Here’s the Variant covers (I’m not 100% sure this is all of them)
40s
50s
60s
70s
80s
90s
2000s
2010s
50s
60s
70s
80s
90s
2000s
2010s
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Without any spoilers let me just say, I got quite emotional a few times from the stories. I think the stories were quite good.
(Particularly Jason’s story, like wow my heart thank you Judd Winick I’ve missed you)
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just got back from the shop. Got the 40’s cover, really wanted the 60’s one but it was sold out hope the other shop in town has it. skimmed through it in the store, will dive in later tonight along with Batman, DCeased UK, YotV hell arisen, the last god (world building is LotR level in this story) and this fun looking comic by dark horse, x-ray robot #1.
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Well, I read it, and it was really good! I liked both of Tim’s stories (although Beechens was definitely better to me- I’m not a huge fan of how Tynion writes Tim, and N52/Rebirth ‘tec era is honestly one of the worst eras for him as a character, but it was still alright), and Williams IIs art was beautiful. All of Dicks stories were fun, and the art on those tended to be fairly solid, although I must admit I’m not a huge fan of Graysons style. Damians stories were fairly solid, although supersons leaned a bit too heavily on Jon and the art in the second was not good. Jason’s was really good, albeit a bit sad. I don’t feel as comfortable giving my opinion on steph, as I’m not a huge fan of hers, but her story was fun, although I feel she was much to sexualized.
All in all, I really enjoyed it.
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I liked this collection! Dick’s first two stories (Wolfman and Dixon) and Jason’s story (Winick) were my favorites. It was great revisiting the Nightwing 1996 era. I miss the arm and finger stripes… I also liked the story with all the Robins (although Dick would totally beat Tim in hand to hand combat 
).
On a side note, I thought it was interesting that “Ric” was nowhere to be seen, not even as an alias. Another missing alias in the Batcomputer headers was ‘Batgirl’ for Steph, although that one is explained away by Flashpoint/Doomsday Clock shenanigans.
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Here’s my thoughts on the individual stories:
“A Little Nudge”
I would say that Wolfman did a good job on telling the story of Dick Grayson growing up and becoming his own man, but…it’s Marv Wolfman, the guy literally wrote the freaking book on that very subject.
“Aftershocks”
Something that I keep coming back to with this one shot is how a lot of these stories feel like they could have easily came from the eras that they were representing, and it really starts with this issue. This felt so close to it that for a second I legitimately wondered if maybe they reprinted an old issue of Nightwing from this era. It’s also very possible that Dixon just had Dick do something very similar in one of his stories.
“Team Building”
I have to admit, as soon as I saw the name “Devin Grayson” I immediately grew concerned. I mean, I get that she has way more of a legacy with the character than what she did with him and Tarantula, but that’s what was going on as I was first getting into comics so that’s just where my mind goes with her.
ANYWAY, this thankfully had nothing to do with that, and more focused on Dick as a leader of the Titans, which is always good.
“The Lesson Plan”
Again, this feels like it could easily slide in with the original Grayson series – which, given, that was only…what, three, four years ago, it’s not THAT hard to do, but still! I liked the juxtaposition between the lessons that Dick is given and what he is giving, and the little twist at the end really kind of epitomizes the Bruce and Dick dynamic.
Though one thing I do feel the need to comment on…am I nuts, or did it imply that Dick at least had a date with a denizen of Gorilla City? … Okay look, I get he’s the Casanova of the Bat-Family, but…seriously? I also was instantly reminded of the bit from Dave Chapelle about catching a monkey and then it just made it even funnier to me.
“More Time”
Storywise, so precious, absolutely loved it. Artwise, not bad, but…different from what I’ve seen before from Nguyen. Maybe it’s because it looks like he inked it himself? It didn’t feel as crisp and was a little more cartoony than I’m used to his more serious work.
Also, pin-up wise, love the Kenneth Rocafort pin-up with Jason and both volumes of the Outlaws.
“Extra Credit”
This really feels like a summarization of who Tim was for pretty much the beginning of his tenure up until about Infinite Crisis. Very well done.
“Boy Wonders”
This feels like a great prologue to James Tynion’s run on Detective Comics. It not only sets Tim up very well but his dynamic with Dick, Jason and Damian.
“Fitting In”
Steph’s only story and it’s definitely a good one. Again, this feels like it could have been straight out of that original arc of her time as Robin, and it’s a fun story. Loved how it showed off both her struggles and her tenacity. I was surprised that they did the stuff of her kind of blowing out of Tim’s original suit and have to commend them for pulling that off in a way that didn’t feel creepy or objectifying.
“My Best Freind”
Really sweet summary of Jon and Damian’s friendship, very cute.
“Bat and Mouse”
A great summary of Damian and Bruce’s relationship, which is…far less cute. It’s a bittersweet story to close out on, because it’s obvious to read that there’s a lot of love and yearning to be closer for father and son, but at times they’re both just too stubborn and alike to just say what they mean. It looks like this will climax in a future Annual for Teen Titans, so hopefully the two will be in a better place going forward.
2 Likes
Very nice summary. I wrote a REALLY long review (it was 8 pages in my google docs) here (http://thebatmanuniverse.net/robin-5/) so I don’t want to copy and paste all that, but I’ll give a few thoughts on my favorites.
“Fitting In” - as a Steph fan, this was so beautiful to me. It’s just chock full of her personality in writing and art (and getting Damion Scott back to draw her was so cool - it was familiar, but he also used new angles and looks which was super cool). The story was also very well constructed, with a strong theme that I think really addresses Steph’s position in the Batfamily.
“Lesson Plan” - getting the whole Grayson team back together really paid off - it looks beautiful, and really rewards fans of the series. The formalist of the repeated beats, and the twist at the end were just so well judged.
“Aftershocks” - Dixon and McDaniel return to Cataclysm, and that’s a really nice choice. While I think I might have preferred maybe a “Dick decides to come back to Gotham for Knightfall” story, at least it wasn’t Joker’s Last Laugh or Legacy - those wouldn’t have been nearly as fun as this one, a pure adventure story very well told.