Now, pause a moment for the bit of Tim/Ari characterization we get this time out. The two are at the carshow, supposedly on a date. What bothers me, is Ari is only continuing to make herself more unlikeable (and I had been favoring her for a long time in the earlier days, despite her petty jealousies) as she carries herself with a really poor, angry attitude and directs it all onto Tim, who has no responsibility at all in what happened to her when she cheated on him with Angstrom.

Thankfully, the Ari bit is cut short, as Tim has to Robin-up and stop the Speedboyz, and to top it off, he's joined by Golden Age legend Wildcat! Robin, of course, immediately discerns Wildcat's identity, but keeps it to himself, as Wildcat's own Bat-references cause Robin to begin questioning Batty's tendency towards secrecy. At any rate, Robin finds in Wildcat a hero who takes more risks and a much more up-front approach to crimefighting. The two end up fighting the baddies during a high speed chase, they win relatively easily and Wildcat and Robin go their separate ways. Robin, goes to the Batcave only to discover that the Clench virus, mutated, is on the loose again and his life is in danger.

Now, usually in these inter-title crossovers we're stuck having to buy all the issues just to be able to read the stories with any decency. With "Legacy" this is not the case, at least with the Robin issues. Both stories stand alone quite well. In our first Robin part, we have Dick and Tim in Paris -- their goal to stop Ra's Al Ghul from unleashing his plague in Europe. Now, some other great things also happen on Tim's return to Paris (remember, he came here for training in the first mini series): first, he has a run-in with loserboy Shen Chi and gets to knock Chi's ego down a few notches. Second, Robin has to enlist Henry Ducart's aid in stopping Ra's. Between him, Nightwing and Ducart, the badguys are thoroughly stomped, and some damage is done to the Louvre.

In the second Robin part of the crossover we have Robin, Nightwing and Huntress infiltrating Ra's Al Ghul's ship in order to hack the villain's computer and find a cure for the disease. Nightwing and Huntress get to do all the thug-beating grunt work while Robin does the important computer stuff with Oracle. Once he and Oracle crack Ra's' code (and yes, Oracle does most all of the work herself, Robin's job is to keep her online with the computer) Robin just barely saves Nightwing and Huntress from a possibly nasty end as the ship explodes all around them. Ra's and Talia get away again, but all-in-all, score one for the good-guys.

Now for some down time. Tim, Ariana, Ives and Callie (whom I don't recall having ever seen before and seems to be a potential dating interest for Ives) are at one of those "Shakespeare in the Park" productions for English extra credit. I have to agree with Ives that a Baywatch version of "Macbeth" is utter garbage. Anyway, also there is Huntress, in her secret id as Helena Bertinelli highschool teacher with a group of her innercity students. Ives and Ari have a moral argument over the right to free speech, and Tim ducks out to stop a fight between two of Helena's kids and confiscate one of their guns. He then has some altercations with Helena, but lucky fo him, she's not as good a detective and doesn't crack his secret id like he had hers months earlier. Tim then spies some armed robbers, Robin's up and stops all but one of them (the one that got away is taken down by Helena by running into her fist). All the goodguys then get to go home and live happily ever after, or until the next issue comes out, which is next.

A giant space monster has put out the Sun and it's up to Robin and Spoiler to do what they can to help keep Gotham's crime down. While stopping one set of looters, both heroes, and a looter, get trapped under snow when a roof collapses atop them. Aside from Spoiler's usual heavy flirtation with Robin, we also get more important insight into her character as she's all for leaving the crook buried in the snow to die, and Robin obviously is not all for doing that. To Spoiler's credit, while she is against saving the crook, she does at least help Robin search for him, and instead, the two find an innocent woman and baby trapped beneath -- likely they'd been seeking warm shelter within the building before the roof's collapse. The villain, meanwhile, busts himself out, and like an idiot, tries to chainsaw Robin to death. Since 39 issues follow this one, it's safe to assume the badguy doesn't even come close to winning. The badguy beaten, our two heroes dig their way free, and find the Sun is back on; it's not the end of the world after-all.

Great, Robin's old foe the General is on the loose again, and to boot, he's teamed up with Superman's foe the Toyman in order to pull a toy heist. Of course, the General has no clue that the Toyman hates kids and that his life too is in great danger, and it falls to Robin to both stop them from succeeding, and keep General safe from Toyman. Which he does in good form, after getting a lot of info from General's little sister. Two other things of note occur in these issues, both as Tim developments, not Robin. The first is we begin seeing clue that Ives has a secret of his own, second is Ari continues to distance herself, rudely, from Tim over her own unreconciled feelings towards herself over her near date-rape.

Enter Roy Raymond Junior, the Manstalker, a John Walsh meets Sherlock Holmes wannabe. Tim, at least, is smart enough not to take him seriously. Tim also spies a monstress bruise on Ives' side while changing for gym and gets the brush-off from Ives. The mystery deepens, and Tim Robin's up that night to get some thinking done. Instead he finds himself hot on the trail of Slyfox and the rest of his burglar cronies, a trail Manstalker is on as well. Both convene on Slyfox at the same time, Manstalker with cameras rolling. Slyfox gets away, and Robin can't give chase because he has to confiscatethe tape from Manstalker's camera and preserve the Bat-family's "urban myth" status. Robin does however stow away on Manstalker's news van while they give chase to Slyfox (pausing long enough to confiscate yet another tape), and with Manstalker's help, Robin saves the day yet again.

From there not only does Tim finally learn the truth behind Ariana's recent moodiness, but in order to cement their relationship, she throws herself on him sexually. Though Tim does the respectable thing and, realizing they're far from ready and these are all the wrong reasons, declines, Ari's uncle still barges in and assumes the worst.

(To be continued on the next page, where we pick up the bio with issue 41)