Robin: Reborn, and the reason it brings real hope for Alt*Hero

So, I picked a copy of the Robin: Reborn trade, to remind myself what some of Chuck Dixon's hero writing was like. I wasn't reading the Batman books at the time, though I was somewhat aware of what was going on.

There's a few things of interest here, the most significant being that Mr. Dixon is one of two writers working in parallel on the same part of the same story. Two writer-artist teams, and Mr. Dixon and Mr. Alan Grant pass the scripting between them REALLY well. Oh, there's some differences in style, and certainly some art differences(maybe due to a style conflict), But overall it reads the way you would expect a single creative team story to read.

This is the story of Tim Drake becoming Robin, after figuring out that Batman was Bruce Wayne, and Nightwing Dick Grayson. And there's a lot of emotional depth and moral anguish here. Batman does not want Tim in costume, but only helping in the Batcave with investigative work off scene. Tim's parents are away, and end up kidnapped.

Bruce spends every effort he can to save them, and ends up with only a partial success in saving Mr. Drake. Tim has early anguish in both the loss and not wanting to go to the dark places Batman does. And then, Batman follows a reporter into a trap. Tim figures out the culprit, and knowing it will stop him from being Robin, goes to save Batman and stop Scarecrow. After, Batman says he earned the right to be Robin.

The second half follows Tim in schooling in healing and fighting. And I really don't need to describe more, the story is solid.

My point? Chuck Dixon knows how to work in parallel with another writer. He also has been burned enough in the industry that if he trusts someone to put his name with a project, the deal is solid.

What does his involvement with Alt*Hero. From what I've gathered from Vox's postings, Dixon's stories will be written in parallel, but entirely in a city called Avalon. In fact, that's the name of the book.

There's another well reputed book that features a city and its heroes. That's Astro City, written by very liberal Kurt Busiek. Now, Mr. Busiek hasn't sacrificed all his talent to preach SJW thought, but there's been more instances in recent volumes. So, I'm going to hope that in many ways, Avalon will end up being a response to Astro City. Mr. Dixon tells great stories on his own, and has no problem poking fun at liberals, as seen in Winterworld(Cee-Oh-two!).

To clarify one aspect about Astro City: it doesn't follow a hero or team. It tells stories about the heroes that are based there. But they aren't a normal continuity. If Avalon works well, it could do the same.

When you play Social Justice, the world loses.