The Deadly Duo becomes... the Eternal Triangle... or something...

[icon_uk]

I juts got a new piece of original art, and since it's my second piece from the same issue, I thought I'd share it, and the fun story it comes from.




It wasn't until I thought about it that I realised that, aside from one mass purchase of pages, I've only got two instances of owning two pages from the same story, and in both cases, it's Paul Dini writing stories which feature Robin as a hostage (one way or the other). Coincidence? Actually, quite probably, but that's neither here nor there...

Approximately 7 pages from 22 under the cut

We open as Robin (working solo) pursues Harley at the Gotham Zoo.



Hint, there's a clue in that last panel who she means (and it ain't the one with the white skin and green hair.)

Now, I have been fortunate enough to be able to obtain TWO pages from this story, and the following two scans are those pages. I can't believe i was lucky enough to get these two sequential pages. Click on them to be taken through to the line art at my CAF site! :)



I do like Dick's completely twitterpated expression here...



Now I appreciate that at some level this is deeply skeevy, Robin is more or less under the effects of a roofie, and is being led around like he's a dog on a lead, but it's treated more like a fairy story love potion, and that makes it a little less icky to me.

Before our new trio depart, they leave a message for Batman for when he does finally show up...



Subtle, girls, subtle. And Bats is NOT happy.

Batman gets a report of a break in at a jewellery store with the perps sounding a lot like Harley and Ivy, and goes to investigate. When Bud and Lou (the hyena's) fail to distract Batman long enough, Ivy calls in her new pet as a secret weapon. I wish I could inlude the "HY-YAH!" panel as Dick leaps down onto an appalled Batman, it's hilarious, but limits are limits.

Batman and Birdboy tussle...



I have NO idea what martial art is involved in the second panel above, but I imagine few of Bruce's sensei would be proud of him...

As they make their getaway, Ivy trips over the hyena's, and Robin, besotted as he is, instantly abandons the fight to tend to her injury. Harley steps in and with the aid of a smokebomb the three of them scarper, leaving Batman all alone.



Remember that episode of BTAS, where the Joker gets jealous (for the first time ever) and then possessive and deeply angry when the Creeper pays attention to Harley? Yeah, this story predates that, but the emotions are probably quite similar.

Meanwhile Batman breaks the news of the Teen Wonder's defection to the dark side to Commissioner Gordon. Jim notes that they have to find a way to break Ivy's spell....



Uh oh... this bodes ill for our favourite acrobat turned hero..



(This last page cost me a whole page of the page-count, but I felt it was worthwhile, can't think why! ;) ) I love that Robin is (aside from being topless for no real reason at all beyond fanservice) is an adept criminal, he's spent so long studying them he can think like them, and more to the point, better than Harley can!

Cue a cute montage of the new trio engaging in a highly effective crime spree. With Ivy's skills and Robin's brains.. oh and whatsername in tow, they rack up an impressive quantity of loot.

This is frustrating for Bruce, who notes that it's like trying to catch himself, he TRAINED Robin, but as a result, in this instance trained him too well, he doesn't slip up in his plans or make mistakes. Alfred replies that Batman should be proud, he's raised a MASTER criminal.

Harley feels reduced to being a packmule. All she does is drag sacks of loot along, and the sacks are MUCh bigger than they were before the Teen Wonder joined them. Ivy thinks it's all down to Robin's plans



Yeah, you have to remember that Harley does not like playing second fiddle, except to Mr J perhaps. There's a Robin shaped headache in her life and she's got just the cure...







Ouch!

Meanwhile Batman has managed to trace the lair of the threesome (Not threesome in THAT way, honestly, minds out of the gutter people... actually no, keep them there is you like, who am I to judge). He manages to stop Harley from pruning a still discombobulated Robin with a pair of garden shears, but is distracted by Bud ad Lou attacking him on Harley's orders...

He is distracted for long enough to have a shelving unit pushed over onto him, and Harley and Ivy call on a special guest to finish off the Caped Crusader...



(Note that Ivy doesn't know it was Harley who gave him the antidote)



Well that didn't go according to plan.

As H&I are being taken away, Batman asks how Dick managed to resist Ivy the second time... Mercifully we are spared the "Wax lips are immune to your charms" from the "Batman and Robin" movie, but a little more rational approach...

I love Batman's deadpan answer in the first panel.



You just KNOW Bruce is planning on quietly upping Dick's bromide intake after this, Bat-smirk or no Bat-smik.

I should add that it's a relief that there's an absence of anything remotely suggesting that Robin did anything more than give sexy topless foot massages and plan crimes. Anything more... intimate would have been distinctly skeevy. As it is this would have worked just fine as a BTAS episode, and that's a high standard to achieve IMHO.

Comments

[chocochuy]

Oh, Robin, you are such a Naughty Boy Wonder.

I love this particular story. It's truly Robin's definitive story.

[shadowpsykie]

more so than "Robin's Reckoning"?

[chocochuy]

Did "Robin's Reckoning" had Dick Grayson been used as a Boy Toy only for him to emerge victorious?

In all seriousness, that episode was the first time I saw Robin's origin (back in the early and merry 90s). I used to believe he was Batman's biological son or something before watching that episode.

[shadowpsykie]

teehee... you know if love "powers" worked to make people fall inlove with some one there were already feeling something for they would be less creepy

[mommy]

I admit it. I laughed at the craddle Robin joke.

[shadowpsykie]

also your Icon "Icon"

me: oh... hai :3

[icon_uk]

Robin would say "hai" back, but... y'know... gagged

[shadowpsykie]

wait George Perez drew that?!?!?!?!

[icon_uk]

Indeed he did! My (current) favourite commission in my collection :D

[shadowpsykie]

hmmmm it would only be better if he was hairy chested.... but he's Robin sooo :D

hmmm you know... would he qualify as "one of us?"

[icon_uk]

Yeah, hairy chested Robins, not really happening.

And I'm not sure what you mean by "one of us" I'm afraid.

[shadowpsykie]

oh heh look it up in Tvtropes :D it means a geek like one of us, or He see's what WE see when there are (in this case" tied up Robins :D

[heckfire]

George Perez has been quoted as saying "It's no coincidence that 'Perez' and 'Pervert' start with the same three letters." Sure, he was promoting either "Sachs and Violens" or "Crimson Plague" at the time, but I suppose it still stands considering some of his commissions...

The OTHER reason he's my personal artists GOD and ideal...LOL

[icon_uk]

No doubt about it actually. Mr Perez has cheerfully mentioned he regularly attends "Fetish Con" in Tampa and has what has been politely described (in a review of his "George Perez: Storyteller" book) as;

"a healthy interest in sexuality and the female form plays a part in Perez’s life. He admits to directing short female-wrestling fetish films. He speaks of how the R-rated Sachs & Violens series was an exciting divergence in his comics career. Perez isn’t portrayed as a pervert, but there are no apologies for the less conventional creative endeavors on his resume either."

And, as anyone who follows him on Facebook will tell you, despite all the kink (male and female, he's done more than one Robin and Kid Flash in peril, this Dick and Wally in their skivvies pic, and a lovely shredded shirt Cyclops) he's a thoroughly easygoing and charming man, who is so in love with his wife of thirty years it'd make you SICK if you didn't sense it was absolutely genuine and unaffected.

[shadowpsykie]

oh.... oh MY :D

[icon_uk]

There are reasons he's so beloved on s_d you know! ;)

[shadowpsykie]

Also, Linda (and Dick) is a very lucky woman :)

[star_of_airdrie]

whenever I (occasionally) look at your Perez commission, it strikes me how much Robin's knees must hurt (of all things...)

[icon_uk]

I'd agree if we hadn't seen the sort of workout that Dick puts himself through on a regular basis. The lad could crack coconuts between those knees.

[star_of_airdrie]

working on the rings with a weight shackled to his ankles, looks like at least 11 or twelve plates of what, 10 each? Yeah, coconut, heads, lots of things could be cracked between those knees.

He's reminiscent of Rocky in the final sketch - not sure why he looks like he's been just struck when he's working the heavy bag alone, but hey, he's really working out hard.

[shadowpsykie]

knees? come on, Imagine those GLUTES!

[star_of_airdrie]

in fact, I was doing just that earlier...

[icon_uk]

That ass didn;t just happen through good genetics you know... he works hard at it... very very hard... and... Ummm.. I'll be in me bunk!

[fredneil.livejournal.com]

"You know, Ivy, we could have made out and I wouldn't have felt anything. I'll prove it. Go ahead. Make out with me. I dare you."

[icon_uk]

"And for documentary purposes, I'd like Batman to film it... from a variety of angles if at all possible."

[chocochuy]

Kudos to Robin for trying such an interesting strategy. You can bet Batman is angry because he didn't think of it (or doesn't want to share Robin).

[fredneil.livejournal.com]

Ivy doesn't seem like she'd need too much persuading to test Robin's theory: "Ok, it didn't work the last 47 times. Let me try again."

[indy2012]

It's interesting. Ivy in the DCAU wasn't much older than Dick or Babs. In Pretty Poison, I remember a shot of her ID card reading "22-years-old".

Thanks so much for posting this, icon_uk. I've been wanting to read this for years. :)

[icon_uk]

Happy to help.

I don't recall seeing her age mentioned, but Ivy was at least a few years older than Dick and Babs, they were still teenagers at college, whilst Ivy was dating DA Harvey Dent (a contemporary of Bruce Wayne), without anyone suggesting that there was a massive age gap between him and her.

[chocochuy]

There's always a chance that Poison Ivy has been slowing her aging thru her science and that her ID Card is very old (yet not defunct).

[indy2012]

True true. Age with these characters is always hard to nail down. Though it's not uncommon for an older man to date a much younger woman.

And I always liked the Two-Face/Ivy pairing. It just somehow... worked for me.

[icon_uk]

And paid off beautifully in "Almost Got 'im"


Ivy - "Harvey, nice to see you're still looking half decent"
Two-Face - "Half of me wants to strangle you."
Ivy (seductively) - "And the other half?"
Two-Face - "The other half wants to run you over with a truck."
Ivy (to a baffled looking Penguin, Joker and Croc) - "We used to date."

[shadowpsykie]

OMG I LOVED that scene :D

[proteus_lives]

A classic for many reasons.

Ahh, Dini, corrupting the youth.

[icon_uk]

Not that many of us needed corrupting, he just sort of steered us in the right direction! :)

[proteus_lives]

Indeed Good Sir.

But Odin bless the Creators anyway for pouring gas on the fire. ;)

[biod]

I think this is exactly the sort of thing Odin blesses.

[auggie18]

Oh man, I freaking love this story. It has everything! Robin bondage, Robin/Poison Ivy (a couple I've always liked, though I can't exactly say why), Harley getting jealous that someone's putting the moves on her woman.

So much love for this one.

[jelly_ace]

Very nice addition to your collection! This was a great Robin story. H+I+R is a pretty good combination.

[blackruzsa]

Cradle Robin'.
This is why I love the clowns in Timm/Dini world.

[eyz]

Haha.. I remember this! Loved it!