Cover: Mike Wieringo & Terry Austin

Robin #38

Feb 1997 · DC · 1.95 USD; 2.75 CAD

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“Watchin' the Detectives”

★ 1st appearance — Roy Raymond Jr.

About this Issue

Robin (Vol. 2) #38 is a character-driven chapter in Chuck Dixon's acclaimed, long-running stewardship of Tim Drake — a run praised for grounding a superhero title in genuinely adolescent experience. The issue advances two slow-burn subplots simultaneously: Tim's fragile reconnection with Ariana Dzerchenko after a period of emotional distance, and the first hints of something troubling in Sebastian Ives's home life, a thread Dixon would develop over subsequent issues. Both threads exemplify what made Dixon's Robin distinctive in the mid-1990s: the insistence that Tim Drake's civilian identity carried as much dramatic weight as his cape-and-staff adventures. The Manstalker B-plot also introduces Roy Raymond Jr. as a recurring foil, a media-age commentary on the celebrity detective genre.

writer Chuck Dixon · artist Staz Johnson · inker Bob Smith · colorist Adrienne Roy · letterer Tim Harkins · cover Mike Wieringo, Terry Austin

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FN/VF $2.4 FN $2.9 VF $2.9 MINT $2.99 NM $2.99 VF · 2nd print $3 VF/NM $3.28 MINT $3.99

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History

The issue was written by Chuck Dixon, penciled by Staz Johnson, inked by Bob Smith, colored by Adrienne Roy, lettered by Tim Harkins, with a cover by Mike Wieringo, and edited by Jordan B. Gorfinkel and Dennis O'Neil. It was published in December 1996 with a February 1997 cover date, part of the stable creative team that Dixon anchored throughout the mid-run of the ongoing series. Dixon's consistent attention to Tim's supporting cast — particularly Ariana, who first appeared in Robin III: Cry of the Huntress #1 (December 1992) — was a defining editorial choice that gave the book a serial continuity rare among superhero titles of that era.

Trivia · 8 facts

Cover date: February 1997; on-sale: December 1996. Issue #38 of the Robin (Vol. 2) ongoing series, which ran from 1993 to 2009.
Story title: 'Watchin' the Detectives.' Written by Chuck Dixon; penciled by Staz Johnson; inked by Bob Smith; colored by Adrienne Roy; lettered by Tim Harkins; cover by Mike Wieringo; edited by Jordan B. Gorfinkel and Dennis O'Neil.
The issue advances Tim Drake's rocky relationship with Ariana Dzerchenko, a Russian immigrant character who debuted in Robin III: Cry of the Huntress #1 (December 1992, created by Chuck Dixon, Tom Lyle, and Bob Smith) and served as Tim's first serious girlfriend throughout the ongoing's early run.
A school subplot plants the first visible signs of abuse on Sebastian Ives, Tim's classmate and friend, seeding a longer storyline Dixon would pay off in later issues.
Villain-of-the-issue is Slyfox, a burglar whose heist on an insurance company is crashed simultaneously by Robin and Roy Raymond Jr. (the Manstalker), a third-rate reality-TV 'detective' who reappears across several issues of the run.
Alfred Pennyworth appears in a supporting role, consistent with his function throughout Dixon's run as a grounding presence in Bruce Wayne's household.
Ariana Dzerchenko appeared across approximately the first 66 issues of the Robin ongoing before being written out of continuity, making issues in this stretch — including #38 — the core of her comics bibliography.
No known reprint of this specific issue has been identified; it has not been collected in a dedicated trade paperback as a standalone chapter.