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Robin (1991, 1993-2009) #13
Robin: Violent Tendencies
Book by Dixon, Chuck
160 pages, Paperback
First published November 18, 2008
About the author
Chuck Dixon
3,505 books1,135 followersCharles "Chuck" Dixon is an American comic book writer, perhaps best-known for long runs on Batman titles in the 1990s.
His earliest comics work was writing Evangeline first for Comico Comics in 1984 (then later for First Comics, who published the on-going series), on which he worked with his then-wife, the artist Judith Hunt. His big break came one year later, when editor Larry Hama hired him to write back-up stories for Marvel Comics' The Savage Sword of Conan.
In 1986, he began working for Eclipse Comics, writing Airboy with artist Tim Truman. Continuing to write for both Marvel and (mainly) Eclipse on these titles, as well as launching Strike! with artist Tom Lyle in August 1987 and Valkyrie with artist Paul Gulacy in October 1987, he began work on Carl Potts' Alien Legion series for Marvel's Epic Comics imprint, under editor Archie Goodwin. He also produced a three-issue adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit for Eclipse with artist David Wenzel between 1989 and 1990, and began writing Marc Spector: Moon Knight in June 1989.
His Punisher OGN Kingdom Gone (August, 1990) led to him working on the monthly The Punisher War Journal (and later, more monthly and occasional Punisher titles), and also brought him to the attention of DC Comics editor Denny O'Neil, who asked him to produce a Robin mini-series. The mini proved popular enough to spawn two sequels - The Joker's Wild (1991) and Cry of the Huntress (1992) - which led to both an ongoing monthly series (which Dixon wrote for 100 issues before leaving to work with CrossGen Comics), and to Dixon working on Detective Comics from #644-738 through the major Batman stories KnightFall & KnightsEnd (for which he helped create the key character of Bane), DC One Million , Contagion , Legacy , Cataclysm and No Man's Land . Much of his run was illustrated by Graham Nolan.
He was DC's most prolific Batman-writer in the mid-1990s (rivalled perhaps in history by Bill Finger and Dennis O'Neil) - in addition to writing Detective Comics he pioneered the individual series for Robin , Nightwing (which he wrote for 70 issues, and returned to briefly with 2005's #101) and Batgirl , as well as creating the team and book Birds of Prey .
While writing multiple Punisher and Batman comics (and October 1994's Punisher/Batman crossover), he also found time to launch Team 7 for Jim Lee's WildStorm/Image and Prophet for Rob Liefeld's Extreme Studios. He also wrote many issues of Catwoman and Green Arrow , regularly having about seven titles out each and every month between the years 1993 and 1998.
In March, 2002, Dixon turned his attention to CrossGen's output, salthough he co-wrote with Scott Beatty the origin of Barbara Gordon's Batgirl in 2003's Batgirl: Year One. For CrossGen he took over some of the comics of the out-going Mark Waid, taking over Sigil from #21, and Crux with #13. He launched Way of the Rat in June 2002, Brath (March '03), The Silken Ghost (June '03) and the pirate comic El Cazador (Oct '03), as well as editing Robert Rodi's non-Sigilverse The Crossovers. He also wrote the Ruse spin-off Archard's Agents one-shots in January and November '03 and April '04, the last released shortly before CrossGen's complete collapse forced the cancellation of all of its comics, before which Dixon wrote a single issue of Sojourn (May '04). Dixon's Way of the Rat #24, Brath #14 and El Cazador #6 were among the last comics released from the then-bankrupt publisher.
On June 10, 2008, Dixon announced on his forum that he was no longer "employed by DC Comics in any capacity."
His earliest comics work was writing Evangeline first for Comico Comics in 1984 (then later for First Comics, who published the on-going series), on which he worked with his then-wife, the artist Judith Hunt. His big break came one year later, when editor Larry Hama hired him to write back-up stories for Marvel Comics' The Savage Sword of Conan.
In 1986, he began working for Eclipse Comics, writing Airboy with artist Tim Truman. Continuing to write for both Marvel and (mainly) Eclipse on these titles, as well as launching Strike! with artist Tom Lyle in August 1987 and Valkyrie with artist Paul Gulacy in October 1987, he began work on Carl Potts' Alien Legion series for Marvel's Epic Comics imprint, under editor Archie Goodwin. He also produced a three-issue adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit for Eclipse with artist David Wenzel between 1989 and 1990, and began writing Marc Spector: Moon Knight in June 1989.
His Punisher OGN Kingdom Gone (August, 1990) led to him working on the monthly The Punisher War Journal (and later, more monthly and occasional Punisher titles), and also brought him to the attention of DC Comics editor Denny O'Neil, who asked him to produce a Robin mini-series. The mini proved popular enough to spawn two sequels - The Joker's Wild (1991) and Cry of the Huntress (1992) - which led to both an ongoing monthly series (which Dixon wrote for 100 issues before leaving to work with CrossGen Comics), and to Dixon working on Detective Comics from #644-738 through the major Batman stories KnightFall & KnightsEnd (for which he helped create the key character of Bane), DC One Million , Contagion , Legacy , Cataclysm and No Man's Land . Much of his run was illustrated by Graham Nolan.
He was DC's most prolific Batman-writer in the mid-1990s (rivalled perhaps in history by Bill Finger and Dennis O'Neil) - in addition to writing Detective Comics he pioneered the individual series for Robin , Nightwing (which he wrote for 70 issues, and returned to briefly with 2005's #101) and Batgirl , as well as creating the team and book Birds of Prey .
While writing multiple Punisher and Batman comics (and October 1994's Punisher/Batman crossover), he also found time to launch Team 7 for Jim Lee's WildStorm/Image and Prophet for Rob Liefeld's Extreme Studios. He also wrote many issues of Catwoman and Green Arrow , regularly having about seven titles out each and every month between the years 1993 and 1998.
In March, 2002, Dixon turned his attention to CrossGen's output, salthough he co-wrote with Scott Beatty the origin of Barbara Gordon's Batgirl in 2003's Batgirl: Year One. For CrossGen he took over some of the comics of the out-going Mark Waid, taking over Sigil from #21, and Crux with #13. He launched Way of the Rat in June 2002, Brath (March '03), The Silken Ghost (June '03) and the pirate comic El Cazador (Oct '03), as well as editing Robert Rodi's non-Sigilverse The Crossovers. He also wrote the Ruse spin-off Archard's Agents one-shots in January and November '03 and April '04, the last released shortly before CrossGen's complete collapse forced the cancellation of all of its comics, before which Dixon wrote a single issue of Sojourn (May '04). Dixon's Way of the Rat #24, Brath #14 and El Cazador #6 were among the last comics released from the then-bankrupt publisher.
On June 10, 2008, Dixon announced on his forum that he was no longer "employed by DC Comics in any capacity."
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
February 11, 2017
This was okay.
I'm still learning about Tim Drake and I know he and Stephanie have a close relationship. Unfortunately, I find hem really boring together. I just don't care about their romance but I love seeing them with other people. I especially love Tim's brotherly relationships with Dick, Cass and Damian and Steph's relationship with Cass.
Anyway, this book follows Tim a while after Steph and his father died. He has been formally adopted by Bruce and he's moved on. He has new girlfriend, he's continuing his training as Robin and he's focused on school.
I don't know if the intention was to make it look like he didn't like his life very much but that was the impression I got. I was interested in Zo and Ives to an extent but this story made it seem like Tim thought they were burdens? Zo is acting like a normal high school girl and if I was dating a guy that constantly cancelled dates and fell asleep on dates with me, I'd be pretty ticked off, too. Then there's the part where Tim leaves Ives after a short visit to confirm that his friend has cancer and the thought box says "God knows Ives needs to talk about it. Like I need to suit up". It was kind of douchey. Plus, it would have been nice to see what Tim was like dating someone who's not Stephanie.
So, there's a Robin Hood-esque character named Violet in this book. She's stealing stolen money and donating some of it to a church. Bruce tasks Robin with catching her. I quite liked her and wanted to know more about her but we didn't get much by way of backstory. It was all action as Robin tries to catch her and ends up helping her instead.
The Spoiler of it all was sloppily executed. She just pops up and they explain her resurgence in such a bs way. If I'd been broken up about how Spoiler left this first time, I would be pissed off about this.
The Africa plot was so freaking weird. Aside from the fact that it's yet another story that makes it seem as though everyone in Africa lives in huts, it was unnecessary. The last two issues are pretty much Spoiler centric issues. It's strange.
I loved Tim's sarcasm, though! That aspect of his personality came across really well.
One big note, Dixon clearly had no idea how teenagers spoke at the time of this book. The lingo was laughably bad. It was like watching an episode of Saved by the Bell.
Anyway, all in all, this was okay. If you're a big fan of Tim/Steph, you'll probably love this. I didn't really care for it.
3 stars
I'm still learning about Tim Drake and I know he and Stephanie have a close relationship. Unfortunately, I find hem really boring together. I just don't care about their romance but I love seeing them with other people. I especially love Tim's brotherly relationships with Dick, Cass and Damian and Steph's relationship with Cass.
Anyway, this book follows Tim a while after Steph and his father died. He has been formally adopted by Bruce and he's moved on. He has new girlfriend, he's continuing his training as Robin and he's focused on school.
I don't know if the intention was to make it look like he didn't like his life very much but that was the impression I got. I was interested in Zo and Ives to an extent but this story made it seem like Tim thought they were burdens? Zo is acting like a normal high school girl and if I was dating a guy that constantly cancelled dates and fell asleep on dates with me, I'd be pretty ticked off, too. Then there's the part where Tim leaves Ives after a short visit to confirm that his friend has cancer and the thought box says "God knows Ives needs to talk about it. Like I need to suit up". It was kind of douchey. Plus, it would have been nice to see what Tim was like dating someone who's not Stephanie.
So, there's a Robin Hood-esque character named Violet in this book. She's stealing stolen money and donating some of it to a church. Bruce tasks Robin with catching her. I quite liked her and wanted to know more about her but we didn't get much by way of backstory. It was all action as Robin tries to catch her and ends up helping her instead.
The Spoiler of it all was sloppily executed. She just pops up and they explain her resurgence in such a bs way. If I'd been broken up about how Spoiler left this first time, I would be pissed off about this.
The Africa plot was so freaking weird. Aside from the fact that it's yet another story that makes it seem as though everyone in Africa lives in huts, it was unnecessary. The last two issues are pretty much Spoiler centric issues. It's strange.
I loved Tim's sarcasm, though! That aspect of his personality came across really well.
One big note, Dixon clearly had no idea how teenagers spoke at the time of this book. The lingo was laughably bad. It was like watching an episode of Saved by the Bell.
Anyway, all in all, this was okay. If you're a big fan of Tim/Steph, you'll probably love this. I didn't really care for it.
3 stars
March 10, 2026
I'm so glad Dixon brought Steph back (after she got fridged in War Games). After all the misogynistic writing my girl has gone through, I'm so excited to see her shine (especially since I'll read Batgirl 2009 soon and she's the main character in it!!!).
This story was ok, it brought Steph back and she and Tim had some good and fun interactions (and angsty ones too), I like seeing them team up (don't like them as a couple so that's why the rating isn't that high, but I can look past it for the most part).
This story was ok, it brought Steph back and she and Tim had some good and fun interactions (and angsty ones too), I like seeing them team up (don't like them as a couple so that's why the rating isn't that high, but I can look past it for the most part).
April 17, 2020
Robin: Violent Tendencies is a trade paperback that collects four issues (Robin #170–174) of the 1993 series with Robin/Spoiler Special and covers five one-issue stories some of them interconnected.
Tim Drake as Robin goes in the trail of a violet-hued thief named Violet, who puts him in mind of his former love in Stephanie Brown as Spoiler, who is believed to be dead, which turns out to be not so. The trade paperback deals with the return of Spoiler, believed dead since the events of War Games as the back story of how Leslie Thompkins faked Stephanie Brown's death in order to teach Bruce Wayne as Batman the lesson of recruiting teenaged vigilantes.
Chuck Dixon penned the entire trade paperback. For the most part, it is written rather well. The return of Dixon, who has written a large bulk of the Robin series, brought back some nostalgic elements to this teenaged crusader. While the story may have had one-too-many narration boxes at times, Dixon has a flare for Tim Drake's voice.
Chris Batista (Robin #170–171, 173–174), Jamal Igle (Robin #17o), David Baldeón (Robin #172), Rafael Albuquerque and Victor Ibáñez (Robin/Spoiler Special) penciled the trade paperback. For the most part, the pencilers complement with each other rather well, while remains distinct, which makes a rather artistic flow somewhat seamless.
All in all, Robin: Violent Tendencies is a good continuation to what would hopefully be a wonderful series.
Tim Drake as Robin goes in the trail of a violet-hued thief named Violet, who puts him in mind of his former love in Stephanie Brown as Spoiler, who is believed to be dead, which turns out to be not so. The trade paperback deals with the return of Spoiler, believed dead since the events of War Games as the back story of how Leslie Thompkins faked Stephanie Brown's death in order to teach Bruce Wayne as Batman the lesson of recruiting teenaged vigilantes.
Chuck Dixon penned the entire trade paperback. For the most part, it is written rather well. The return of Dixon, who has written a large bulk of the Robin series, brought back some nostalgic elements to this teenaged crusader. While the story may have had one-too-many narration boxes at times, Dixon has a flare for Tim Drake's voice.
Chris Batista (Robin #170–171, 173–174), Jamal Igle (Robin #17o), David Baldeón (Robin #172), Rafael Albuquerque and Victor Ibáñez (Robin/Spoiler Special) penciled the trade paperback. For the most part, the pencilers complement with each other rather well, while remains distinct, which makes a rather artistic flow somewhat seamless.
All in all, Robin: Violent Tendencies is a good continuation to what would hopefully be a wonderful series.
January 31, 2020
Robin #170-174, Robin/Spoiler Special.
I was looking forward to this story since it contains some of my first mainline single-issue superhero comics. But... I can't say it's a good story. A new vigilante, Violet, shows up, reminding Tim of Stephanie, before a new Spoiler shows up, who, it turns out, IS Stephanie.
Dixon returns to write these stories and I'm not sure if something changed in his writing, or if everything around him changed while he stayed the same. With 70 issues of Robin separating his last issue from this storyline, the character and art style and storytelling styles had changed a lot... But Dixon returns to the way he wrote things 6 years prior.
Stephanie feels much more shallow than she did under the other writers. Zoanne, who was a breakout character for me during Beechen's run, is reduced to "angry girlfriend" so Tim and her dad can share a "women, am I right?" moment. The villains are all two-dimensional, black-and-white "bad guys" (including one African "witch doctor" stereotype). Even the action feels less engaging in the past.
I think Dixon's prior stories had a certain surface-level quality, and that's part of what made them so bingeable in large chunks. All that charm is gone, and especially when combined with the more realistic art styles here, Dixon feels like a man out of time.
I was looking forward to this story since it contains some of my first mainline single-issue superhero comics. But... I can't say it's a good story. A new vigilante, Violet, shows up, reminding Tim of Stephanie, before a new Spoiler shows up, who, it turns out, IS Stephanie.
Dixon returns to write these stories and I'm not sure if something changed in his writing, or if everything around him changed while he stayed the same. With 70 issues of Robin separating his last issue from this storyline, the character and art style and storytelling styles had changed a lot... But Dixon returns to the way he wrote things 6 years prior.
Stephanie feels much more shallow than she did under the other writers. Zoanne, who was a breakout character for me during Beechen's run, is reduced to "angry girlfriend" so Tim and her dad can share a "women, am I right?" moment. The villains are all two-dimensional, black-and-white "bad guys" (including one African "witch doctor" stereotype). Even the action feels less engaging in the past.
I think Dixon's prior stories had a certain surface-level quality, and that's part of what made them so bingeable in large chunks. All that charm is gone, and especially when combined with the more realistic art styles here, Dixon feels like a man out of time.
July 25, 2026
So here's the thing. Dixon is, as a person, odious. I do not understand how a person this odious can write comics this good, and what is so awful about him does not seem to bleed into the comics. Dixon is the master of writing the Bat Family, and he excels at writing Tim Drake / Robin, and Stephanie Brown / Spoiler. This volume covers Spoiler's ret-conned return to the Bat Family. Dixon manages to balance Tim Drake as Tim Drake and Tim Drake as Robin, as he always has. There's really great superhero stuff in here, as well as compelling teenage drama (or, at least as compelling as a comic book can be). The mystery at the centre of the book is good, and I very much enjoyed that the ret-conning is handled with a few panels, so as to not drag down the plot. Some of the writing is a little lazy: a few plot points are simply not resolved, at all, and I'm not sure why - it's not like they're picked up in later issues.
November 20, 2023
The will not go down as one of Robin's finest outings. Author, Chuck Dixon has a long and pretty illustrious career with the Bat characters. Unfortunately, this is a throwaway story with huge ramifications on Tim's life. The main story is a new vigilante on the scene was laughably bad. The background story of who is the other mystery character slinking around Gotham is more important and handled terribly. Chuck Dixon has been responsible for much better. The art, mostly by Chris Batista was really good. Overall, a very forgettable read.
March 13, 2017
Batman sucks, he's a rude dude who is barely in these comics, but when he is he's dull and demanding. Robin is cool. It's a pity that the library doesn't have a more cohesive collection of his books---I ended up missing a tonne of the storyline because I had gaps between the collections. In one book a character is there, and then in the next book their back from the dead--what?! When did they die?? That's the libraries fault, not the writers. Either way, they're fun, but not much substance.
July 17, 2021
*Lots of reading + no time review = Knee-jerk reactions!*
More Tim Drake Robin, plus getting to know Stephanie as Spoiler better. Solid comic book action plus a heartfelt reunion. I lingered on the page where Tim embraced Stephanie in a passionate kiss. They deserve happiness and it was nice for them to get it--even if only one page.
More Tim Drake Robin, plus getting to know Stephanie as Spoiler better. Solid comic book action plus a heartfelt reunion. I lingered on the page where Tim embraced Stephanie in a passionate kiss. They deserve happiness and it was nice for them to get it--even if only one page.
September 29, 2023
I understand that Tim Drake's Robin was more of a 90s/00s character but it was so hard to find even one title in the library system of his standalone run :(. Reading this was weird because I'm really only familiar with the fannon version of the character and damn does it not line up with cannon. I can't say which version I prefer more but it'll be fun to figure it out.
March 8, 2021
Yaaaasss Tim.
August 29, 2023
im reading these comics so out of order… help.
May 17, 2024
⭐️3.5
January 27, 2009
Although it is by Chuck Dixon, it much less dark than your average Batman or Robin read. It seemed a little too campy. Although the return of spoiler Robins love interest is much welcome.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 30, 2009
Light and fluffy, but it kept my interest.
February 10, 2010
Steph is back, and I manage not to choke on the impermanence of comic book death.
August 1, 2011
It's a little rough since the book series went under this big changes, but it's something I can live with.
November 18, 2016
A brilliant depiction of The Boy Wonder and the contrast between his normal life and that of Robin. It further shows the disastrous consequences of being a super hero, a storyline that isn't so expertly shown by other writers.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews