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There is a place beyond time and space, between myth and reality. A place where the mistakes of the past are brought in line with the ways of the present, a place called: V
A N I S H
I N G
POINT
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Welcome to Vanishing Point, a monthly column about the more outré continuity problems in the DC Universe, and my personal *non-canon* attempts to make sense out of them. This month's column is:
Robin's Revamps
The Good, the Bad and the Gratuitous
by guest writer Louise Freeman Davis
Robin the Boy Wonder was the DC Universe's first, and most enduring kid sidekick. Debuting in 1940, the character has undergone several evolutions to become today's Nightwing, protector of BlŸdhaven and star of his own comic book; in the meantime two other boys have taken his place in the Robin costume, one successfully, the other with tragic results. But the origin of Robin is ultimately, the origin of an institution: eventually virtually all Of DC's major superheroes wound up with a "kid sidekick" of some sort, either a formally (Aquaman's Aqualad, Green Arrow's Speedy) or informally (the silver age Superman's pal, Jimmy Olsen (who eventually got his own book!); the Martian Manhunter's Gypsy). The junior partner now holds an honored place in the well-equipped crimefighter's Survival Kit, alongside the cape, the mask and the secret identity.
Society's view of kids, however, has changed a lot since 1940, and Robin has changed along with it. In today's age, where the "true history" of a character is not carved in stone, but at times seems scribbled in Dry-Erase marker, Robin has necessarily undergone quite a few revamps. Some of them have been leaps forward in character development, others have been necessary evils, and a few have left readers scratching their heads and wondering what the point was. I've followed the adventures of Robin even closer than I've followed the adventures of his caped mentor, and I'm here to give you my admittedly biased opinion on the various incarnations of the Boy Wonder over the years. The opinions expressed are my own, as are any errors, but my thanks go out to several people for fact-checking and filling in some gaps in my knowledge: Marilee Stephens, Carolina Lithgow-Bertelloni, Danny Quizon, Iain MacNair, Neil Davidson and Jason Fischer.
Ultimately, however, I blame a girlhood crush on Burt Ward for my obsession.
Robin: The Original Origin
Dick Grayson: The Classic Boy Wonder
Detective #38 Dick Grayson was 1/3 of a family acrobatic team:
The Flying Graysons. After his parents fall to their deaths during a performance,
young Dick overhears that their trapeze was actually sabotaged as part
of an extortion racket. He wants to go to the police, but is stopped by
Batman, who fears the boy's life will be endangered by the local crimelord
Tony "Boss" Zucco, who ordered the sabotage. He takes the boy
to the Batcave, where, by candlelight, Dick takes an oath to devote his
life to crimefighting.
The orphaned Dick Grayson becomes Bruce Wayne's ward.
Robin's costume is inspired by his circus performance uniform, and his avian name is chosen to make him and Batman "birds of a feather." (Here, the biologist in me must bite her tongue to avoid pointing out that bats are not birds, nor do they have feathers.) On his first outing, Robin witnesses Boss Zucco's murder of his own henchman, and snaps an incriminating photo that sends Zucco to the electric chair. Justice is served.
Nothing too complicated in this original tale, but what a legacy it has left us! It therefore, must start off with a perfect score of 5 R-darts.
Robin's origin story was retold a few times over the next 40-odd years, as the Boy Wonder grew into the Teen Wonder, and eventually, into Nightwing. This is unlikely to be a complete list, but here are some notable origin stories and details that developed over the years.
The Silver Age
The Silver age gave us at least two recaps of Robin's origin (Batman #213 in 1969, and Untold Legends of the Batman, a short mini-comic eventually collected into a black and white paperback) and a few details were altered or fleshed out. One was the addition of the "first" Robin, Bruce Wayne as young boy, who received training from a famous detective and who wore the costume originally, minus the R-insignia. I also think that Dick approves of the "Robin" codename in part because Robin Hood was one of his favorite heroes from fiction; I guess the name was already starting to have more feminine connotations, and after the Seduction of the Innocent fiasco, who wanted to take chances?
The Silver Age is looked back on by some as the good old days before continuity cops ruined everything, and these kind of minor revamps without a need for a major reboot are a big part of the reason why. Robin's history and character remained true to form for over 4 decades, even as comics became more complex. Nothing overly exiting, just good straight storytelling, which earns this era Robin 4.5 R-darts. But the Silver Age was drawing to a close, and even a treasured icon eventually had to grow up. Could DC age him gracefully?
Robin Leaves the Nest: The Birth of Nightwing
It was the mid-80's, and the Wolfman and Perez New Teen Titans were at the peak of their popularity. Dick Grayson's Robin had grown into a competent leader during their run… but could the star of one book continue to function as a sidekick in another? The credibility of that situation could only stretch so far, so DC made a gutsy move. One of their oldest (in years if not in age) characters would not only change his costume, but his identity, and part ways with the mentor he had always worked with. Since then, all the original sidekicks have followed suit, but at the time it was a radical experiment. To many, the thought of Dick Grayson being someone other than Robin was as outlandish as Clark Kent being someone other than Superman.
But DC persevered. In the crossover between New Teen Titans #37 and Batman and the Outsiders #5, Dick tells Bruce he wants to formally dissolve their partnership as Batman and Robin, and hopes his decision does not affect their relationship as Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson. Jason Todd (who had recently come to live with Bruce, see below) is literally waiting in the wings, ready to snatch up the suit, but Dick's not ready to leave that part of his life behind, just yet. Bruce isn't happy about this, at first, but by the end of the team-up, it's clear Dick is the more capable team leader, and that leading the Titans is where he belongs. They part with a handshake and mutual respect. It worked, for a while at least.
But by New Teen Titans #39, Dick as realized that's not enough. Even on his own, Robin is always going to be seen as a child, and as the back half of "Batman and-". He decides to give up the identity, and pass the Robin suit on to Jason. He takes a few issues to come up with a new costume and codename, but in the famed "Judas Contract" arc (NTT #44) the original kid sidekick debuts as an adult hero. In a touching homage Dick selects the name Nightwing as a homage to both Batman and Superman, choosing the name that Kal-el used when he patrolled the bottled city of Kandor as a non-powered, Batman-like hero: Nightwing. The Nightwing-led Titans continued to reign as DC's flagship title, and the experiment could only be judged a resounding success.
I give the Pre-Crisis Robin-to-Nightwing evolution a perfect 5 R-darts.
Secret Origins #13
Nightwing was one of the few heroes to actually get his origin retold in the *middle* of Crisis, rather than afterward. He left earth during that catastrophe, and spent a lot of it on the planet of Tamaran, celebrating his 20th birthday there. On the eve of that date, he recounts his life story to his teammate Joe "Jericho" Wilson.
The basics of Dick Grayson's origin as Robin changed very little in this recount (and during Crisis itself) and the story of becoming Bruce Wayne's ward after the death of his parents remained largely intact. One exception: Tony Zucco is alive and incarcerated, his sentence apparently reduced from the death to prison. He must have found himself a *really* good lawyer.
Robin's transformation to Nightwing, whoever, would get considerably ret-conned right after Crisis, and, since it's impossible to say where this recount occurs relative to the multiversal implosion, some details are necessarily vague. Dick does not mention the Kandorian connection to his name, for instance. And, though Dick *claims* Bruce "tried to be understanding" of his decision to leave, the flashback panel shows an enraged Bruce yelling, more akin to what would come post-Crisis. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
This was a nice bit of filler, but ultimately not much else. I rate it 3.5 R-darts.
Send in the Clone: Jason Todd
While the decision to make Dick Grayson Nightwing ultimately went over well, his replacement, Jason Todd, was not as popular. A major weakness was that his origin was almost a carbon-copy of Dick's: he was also a circus acrobat whose parents were murdered (this time by Killer Croc) and was subsequently taken in by Bruce Wayne. An origin that similar was a bit of a stretch, and ultimately cheapened the character. This probably contributed to the Pre-Crisis Jason Todd's unpopularity.
Jason Todd first appeared in Batman 327 and became Robin in Detective 526. I didn't read comics in those days, and I've never found the back issues at a price I was willing to pay, but my friend Carolina Lithgow-Bertelloni describes the story of the death of the pre-Crisis Jason Todd's parents as "almost fabulous." She elaborates, "Although I didn't like the fact that Jason was made into almost an exact copy of Dick (except he was blond and dyed his hair black), the scenes with Dick and Batgirl are very good, as is Jason putting on the costume to help out at some point." For myself, I think this version of the character could have had potential, if some of the traits that distinguished him from Dick Grayson had been developed more (I would have liked to see more on the custody battle between Batman and Nocturna, for instance, and Jason's response to that.) But the question was soon rendered moot, as apparently reaction to the new Robin convinced DC had made a mistake. Crisis provided a quick fix, and Jason Todd underwent a complete revamp, right down (literally) to the roots of his hair. The Pre-Crisis Jason Todd Robin landed in the trashcan with the multiverse, with a score of only 2.5 R-darts.
The Robins Three, Post-Crisis
A New Jason Todd, But is He Improved?
"You didn't like the new Robin as a Dick Grayson copy?" asked DC. "Fine, we'll make him the exact opposite!" And so they did. Batman encounters a young boy of the streets, resorting to crime to survive and even being so bold as to steal the tires of the Batmobile. He does what any rational crimefighter would do: takes him home, reveals his innermost secrets and trains him to become his new partner. The DCU's best strategist made an impulsive, and ultimately tragic decision.
On the one hand, this was a different approach, so different as to be almost incredulous. On the other hand, the bad-boy-with-a-heart-of-gold is itself a comic book clichŽ. Jason's twist on the theme was, in the end, that he was missing the heart-of-gold part. Yes, he had his moments, particularly when he filled in for Dick Grayson on a couple of Titans adventures, but basically he was reckless, disobedient and rebellious. He grew increasingly unstable, and very likely committed the ultimate superhero no-no and deliberately killed an immunized diplomat's son he believed was responsible for the death of a young woman. He was unique, all right; unfortunately his difference made him almost impossible to like. His cockiness eventually got him killed in the landmark "A Death in the Family" arc, where readers narrowly voted (in a 900-number stunt) to let him perish.
Jason Todd remains a pivotal chapter in the history of Robin and Batman. His name comes up occasionally when the current Bat-cast is in a reflective mood. Guilt over his death still haunts Batman today, and should remain an integral part of the character. My hope is that this aspect of Bruce Wayne's character will not be forgotten in future tales of the Dark Knight.
For more commentary on Jason Todd, Pre- and Post-Crisis, I suggest his biography on the Titan's Lair page at http://www.keeffee.com/titans/jason.html
Though the character left much to be desired, I give his Post-Crisis story, overall, 3.75 R-darts. I'd have voted to let him live.
Dick Grayson: If it Ain't Broke why Fix It?
Why indeed? Crisis gave DC the opportunity to change both Robin's origin, and the transformation of Robin to Nightwing. In all honesty, neither change was necessary; nothing about the post-crises reboot mandated huge changes for Batman or Robin. But in a shared universe, when a couple of major characters alter radically, the repercussions are eventually felt throughout. Jason Todd's new origin, for instance, meant the original story of Dick, the circus and Killer Croc could not have happened. But the DC powers that be went even further, drastically altering Dick's entire split with Bruce, as retold in Batman #408 and Batman #416. Instead of the natural maturing process, we learn that Dick was actually abruptly "fired" as Robin for being so foolish as to get shot by the Joker. Batman, who hadn't minded having an 8-10 year old sidekick risk his life nightly (and who, a scant few months later would take in an inexperienced 13-year old) now decides it is too dangerous to let the 18-year-old (who happened to have led a major superheroic team for several years during his spare time) fight crime on the streets of Gotham. Maybe this rationale was meant to make the decision to take in Jason look logical in comparison, but Bats comes off as really foolish throughout all of this.
Dick, for his part, attempts to prove his maturity by running away from home. So instead of the amicable departure with a handshake, it turns out their relationship deteriorated to the point where they didn't speak for 18 months. It's never made clear how long after the "firing" Dick adopted the name change to Nightwing, and, with the loss of the Kryptonian "City-in-a-Bottle" there's no charming explanation for the name. Dick claims to have chosen it partially in tribute to Batman which 1) was pretty big of him when they aren't on speaking terms and 2) leaves us *really* wondering how Betty "Bat-Girl" Kane wound up as Flamebird, the traditional sidekick to the Kandorian Nightwing.
Ultimately, the change in the Nightwing origin was one of the least necessary retconns of Crisis, and left us with less satisfying stories than the original versions. It gets only 1 R-dartin my book.
Several more years and Jason Todd would pass before Dick Grayson's Robin origin was retconned. Zucco's lawyer gets better all the time as the murderer of the Flying Graysons not only gets the death sentence commuted after the fact, but comes up for parole after serving only 10 years. In "Batman: Year Three", the story of the death of Dick's parents is retold by Alfred at the parole hearing.
In this retconn, thankfully, the changes are minor, but still significant and in many ways, touching. Most notably, Batman swoops down immediately after the fatal fall to protect and comfort the terrified young acrobat, while a wide-eyed preschooler named Tim Drake watches from his parents' arms. (This will have repercussions in the future, to be sure.) Dick is struck with instant hero-worship, and begs Batman to kill his parents' murderer for him. Afterwards, Dick, although he begs to stay with his circus family, is taken to St. Jude's Orphanage, run by the kind Sister Mary Elizabeth. A month later, Alfred picks him up to bring him to Wayne Manor, explaining that Bruce Wayne had been at the circus that night, had similarly seen his parents murdered, and wanted to help. Dick is amazed by Bruce Wayne, even more so when Bruce leads him downstairs to his "new home." the Batcave. Once he's assured Dick no longer wants lethal revenge against his parents' killer, Batman promises that he will help him bring Zucco to justice.
This tale is more tender than typical comic fare, as Bruce welcomes Dick into his world, clearly motivated by what he thinks is Dick's best interest, not his own. Other touches include a glimpse into the actual custody hearing, where the Haly Circus family voices its approval for the arrangement and Dick explains why he prefers to be Bruce's ward, rather than formally adopted. Meanwhile, in "real" time, Batman is crazed with grief and guilt over Jason's death and behaving more and more erratically. Dick, despite a series of bad encounters with his ex-guardian in the aftermath of Jason's death (apparently "I was on another planet helping Donna Troy discover her Post Crisis Origin" wasn't an acceptable excuse for missing the funeral), shows up to help, but winds up caught up in the search for Tony Zucco's crime diary. The key to the case turns up back at St. Jude's, where Zucco had also spent some time as an orphan. Nightwing solves the crime before Batman, and by the end both have found some small measure of peace with their pasts, if not with each other.
This story is not without its flaws, but it does what a retconn should do… Refresh the old story, not discount it. I thoroughly enjoyed it,a nd rate it 4.0 R-darts. Sometimes I think I'm the only one who was impressed, though. Alfred heart-tugging tale failed to sway the parole board, and Zucco was released, only to be gunned down outside the prison gates. And DC retconned *this* version pretty darn fast.
Third Time's the Charm: Tim Drake and A Lonely Place of Dying
Coming on the heels of Batman: Year Three was A Lonely Place of Dying which would introduce the third Robin, giving him an origin story with enough links to the original not to be off-putting, but enough originality not to be clichŽd. As I mentioned above, Tim Drake was a witness to John and Mary Grayson's deaths years before, and had been fascinated by Batman, and later Robin, ever since. In addition, a meeting with the young acrobat Dick Grayson at the circus (where Tim's mom had made his picture with the acrobatic team) made a lasting impression on the little boy… He would never forget that this boy was one of only three people in the world to master the quadruple somersault. Later, he would make the connection when he sees Robin perform a similar move on some news footage, and deduce Robin's, and therefore Batman's secret identities. One bright kid we got here.
Tim follows the lives of Batman and Robins I and II, (in costume and out) all of his life, but keeps the secret to himself until after Jason Todd dies and he realizes Batman is losing it. He seeks out Dick Grayson (who has returned to visit and save Haly's circus. which is in dire straights and again being targeted by criminals) helps out with the case, then shocks Dick by knowing his secret and begging him to return to the Robin role. Dick declines, but Two-Face is on the loose, Batman needs help, so guess who winds up in the costume by the end. Tim Drake becomes Robin with Dick Grayson's help and his blessing.
After two strikes with Jason Todd, DC hit a home run with Tim, making the character both unique and likable. He would undergo a lot of behind the scenes training before becoming Robin full-time, which meant we got to know him gradually. Unlike the first two Robins (and indeed, most kid sidekicks) who land their role via a personal tragedy, Tim had his own motivations that came from within. In fact, I thought the arc in which his mother was killed and his father left comatose by the Obeah Man hurt the character overall (and I'm glad Jack got better.) LPoD was terribly flawed in its editing (Tim is inexplicably called "Jeff" in one panel and the beans were spilled about the new Robin in the lettercol a full month too early) but the character has been a stellar success, becoming the first Robin to get a new costume, a few mini-series, and eventually, his own book. Nice work here: 4.5 R-darts.
Dick Grayson After Zero Hour: A Character's Regression.
The hand Dick Grayson was dealt after Crisis was mixed; the hand after Zero Hour wasn't. Unfortunately, I don't mean this in a good way. Both the 10 year timeline (which had his Robin career starting later, and lasting only a few years) and needless changes to Dick Grayson's history and character have hurt a lot. To long-time Robin-rooters/Wingnuts like myself, sometimes it seems like the only one who got worse treatment in this rebooting event was Hal Jordan, and sometimes I even question that.
Robin #0
The "one big change" Zero Hour was supposed to bring to Robin history was a never-before-revealed dark episode in the young Robin's life. This trauma, as it turns out, was an early defeat at Two Face's hands that left Dick badly beaten (while Batman watched) and a civilian dead. This has supposedly left Dick with a lifelong phobia of this particular bad-guy, which rather inconveniently rears its head in the Prodigal storyline, when Dick takes over as Batman following the events of Knightfall. Dick behaves so incompetently and with so little confidence in himself in this arc that Tim has doubts about him, and Robin #0 tries to make this believable. Never mind that we had seen Dick take on Two-Face many times in the past, most notably in the landmark Lonely Place of Dying, where Batman actually asked for help from his estranged ex-ward to deal with this particular foe. Never mind the infinitely worse villains Dick handled competently as Titans leader…. Trigon and the Terminator are nothing compared to Two-Face! Never mind that Dick had done the "get over your insecurities and become your own man" thing several times before, and in better stories. Despite a satisfying ending where Dick re-emerges as a confident hero, this was *not* a change for the better. 1.5 R-darts.
Robin Annual #4
This is probably the comic I've disliked most in my life, since it ret-conned the charming tales of Batman Year Three and A Lonely Place of Dying. This version is as bleak as that version was uplifting. I'm not sure it could have gotten any more depressing if it had tried.
It's not enough that Dick's parents die anymore, and they aren't just killed by Tony Zucco as part of an extortion racket; a member of the circus family itself, Ringmaster Stan Rutledge, who is working for Zucco, betrays them and tampers with the trapeze himself. This version of Dick is older and more bitter, even before the tragedy; he was mad at his parents when they die. (So much for the lovely photo Tim's mom snapped, then.) Dick doesn't even ask to stay with his circus friends afterwards, just coldly says he's ready to go once the Youth Services people arrive to take him, not to St. Jude, but to juvenile hall, where he's promptly beat up on and runs away. Batman arrives to help, but Dick trusts him no more than any other adult.
Even his arrival at Wayne Manor the next day is chilly. Bruce abandons him immediately for a tennis game with his bimbo-of-the-week, and even the kindly Alfred calmly assures him he does not really like children (good thing the Waynes didn't know that before they left him to raise their orphaned son, eh?). Dick slips out one night to return to the circus, and witnesses the murder of Pop Haly by Zucco's mobsters, and must be rescued by Batman. Even then, there's remarkably little concern for the boy's safety; as Batman takes him back to the cave and reveals his secret, his main motivation seems to be getting Dick's help with the case, not helping Dick. During training, Dick finally asks Batman what's going to happen to him once the case is closed and is told that he can either stay in Wayne Manor or join another foster family; with no indication that Bruce Wayne cares one way or the other. Finally, when Rutledge is exposed as the traitor and confronted by Robin, the villain runs into the lion cage and is torn to shreds. The post Zero Hour Dick Grayson seems unmoved, uncomforted, and generally unaffected.
The one redeeming feature of this Annual was the explanation for the Robin name, which was Mary Grayson's nickname for her son, since he "arrived on the first day of spring" (though even that retconns the old DC calender, which listed Dick's birthday in November.) All I was left wondering was how a character with such a bleak history turned out to be the Dick Grayson I have enjoyed for so many years. Maybe this background was an attempt to explain Nightwing's atrocious behavior post-Titans Hunt and post-Knightfall. After his lousy performance as Batman's fill-in in Prodigal came a downright embarrassing one in his first mini-series, where he denounces crimefighting (telling Bruce to burn his costume) one day, changes his mind the next, and heads off to Eastern Europe to make mistakes he wouldn't have made at 13, like leaving his cell phone on during a stealth mission. Or maybe it was just bad, all around. I give it 0.5 R-darts.
Legends of the Dark Knight #100
This is the most recent recount of Robin's origin. The continuity status of Legends stories is always in question, but I'm hoping this one's an "in". It's actually less bleak than the continuity title. The Drake family's back, albeit impoverished-looking, but Bruce Wayne pays for their circus tickets, showing more compassion there than he did in the entire Annual #4. Dick locates Zucco's underling immediately, and is almost killed, but Batman intervenes and, with the circus folks' approval, takes the injured boy home with him to Wayne Manor, where he wakes up the next day. Batman and Dick independently track Zucco to his headquarters, where Zucco struggles with Dick on a roof before collapsing of a heart attack and dying on the way to the hospital. Batman expresses both pride in the boy and concern for his reckless actions, reveals his identity, and offers to be everything to him *but* a father, while Alfred looks on wisely, knowing different.
Dick Grayson here has a bit of his heart back; he calls an ambulance for Zucco, expresses regret for his death, and even begs Batman to stop beating the mobster who had attacked him. Bruce Wayne, though colder than in Year Three, is at least closer to human. I'd have hated this version on the heels of Year Three, but next to Annual #4 is was palatable. 2.5 R-darts.
(Many thanks to Jason Fischer, keeper of the Nightwing FAQ, for help with these last two issues.)
Alternate Reality Robins
Earth-2, All Grown Up
Earth-2's Robin origin did not differ too much from Earth-1's. The major difference came with adulthood; Earth-2's Dick Grayson kept the Robin identity into adulthood, and after the death of that world's Batman. I'm not too familiar with this version of the character, but according to my friend Danny Quizon, "JLA #55 (1st series) was the first Silver-Age appearance of the adult, Golden Age Earth-2 Robin. His costume was a bizarre Batman-variant with no cowl and a yellow scalloped cape with a high collar (like Alan Scott-Green Lantern). Robin's mask looked like a GL Corps mask except it was batwing-shaped at the ends. Not exactly like the current Nightwing's mask, but close." Another version of the Earth-2 Robin's costume made it into the Hall Of Shame on Cheeks the Toy Wonder's impressive Silver Age web site (link available in the Fanzing multiverse.)
Another bit of Earth-2 trivia: The Golden age Robin was apparently a cousin of Chuck Grayson, assistant to the Golden Age Robotman. (Thanks to Danny, Iain and Marilee for this little tidbit!)
Earth-2's Robin was erased from history in Crisis, and later died, and his body was never found.
Based on my limited knowledge, I'll give this variant 3 R-darts.
The Dark Knight Returns With a Thirteen Year Old Girl
In Frank Miller's futuristic tale, Jason Todd also died in the line of duty. (Yes, he thought of this before the fans voted. But when Batman is reborn, Carrie Kelly runs away from her troubled home, blows her allowance on a costume, and shows up to assist Batman, calling herself Robin. He accepts her after she patches him up with the first aide skills she picked up in Girl Scouts.
We never learn toO much about Carrie Kelly, her history or her reasons for becoming Robin. But she's clearly a girl with a lot of talent, and whatever her motivations were, they came from within. Even the Darkest of the Dark Knights is impressed with her and gives us his highest praise: "good soldier", when he's not snapping at her to sit up straight. A skilled young person who admired Batman enough to seek him out and volunteer for duty… It makes you wonder if she was an inspiration for Tim Drake. I wish Frank Miller had told us more about her.
3.5 R-darts, with potential for more if more story's ever told.
Robin: The Animated Origins
Superfriends: Yes, Virginia, Robin was given an origin, albeit brief, here. I watched this show religiously as a kid, and even I had forgotten it. I was as surprised as anyone when I stumbled across an old Wendy-and-Marvin-era Superfriends on the Cartoon Network a few months back. I couldn't even tell you which one it was, but the Superfriends were splitting up to stake out a few different locations, and Superman was covering a circus. He invites Wendy and Marvin to come along with him. Robin makes an offhand remark that *he* wouldn't mind going to the circus for old times sake, explaining that he was part of a circus as a kid until his parents were killed and Batman took him in. My jaw hit the floor…but yeah, they really said it. Unfortunately, Batman had other plans for him, so we didn't get to see Dick Grayson return to the big top.
OK, a complete origin story (as Batman would later get in one of the better Galactic Guardians episodes) would have been better, but at least they tried! For the guts to give that little bit of history a nod, (and with a Casey Kasem-voiced Robin, no less) I have to give them
3.5 R-darts, which is not bad for 10 seconds of screen time.
Robin's Reckoning: This two-part episode from the first season of Batman: The Animated Series was the one that won them an Emmy, and it's easy to see why. To summarize, Batman and a college-age Robin are tracking some minor saboteur-types, when Batman abruptly orders Robin off the case. Turns out, the man they're after is Tony Zucco, the criminal who murdered Dick's parents some 10 years before. When he figures this out, nothing's going to stop Dick from bringing Zucco to justice, not even Batman. In the process, the Grayson's murder and Dick's first meeting with Bruce Wayne and Batman are re-told in flashback.
This episode is a masterpiece from start to finish, and I've never gotten tired of re-watching it. It was a tricky bit of story-telling, to show a small child witnessing his parents' death, and later being threatened by the same criminal, in a format suitable for the elementary-age crowd, but they did it. There are a couple of heart-warming scenes with the young Dick being comforted by Bruce Wayne, and later enjoying a fun-filled fencing match. Dick is 9 years old in the flashback sequence, and we don't see his debut as Robin, though the young Dick Grayson makes a valiant attempt to capture Zucco on his own, and shows that he has the heroic instincts as he saves a young woman from an abusive man. Unfortunately, he;s knocked into a river while going after Zucco, and Batman must let Zucco escape in order to save him.
The most notable feature of this episode if the genuine affection that develops between them, even *before* Dick knows Bruce is Batman, and it's clear that Bruce is trying to spare a child from the same pain he went through. By the end, it's clear that the same family-like bound is there between the grown Dick Grayson, and the older Bruce Wayne, even if Bruce has seemingly grown colder over the years.
The writers of Robin Annual #4 should have been forced to watch this episode a few hundred times before they decided to ret-con out the heart and soul of Batman Year Three. This is one case where the TV folks got it right. I give this episode my highest rating:
5 R-darts, and they *all* hit the bullseye!
Sins of the Father: To introduce the new, younger Robin on the Warner Brothers series the Powers that Be gestalted Robins II and III from the comic world. Tim Drake's the name, but his origin is more like that of Jason Todd. In this version, Tim's father is the underling of Two-Face, threatened and forced to abandon his son before conveniently turning up dead in a river. Young Tim is surviving by his wits on the street, and, though he doesn't go so far as to try to hoist the tires of the Batmobile, he's pretty good at snatching donuts from cops. He winds up being rescued by Batman and taken to the Batcave, where he sneaks upstairs to learn all their secrets. After that, what choice does Bruce have but to let him be the next Robin?
This story doesn't have the heart of "Robin's Reckoning," and Tim certainly doesn't get the open-arms welcome that Dick Grayson did. This Batman is colder than ever, much more in his "drill sergeant" persona but signs that he cares do seep through, especially when he learns of Tim's father's death. The episode is punctuated by the return of Dick Grayson at the end, leaving us wondering how he'll take to the new Robin. Finally, the new look for this Robin (red tights and eyes that can only be described as "googly," detracts from the overall quality of the show, (though, in fairness, the animation as a whole, in the Warner Brothers Channel version does not meet the standards set by B:TAS Guess they just don't have the budget for it.) Still, it's an overall good ride, and the future of the animated Tim Drake-Robin and Dick Grayson-Nightwing looks promising. I just wish 1) New episodes with Robin and Nightwing would come out more often and 2) I got the Warner Brothers channel (thanks to Carolina for sending me a tape of the new Robin's debut.) Unfortunately, and can't review the animated debut of Nightwing in You Scratch My Back because I haven't seen it.
But I'll give Sins 4 R-darts.
Other TV: Burt Ward's Robin on the 1960's live action series was never given a formal origin; his circus background was never mentioned. Then again, we knew almost nothing about Batman's origin here, save that he adopted crimefighting as his hobby after his parents were "brutally murdered." I always wondered how Dick Grayson became Bruce Wayne's "youthful ward" and especially why his Aunt Harriet moved in with them. Oh well, it gave me something to think about as a kid, and I made up a few stories about it. Considering I'm still writing fan fiction 30 years later, maybe that's not such a bad thing
Not enough to rate, though.
The Silver Screen
Robin didn't debut until the third of the big-budget Bat-movies: Batman
Forever. The decision to cast the 20-something Chris O'donnell in
the role made the idea of his becoming Val Kilmer's "ward" a
little odd, but O'donnell looked studly enough that I forgave them. The
circus acrobat origin was kept, though the would-be killer became Two-Face
and a bomb was tossed into the mix (literally!) Despite Dick Grayson's
best efforts, his parents, and a heretofore unrevealed brother, Mitch,
die. The only reason I saw to add a brother was to give an explanation
for the relatively-girly-by-1990's-standards name of Robin: Mitch's trapeze
had broken once before, and brother Dick, according to his mother, "flew
like a robin" to save him. (Even this seems a little far-fetched,
though, wouldn't an eagle or falcon evoke a more studly image of swooping
down to snatch someone from the jaws of death? Oh, well…) Dick Grayson
here has his inquisitive side (he of course, discovers the Batcave shortly
after he arrives in Wayne Manor, but in the movies, who doesn't? Alfred
might as well put up a sign.) and there's a bit of the angry young Jason
Todd (Bruce bribes him with a motorcycle to get him to stay, then he steals
the Batmobile and hits the town as soon as he finds it.) Finally, there
are nods to both comic readers (Dick considers "Nightwing" as
a possible sidekick name) and fans of Burt Ward (he exclaims "Holy
rusted metal!" in when he and Batman encounter some holey, rusted
metal.)
Overall, O'donnell's portrayal was likeable, and his performance in the face of a lackluster script was one of the better things about the sequel, Batman & Robin. I just hope the cinematic Robin gets to do something other than rebel against and then reconcile with Batman if there's a 5th movie. Of course, I wouldn't mind seeing Chris O. in a Nightwing suit…
Score here: 4 R-darts.
Other Media
There are two audio-books out there with significant Robinage: one chronicling the events of Knightfall, and one titled, a bit ironically Batman: Legends of Robin (this gave me a real headache when I was trying to get the Barnes and Noble people to look this up in the computer for me.) Tim Drake, of course, has a major part in the Knightfall ones, but the radio drama (originally produced for the BBC) gives us an added twist. In this version, he's just back from training in Europe, and the Knightfall saga marks his first official adventures as Robin in Gotham. This changes the dynamic of the story a little bit, as the new Robin watches Jean-Paul Valley take over for Bruce Wayne, at first successfully, but later degenerating into the maniacal Az-bats. Dick Grayson's role as Nightwing, unfortunately, is shortchanged (but it didn't get the attention it deserved in the comics, either, and this is at least an improvement over Denny O'Neill's novelization, where it was dismissed outright. It somehow made it into the kid's version novel, though… I'm still scratching my head over that one.) But Tim Drake fans should scout this one out and add it to their collections; there's a nice recap of his origin, he's voiced nicely and he's a main character (and, in a way, the principle narrator of the story.) Radio dramas are a lot of fun!
Score: 4 R-darts.
Batman: Legends of Robin tells of all three Robins, with the emphasis on Tim Drake and his early training, though the events of "A Death in the Family" get a lot of screen time, by way of background. Again, Dick Grayson is shortchanged, appearing only briefly as Nightwing with a cocky "I was doing this when you were in diapers, kiddo" attitude and his involvement in recruiting Tim is cut out (Makes you wonder what everyone at DC has against A Lonely Place of Dying, doesn't it?). It's hard to stomach the fact that this audio drama makes the original Robin the least important of the three. Still, the Jason Todd and Tim Drake stories are well-told, and fairly close to the corresponding tales in the comics. I enjoyed it, and as hard as it was to find (Thanks, Bat-Mite for blinking up a copy for me!) I'd recommend any Robin fan who runs across it snatch it up.
Score: 3 R-darts.
Shadows of the Past is one of the kid's paperback B:TAS novels, which retells and fleshes out several first season episodes, including the immortal Robin's Reckoning. There are some nice scenes added, including a visit by the college-aged Dick Grayson to Haly's Circus, which, though hardly essential to the plot, evokes the same warm feelings as the one in A Lonely Place of Dying did. If you liked those two Dick Grayson stories as much as I did, this one's worth getting, and sharing with a young person.
Score: 4.5 R-darts
Wings of the Future: Will it be bright, dark or both?
What does the future hold for both our Robins, past and present? Things are looking good for Tim, as he continues to grow as a crimefighter and expands his talents to Young Justice. It will be interesting to see him support Spoiler during her pregnancy, and I look forward to him eventually telling his father the truth about his little hobby, as he had resolved to do before the earthquake. My one fear for him is that he, too, will have his origin story revamped into something less satisfying, as more and more elements of Lonely Place of Dying are reconsidered. Pop Haly's death was written around by stating that his brother took over the circus management, which gives us the "Mr. Haly" of LPoD, but it was a lot more appealling to think of Dick returning home to help a surrogate grandpa rather than a relative stranger. Other details are not so easily explained. Would the "urban legend" Batman have swooped down in the middle of a circus performance, or allowed TV footage of his sidekick performing the quadruple somersault? Did Tim's mom not take the photo that would ultimately bring Dick and Tim together? How did Tim know Nightwing was the former Robin, if that was a closely guarded secret? Now the powers that be insist that none of the Titans know Batman's identity, when they called Wayne Manor looking for Dick to warn him a kid had showed up in Starfire's apartment looking for him? Are we supposed to believe 9 year old Tim could figure out Dick Grayson is Robin and therefore Bruce Wayne is Batman from a chance encounter as a preschooler and a stray bit of news footage, when the Titans didn't realize it after all those yearsas Dick Grayson's closest friends? Why would Batman ask for Dick's help tracking Two-Face if Dick is phobic of him? This list goes on. Don't mess with success, people.
As for Dick Grayson, he's got what he's deserved for years; his own series, written by Chuck Dixon. Unfortunately it's a mixed blessing. I like some elements, such as his compassion, the renewed emphasis on his acrobatic skills and the fact that he frequently recalls his parents. Unfortunately, though his confidence and competence level is up considerably from Prodigal and the mini, he too often slips into the "I'm not as good as Batman" mode we've seen him emerge from so many times before. Character development suffers in favor of more action sequences. And he rarely refers to his Titans experiences in any meaningful way, despite the fact that that series is where he truly came to his own as a character. Too often, he's treated as little more than Batman, Jr. without reference to the traits and experiences that make him unique.
Dick's also slated to be a part in the upcoming Titans series, written by Devin Grayson. He's obviously a favorite character of hers, and she's done some interesting work with him in recent years: Nightwing Annual #1 and the recent and controversial Nightwing/Huntress mini-series. Ms. Grayson doesn't hesitate to bring up his history as a Titans, though not always with the same reverence longtime fans would prefer (exploding minister jokes at a wedding, for instance.) She and Dixon seem to have very different interpretations of the character; for instance, a prominently displayed Bible and Christian contemporary music in Dick's apartment from Dixon, a one-night-stand with the Huntress from Devin Grayson. My hope is that the two writers can come to a consensus that will allow the best traits of the character to shine in both series. That would be a fitting reward to a comics icon who's served faithfully for almost 60 years.
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