Robin Drops Out

Well, kind of. Back in Batman # 217, Robin had left Wayne Manor behind and headed off for college.
And just like Green Lantern / Green Arrow, the newly minted Teen Wonder was keen to do his own thing, and discover himself and America. Except unlike GL & GA, he didn't actually have to leave his home state to do it.
Mike Freidrich wrote most of Robin's college adventures, and wanted to write about what was happening to him and his generation. So Dick got involved with college riots, elections and ecological issues, and as Friedrich was in his early '20's at the time, and if not in college, then only just out, we can't for once say that this strip was written by stuffy middle-aged men trying to be hip and cool.
Here's a good example, where Robin joins a commune in order to sniff out a violent revolutionary. Interestingly, here the Teen Wonder tries talking instead of just using his fists, which is clearly Friedrich's message.
And even though the ending is a bit pat, and a square like Robin would never really drop out, he's at least having his preconceptions challenged a little...

Batman: Hail Emperor Penguin!

Here's a fun little romp from Denny O'Neil, Irv Novick & Dick Giordano, with about as much depth as a flatfish omelette, but is all the more fun for that.
We're a long, long way from current 'I'm the Godammned Batman' here, as The Dynamic Duo actually have ( gasp cough splutter ) FUN in this story.
I mean, let's face it, how much of a threat is The Penguin anyway.
Robin, as you'll see, was off at college at this time, and this really feels like a 'gang back together' piece, or a weekend at home for the Teen Wonder at least. I wonder if he brought his washing home for Alfred to do?
I actually read this tale first in the above UK Xmas annual, and as we never got a single Neal Adams Batman in our town back then, had no idea who Talia was, or why Bats was so het up about her.
She did look a bit like Caroline Munro in The Golden Voyage Of Sinbad tho', so I liked her instantly.

Meanwhile, in the kind of Arabian country that only exists in DC comics, The Penguin is up to one of his slightly unfeasible plans...

Superman & Batman: The Super-Foes From Planet X

Back to the Silver Age now, for one of those super silly World's Finest stories where Bats, Supes & Robin fight aliens. Y'know, one of those tales everybody says they hate, and that ruined the Darknight Detective for years, but that always raise a smile and that we all like really.
My personal Bronze Age was still full of reprints like this, and I had no problem slotting them right alongside more 'serious' fare, and enjoying them in the spirit they were intended.
After all, I didn't know the Silver Age was over and we were now in the Bronze Age. Nobody told me.
This one, The Super-Foes From Planet X, has always stuck with me, if only for the scene with the matchbox and the genius way Batman escapes the trap the alien's put them all into.
Go on, smile. You know you want to.