Robin Vol. 1

This volume is issue 1 of the Robin ongoing series launched in November 1993, titled Outcast, written by Chuck Dixon, penciled by Tom Grummett and inked by Scott Hanna. It falls during the Knightquest phase of the Knightfall event: Bruce Wayne is absent after a severe spinal injury, and the man in the Batman suit is Jean-Paul Valley, whose temperament grows increasingly paranoid. In the opening, Jean-Paul, losing control of his emotions, beats Robin, Tim Drake, who immediately breaks with him, drives off from the Batcave in the Redbird and returns to Gotham to live as an ordinary student. As the new term begins, Tim attends school with his friend Ives and goes to the school dance with his girlfriend Ariana; meanwhile a gang of luxury sports car thieves called the Speedboyz is targeting a gathering of wealthy students and carries out an armed carjacking outside the dance that night, forcing Tim to act as Robin. At the same time, in Blackgate Prison, the Cluemaster conspires with fellow inmates Electrocutioner, Czonk and others to escape during a counseling class. Robin, investigating the carjacking, is mistaken for a member of the gang by the hard-charging deputy sheriff Shotgun Smith, and a pursuit and confrontation ensue. The issue contains 23 pages of main story plus a letters page and a preview of the next issue. This volume is the starting point of Tim Drake's solo Robin series and a key origin for understanding how he steps out of Batman's shadow.