Ok, so when last we left our intrepid hero, Uncle Vari had barged in on what looked to be quite a risque scene with Tim and Ari when in fact it was not. Regardless, Vari blows up, and Tim has to run into the night with Vari threatening to butcher him if he ever comes near Ariana again. Ariana, emotionally distraught, fumbles her own explanation to Vari and nothing good results.

So Tim goes to blow steam by doing the Robin thing and runs into Spoiler (more accurately she runs into, and tackles, him). Spoiler brings bad news as well -- the Ghost Dragons are extending their operations into the suburbs. When Robin tells her he'll handle it alone, she holds her clues under his nose (metaphorically) and forces him to allow her along.

The next day at school Ariana hasn't shown up, and Callie also expresses further concerns to Tim over Ives' increasingly erratic behavior. And so the mystery continues to deepen...

Which is why we now jump ahead to that night, when Robin and Spoiler rendezvous to check up on the Ghost Dragons. Robin's such a great guy too, he's giving himself a guilt trip for being with Spoiler instead of Ariana, even though there's nothing going on with him and Steph yet. Anyway, the two run into the Dragons, and Lynx, at an arcade and a fight ensues. Spoiler gets reckless, and almost gets blown away, but Robin saves her and the two do some damage before running off into the night. At best, it seems the fight was a draw. Driving away, Robin realizes he should convince Spoiler to stop the hero gig, but something inside of him (growing respect and affection for her) stops him from doing so.

Next up, a crook is dressing up in a Crocky Crocodile costume while pulling off hold-ups. Please note, Crocky is DC's answer to Barney. At any rate, it's great, the giant talking Crocodile is being framed for a string of robberies by his ratings rival -- Mr. Bingo. Think of this plot as Teletubbies vs. Barney or somesuch. So it's Robin, along with Shotgun, off to save the day. Which, by the way, they do, and Robin scores a Crocky for the trophy room.

Next up we see Tim trailing Ives. He's still concerned over Ives' odd behavior and bruises, and is determined to get to the bottom of it. He has a bit of an accident with a bus and loses Ives' trail. Left with no one else to talk to, he calls Steph (who had just gotten a threatening letter in the mail, btw) and basically makes a jerk of himself to her though that wasn't his intention. The next day at school Tim learns that Vari transferred Ari to another school. At least one thing goes well for Tim: that night he discovers Ives' secret. Ives has been working, at a children's fun-park type of place no less, where in his Ricky Rat costume the kids can get somewhat aggressive, and Ives had been just too embarassed to reveal the truth to his friends. Mystery solved, Robin heads to Spoilers, finds her missing, finds the threatening letters and follows them to find her all tied up. While un-gagging her the Baffler (Cluemaster's idiot sidekick) sucker punches Robin to the ground. Baffler then leads in to a stereotypical villain necessity of bragging about his escape from prison and his nefarious plans to leave them to die on a building set for demolition. Baffler knocks himself out (don't ask, just read it), Robin gets him and Spoiler free, and the two escape, bringing sleeping Baffler with them down into and out of the building as it's being demolished. The two heroes then SHARE a kiss. Their first kiss not stolen from one or the other. Baffler then recovers, impressed with Robin's heroics he suggests they be a team, which earns him a knock-out punch from both heroes. Cut to an arms dealership (honest) where the Rhafi is looking to buy some tanks and meets the General. Cut back to Tim returning home, to find Vari's told his dad all about the events of issue 40 as he saw them, and Tim gets grounded.

While grounded Tim is watching a news report on a hostage situation in a local check cashing store, Dana comes in for a talk. After that, Tim sets to calling first Batman, then GCPD, then the Manstalker, then Huntress all to no avail, to give the info he's gleaned from wtaching the news. He then calls Spoiler. And finds out she's actually considering his advice about retiring, which depresses him more for the loss of a rooftop swinging buddy than not having help for the current check-cash store hold-up. Papa Drake then comes in for a talk, and when Tim pays too much attention to the tv news and not enough to dad, dad rips the tv out of the wall and storms off with it. The next day Tim begins his sentence of hard labor, runs into Bruce who reveals he got to the check-cash store afterall. Cut back to the Rhafi and the General again, and the news that Rhafi's invited General to be his advisor.


In the midst of the Genesis cross-over, Gotham's crime rate has increased dramatically, and Robin happens upon a car chase between Shotgun and some False Facers and Robin decides to lend Shotgun a hand. The False Facers run off the road. Robin nabs two of them, but the third, Young El (remember him?) escapes, and Robin gives chase. During their inevitable fight, Young El gets trapped under a collapsed crossbeam in a flooding room. Robin tries his heroic best to save Young El, but fails.

Cut to the General, now in charge of Rhafi's troops, and back to Tim, grounded and doing yardwork. After dinner, channel surfing on his returned tv reveals news photos of the General with Rhafi. So Tim sneaks out, finds Batman busy and wrangles Nightwing into heading to Qurac with him. The plan being to nab the General and run -- too bad they don't know about the super mercenaries the Quraci hired. However, we're talking ROBIN here, so he wins the day, though decides to leave General to the Rhafi's punishment after some General double crossing. We end on Tim having Nightwing drop him off in Paris to finish his long-past training, while dad goes to the cops for help finding him.

Now in Paris, Tim looks into studying under a master who goes by the name "Master of the Iron Hand." Tim observes one of his classes, as Robin, and sees him beat and expel Shen Chi (Last seen in Robin mini I). Cute little redheaded psychopath Dava is intro'd in this scene as well. Interlude to the states, where Jack is tearing himself apart over Tim's running away -- blaming himself for not hearing Tim's side in the whole Ariana situation. Back to Paris, we see Robin get his hiney kicked during training, later as he's resting on his cot, tearing himself apart over girl troubles and his inability to save Young El, he goes for a drink of water and spies an intruder type. He surprises the intruder in the Mastewr's library, a fight ensues, and Robin wins just in time for the Master's cavalry, and fellow students to arrive in time for everyone to find out the intruder is Shen Chi, out to try and steal the knowledge the Master wouldn't give him. Dava makes her introduction to Robin, and heads back to bed.

Cut to Shiva making quick work of would-be assassins. Cut again to King Snake complaining about three million dollars in lost weapons and ammunition. Cut again to Robin and Dava dueling in the dojo. She beats him, and reveals her desire to learn all the single-blow techniques, and that specifically, she wants to learn "The Whispering Hand" from the Master and then she will move on to Shiva to learn "The Leopard Blow." Cut to a scene of Shiva looking over dead folks in a morgue, and smelling certain Dava-like spices on the corpses, and then back to Dava having just mastered the "Whispering Hand." While heading off to leave, Robin confronts her and gets a bit more of her history: she's from wartorn Transbelvia and is training to make what ever difference she can. Cut to some time later, with Robin in discussion with the Master when Shiva shows up. She wants Dava's name or the Master's death. While they fight, Robin runs off to try and find Dava to warn her. Robin discovers Dava's hometown to be Tbliska and heads for it as Shiva kills the Master. Cut to Transbelvia, where we find King Snake delivering arms and munitions to a general in the Transbelvian military. Cut again to Robin in Tblisk trying to locate Dava, only to be abducted by her flunkies. Robin vows to go along with Dava to defend her people from General Dvak Tvorakovich (the dude King Snake's visiting) and to help watch her back on the Shiva problem. Cut back to the states where Jack's shooting blanks on the find missing Tim dilemma, and Spoiler's not getting herself any more on Batman's good side while trying to press him for info on Robin's whereabouts either.

Back to Transbelvia and Robin & Dava. Robin finally learns what Dava's mystery scent is: Aramilla, a very rare, very difficult to find plant. The two go ahead of her troops into one of the villages, with Dava's orders to kill Robin if he proves untrustworthy. Robin, meanwhile, has to start wondering what he'll do if she tries to murder the General. When accosted by two members of the evil military enemies of Dava, Dava reveals she has superspeed (more on this later) and mops the floor with them. Next up is direct confrontation with General Dvak Tvorakovich. Finding their numbers somewhat daunting, Robin speaks out a voice of worry, and gets a big wet kiss from Dava, and along with it a nice healthy dose of Aramilla -- which has the nice side effect of giving one superspeed. The two make quick work of the General and all his forces, culminating in an explosion caused by the General's men, and just as Robin starts to confront Dava over drugging him Shiva shows up to kill Dava. Robin steps in against Shiva to protect Dava. Lost to both his own personal anger towards Shiva, and the effects of the Aramilla, Robin beats the tar out of her. Time for Sir Edmund the King Snake to show up too.



Issues 1-10, 0;Issues 11-20; Issues 21-30; Issues 31-40; Issues 41-50; Issues 51-60; Issues 61-70; Issues 71-80

Young Justice:
Issues 1-10; Issues 11-20