Robin Vol 4 130

"War Games: Act 2, Part 5: The Only Light in Gotham"
Robin #130
September 22, 2004
Written by	Bill Willingham
Cover by	Dustin Nguyen
Pencilled by	Jon Proctor
Inked by	Robert Campanella, Rodney Ramos
Colored by	Guy Major
Lettering by	Phil Balsman
Edited by	Michael Wright
Previous Issue	Batman: Gotham Knights #57
Next Issue	Batgirl #56

Steph: "And you just got beaten by a little girl. My, how it must suck to be you."

Tim and Jack Drake try to help any way they can at the increasingly overrun clinic of Leslie Thompkins. Meanwhile, Steph is in the fight of her life against the mysterious mastermind apparently steering the events of "War Games!"

Summary of Stephness: Black Mask is the big bad. Steph beats him up and destroys the PDA with the plans. Editorial fiat says Steph has to lose, so she does.

Tim is a jerk and says that Steph was only temporary when some toughs insist that Robin is supposed to be a girl now.

While Steph's dialogue is brave, she is broken by the infamous power drill. This issue definitely earns the moniker "torture porn" by presenting her in a sexualized light during the torture sequences.

Behind the Scenes: Dustin Nguyen, later to become much more famous in DC circles by providing covers and occasional pencils for Steph's Batgirl run, and even later for redesigning Steph's Spoiler outfit for Batman Eternal (featured as our header in 2014-2015), he gives Steph as Spoiler a cover appearance alongside Robin. His trademark figure and face style is apparent, though the colors are quite different than his usual collaborators. It's a shame that giving Steph the cover apparently meant "horrible, completely unjustifiable things happen to her in this issue."

Other Formats/Collected In:
Digital Comic Book
Batman: War Games – Tides (Vol. 2) TPB
Batman: War Games, Book Two TPB

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