Robin II: The Joker's Wild #4

Issue Details

Synopsis

CHILL FACTOR With no one to really share his feelings and worries with, Robin visits his comatose father Jack Drake in the hospital.   Later, Tim and Alfred prepare for a plan that will evade the Joker's ransom trap, and simultaneously trace back to the location of Dr. Osgood Pellinger, who the Joker had kidnapped to enact his plan to technologically cripple Gotham City.  The police deliver a red truck, as requested, leaving it to be picked up by Batman, who is not in the city to collect it. Instead, Robin arrives, and sets up a system by which he can control the truck by a remote.   Elsewhere, Alfred sets up a laptop at a payphone, from with which he will run a program set up by Robin to get a response from Dr. Pellinger so his location can be traced by the GCPD. The program shows a picture of Pellinger's childhood dog Pixie, and he emails Alfred, allowing the trace to occur.   Meanwhile, Robin drives the truck through a blizzard onto a suspended bridge. The Joker drives to a viewpoint on a snowmobile. He spies Batman in the truck's driver seat through his binoculars, falling for Robin's ploy. Rather than collecting the promised billion dollars in cash, the Joker opts to simply blow up the truck to kill his adversary. When he investigates, he discovers that the Batman in the truck is a fake, and has little time to contemplate it before Robin swoops down and knocks him to the ground.   Robin takes down the Joker's thugs, but the Joker himself begins escaping on skates across the river. Robin follows on snowmobile to a sewage treatment plant, unaware of whether or not it is a trap. When he arrives, he is ambushed by the Joker. Robin is quick on his feet, and manages to dodge the Joker's blades before ultimately knocking the villain into a vat of sewage. The police arrive in time to apprehend the Joker and inform Tim that they have traced Dr. Pellinger's location.   At home, Tim is served tea by Alfred, and they congratulate themselves on their success. Finally, Batman returns home, wondering what's happened. In Arkham Asylum, the other inmates make cracks about the Joker's accompanying smell of sewage, while he swears revenge on Robin.