Cancelled Trade Cavalcade: Robin: The Final Fight

Cancelled Trade Cavalcade -- where the Collected Editions blog looks back at some trades that never quite made print. First up, from the annals of DC Comics's solicitations, Robin: The Final Fight:

All of Robin''s training and crime-fighting by Batman's side comes to a head in this spectacular volume as Batman goes missing and the Boy Wonder becomes the new Dark Knight.

Tying into the events of "Batman R.I.P." continues here as Robin and the Bat family search for their leader while engaging in all-out battle with Gotham City''s underworld. And with his once-dead girlfriend Spoiler now back among the living, Robin also has his hands full with a not-so-happy family reunion between his lady love and her father, Cluemaster!

The trade was supposedly written by Chuck Dixon, and appears to fit just after Dixon's Robin: Violent Tendencies trade paperback.

Dixon, however, left the Robin title after Tendencies in a much-publicized but still very hush-hush spat with DC Comics (see "My Unsolicited Take on the Chuck Dixon/DC Comics Split") and Fabian Nicieza saw the title to its conclusion with Robin: Search for a Hero.

What's interesting here is not only the hints at a certain Spoiler story, but also the solicitation's statement that "the Boy Wonder becomes the new Dark Knight." Granted, Tim did put on the cowl for a while in Batman: Battle for the Cowl, but this suggests a much different end to the story, with Tim Drake as the new Batman and not Dick Grayson.

To me, I think DC got it right -- I can't see Tim Drake becoming Batman without Dick Grayson being severely incapacitated; if Bruce Wayne isn't around and Dick is, it's Dick who deserves to be wearing the cowl before Tim Drake. Still, this is a glimpse at what might have been.

Tune in next week for another Cancelled Trade Cavalcade. See you then!