a ransom note. Speed asks the captain to take personal charge of this case. He finds out that she left willingly and then goes to her house where he finds her maid bound and gagged!
The maid tells him Lora left ”…weeth young man weeth pretee moustache!” . Speed figures its her fiance. Since they’re near an airport Speed goes there and check asks Jim if a young man and a girl were here. Jim says yes, and they take a plane to try to follow them. He spots the plane far ahead!
They start to overtake the plane and Speed gets out on the wing and jumps onto the other plane. Like you do.
Inside the fiance holds a gun on the pilot and tells him to dump Speed off the wing. The pilot slowly tilts the plane and then punches the fiance and helps Speed gets into the plane. Turns out the kidnapping was… well just confusing and contradictory, but Lora is saved because Speed played his hunch.
”Steve Malone District Attorney” starts with him getting a call from the Chief of Police. The Chief suspects an inside man is tipping off the crooks they are hunting.
“Each tie one of my men gets a clue, we find him in the river.”
DA Malone decides to put a fake story in the papers saying he’s going to name this mole! Hoping the mole will come after him to reveal himself.
While him and his assistant Happy wait for results, the Police Commissioner calls Malone and tells him to bring the evidence to show him. On his yacht. At 6pm tonight. They’ll send a launch boat to bring him there. Now you know why it’s called “Detective Magazine”!
On the boat Malone figures out that the Police Commissioner is the mole, so they clobber Malone and throw him into a boat to row him out to sea and throw him overboard. Malone wakes up in the boat and jumps overboard before the thugs can react. They shoot at him but miss.
He can’t swim all the way to shore so he swims back to the yacht and climbs aboard. Unseen he finds a phone and calls the Police Chief and tells the whole tale.
The Boss Smaltz and Commissioner find him on the phone and start to shoot Malone, but then they argue about the wisdom of murder and if they can still get away with it. The Commissioner begs Steve to drop the charges and he’ll turn states evidence against Boss Smaltz. Well, Smaltz then shoots him. Malone punches Smaltz.
Happy brings in the police. This story doesn’t actually say ‘the end’ but it’s over. Punching sure solves a lot of crime!
Cliff Crosby starts by saying Cliff Crosby And Dr. Broussard, Famous Explorers, Are Now At The Arctic Circle.
Okay, first they crash land in Antarctica. Then African natives capture them and take them to their king who informatively tells them that he has a secret serum (in a glass??!) that will permit man to survive the coldest of weather without clothing but you will never know its secret! Thanks dude, I didn’t even know it existed until you told me!
Then he throws them into the polar bear it. In the pit, cliff breaks off a huge icicle and throws it at one polar bear (who is brown). Then he snaps the jaws of the other (brown) polar bear. This Cliff is not to be trifled with.
Cliff and Broussard climb out of the Pit of the Polar Bears and find another African at the top.
”Friend? Weren’t you one of that bunch that put is in the polar bear pit?”
To be honest, they do look a lot alike. But he says that he is the rightful king (Aga) and got banished by the guy with the cold-proof formula. So Cliff goes back with him to help him regain the throne. Cause that’s the kind of guy Cliff is.
”White man stop or I’ll shoot! . They have guns now?!? Why the need for polar bears?!
With Ago and Broussard they fight it out but the Evil King (Sabu) sends more Africans with swords after them. Apparently they only had the one gun. You just saw Cliff rip the jaws off a polar bear!! Think he’s going to have trouble with you guys?
Just then a glacier falls on all of them. Sabu lives and so Cliff punches him so that he falls into the Polar Bear pit. Where one bear is stabbed and the other has a broken jaw. So how bad can it actually be?
The glacier covered King Sabu’s house where the secret formula was kept. So Cliff digs his way through the snow as Aga warns him to look out for the Green Cobra that guards the formula. The other cobras are fine?
Cliff digs down and finds the cobra (who is brown with a green head) and slams the door on it, which kills it.
He comes back up and a grateful King Ago gives him a copy of the formula and sends them on their way.
From the advertising:
”I wish I had some spending money.”
”Here’s my chance! I’ll mail the coupon!”
”Now I have money and a bicycle besides!”
I’d honestly like to know if they ever caught this ponzi scheme.
Next we get a 2 page prose story. ”The Case of the Vanishing Train”. It was told well, but not particularly interesting. On the same page however was an advertisement that was interesting. No, the train doesn’t really vanish.
BE A DETECTIVE
Work home or travel. Experience unnecessary. DETECTIVE Particulars FREE. Write Dept. D.C., AMERICAN DETECTIVE SCHOOL 2640 Broadway, New York, N.Y.
Sadly the school, famous for hiring comic book readers, does not appear to be in business any longer.
”Slam Bradley by Jerry Siegel and Dennis Neville” has no other title. I’ve actually heard of Slam Bradley though I can’t remember why.
On the way to the wrestling matches Tough Detective Slam and his Diminutive partner Shorty hear on the radio about a fire nearby.
So naturally they decide to go there instead. They rescue a few people while continually body shaming Shorty.
When the firefighters are too scared to go up the ladder to rescue a crippled boy, Slam and Shorty go up instead.
While up there they see evidence that the fire was set deliberately!
Slam takes the crippled boy to the roof where he finds a convenient ladder and uses it to walk across to another rooftop with the boy in his arms. The ladder collapses just as Slam leaps to the other roof!
Then they confront - SPOILER ALERT - the Janitor with evidence that he had set the fire deliberately because the tenants in the apartment were assholes to him and he was about to be fired. So he pulls out a gun and confesses at the same time!
But Slam and Shorty take him down!
That was weird…
Now for the main event. The title is ”The Batman Presents the Sensational Find of 1940… Robin the Boy Wonder”
Like the legendary Robin Hood whose name and spirit he has adopted.
I can understand why Boss Zucco talks like Edward G. Robinson, adding “See” to the end of every sentence but I’m a little baffled by Batman’s French ‘Au Revoir!’ And ‘Adieu, Gentlemen…’.?
Can you still send live bats through the post office?
And it really seems too bad the Robin’s stopped using the slingshot.
So when did Robin stop pushing crooks off of skyscrapers to fall to their death?
The signed confession that Batman extracts from one of the henchmen seems to be under duress and the photo of Boss Zucco tossing said henchman off the building also seems like it wouldn’t hold up in a ‘Law & Order’ episode but I understand the law was bit more loose in those days…
So that’s it. I hope I saved you the $6.99 for the reproduction — marked Ages 13+ cause of the gruesomeness.
Well, it looks good on the shelf but frankly the rest of the comic book didn’t really have much to offer — not even the usual ‘Golden Age’ zaniness.
So I can only give it 2 stars, but I’ll probably keep it cause… nostalgia is a helluva drug.
August 3, 2023
Like some other similar issues, this one is relevant for the 1st appearance of Robin, then nicknamed “the boy wonder”. In retrospective, though, seen with the eyes of a comic book reader of the late ‘30s, the story should have been captivating enough, albeit very simple. Oh… and please don’t forget the absolute nonchalance of either Batman or Robin to kill, in those days, given the fact that the fate of some of the villains could have been no other than that, tough not shown in the panels.
June 6, 2018
Para ser la primera aparición de Robin, me esperaba algo más. Incluso al presentar la muerte de Mary y John (sus padres), me pareció un momento algo plano y súbito, igual que cuando se presenta la primera pelea del dúo.
January 19, 2024
Holy Time Travel,Batman!
If you always wanted to meet Robin before Jason Todd, before Tim Drake, before all of that, this is your golden opportunity. You'll meet acrobat Dick Grayson,crime victim, shocked by the loss of his parents until millionaire Bruce Wayne (If I need to remind you of his true identity,you haven't been paying attention!) ,who also lost his parents in a violent attack,takes him in and turns him into the Boy Wonder we all know and love. Take it from a fan who knows,you're BATS if you miss this classic from Batman creators Bob Kane and Bill Finger. A Definitive Classic!
If you always wanted to meet Robin before Jason Todd, before Tim Drake, before all of that, this is your golden opportunity. You'll meet acrobat Dick Grayson,crime victim, shocked by the loss of his parents until millionaire Bruce Wayne (If I need to remind you of his true identity,you haven't been paying attention!) ,who also lost his parents in a violent attack,takes him in and turns him into the Boy Wonder we all know and love. Take it from a fan who knows,you're BATS if you miss this classic from Batman creators Bob Kane and Bill Finger. A Definitive Classic!
October 26, 2025
3.5 ⭐️
Me dio risa, dios, es que leer al principio un rápido resumen de cómo Dick se convierte en Robin (y más que todo inspirado en el nombre de Robin Hood, no por el apodo que su mamá le decía) y que Bruce aceptara de una sin tanto miramiento porque ok, también compartían un pasado igual JAJAJAJA, that's kinda something rlly...
Lo que también fue piola creo es que literalmente Batman usaba palabras en francés, o incluso esa escritura de hombre rico en cursiva? Un deleite de verdad. Además, creo que lo lindo de esto es ver un poco de los valores de Dick de nene. 🥺
Psdt: Batman literalmente papá orgulloso con su Robin, los amo.
Me dio risa, dios, es que leer al principio un rápido resumen de cómo Dick se convierte en Robin (y más que todo inspirado en el nombre de Robin Hood, no por el apodo que su mamá le decía) y que Bruce aceptara de una sin tanto miramiento porque ok, también compartían un pasado igual JAJAJAJA, that's kinda something rlly...
Lo que también fue piola creo es que literalmente Batman usaba palabras en francés, o incluso esa escritura de hombre rico en cursiva? Un deleite de verdad. Además, creo que lo lindo de esto es ver un poco de los valores de Dick de nene. 🥺
Psdt: Batman literalmente papá orgulloso con su Robin, los amo.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 11, 2024
Well I bought this as I wanted to read the first appearance of Robin in the Batman universe and thought it was great. What I didn't realize was that of the 60ish pages in this comic book - the Batman and Robin was about 9 pages. The rest of the comic book were stories about other detectives I have never heard of and didn't like. So if you were expecting a Batman and Robin comic book like I was - this isn't one. I really did enjoy the Robin origin story in the comic book but the other 80% of the comic book was not good and had nothing to do with Batman and Robin
September 25, 2019
Robin, the Boy Wonder! This is the introductory issue of Batman's first sidekick, Dick Grayson. The story is pretty much exactly how I remember it and still just as good when coming from 1940.
Although, citing Robin Hood as the inspiration for his superhero name was something I hadn't really heard before!
Although, citing Robin Hood as the inspiration for his superhero name was something I hadn't really heard before!
September 14, 2025
This is the debut of Robin the boy wonder! I don’t know what it is, but it’s cool seeing the first original comics and the evolving the writers took to the Batman we know and love! I’ve been a fan of Batman for years!
June 25, 2019
Nice
Able to read classic guy huh huh I i I i uninhabited h b b bb bb jj jj u
Able to read classic guy huh huh I i I i uninhabited h b b bb bb jj jj u
October 24, 2020
Robin! 4 stars just coz of the batman & robin story.
Read
November 15, 2020good classic. very enjoyable.
Read
May 11, 2021Read as part of Detective Comics: 80 Years of Batman Deluxe Edition
July 23, 2022
Dick Grayson, The Boy Wonder, is introduced. Robin is explained and his parents are killed bringing him and Batman together. 1940.....wow!
February 4, 2023
Only read Batman's story: Frenchy Blake's Jewel Gang
https://twitter.com/2_kaito/status/16...
https://twitter.com/2_kaito/status/16...
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June 18, 2023😀
December 21, 2023
It was a thrill to read this issue of Detective Comics that introduces The Caped Crusader's sidekick The Boy Wonder himself.
July 19, 2024
Robin makes a solid debut albeit with a bodycount
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 1, 2025
Best one so far, although that might not be saying too much
August 8, 2025
Yall don’t play with my man boy wonder
August 26, 2025
2,5🌟
vabbè, diciamo che dopo aver letto tutto il resto questo non è stato niente di che
vabbè, diciamo che dopo aver letto tutto il resto questo non è stato niente di che
August 31, 2025
The first appearance of my favorite DC character of all time…Dick Grayson!
September 18, 2025
2.5 to 3 stars
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews