I'll always remember, during my first week of training at SeaWorld, we had to do the whole "tell us about yourself" and one of the questions was, who is your favorite fictional character? well, naturally i put dick grayson, and said this out loud to the other trainees. i got blank stares. then i figured i'd clarify; he was the first robin. surely, that would clear things up, i figured. alas, i got more stares, and then the inevitable question: there is more than one robin?
but not only have there been multiple robins throughout history, but i would like to argue that each one of them (yes, even the ones i don't like or care for) are more interesting characters
than the all mighty batman that they all follow.
So, batman is a good character because he is easy. sure, he can be molded into many different shapes and sizes (again see this), but at his core, he is easy to do. that is why he has lasted as long as he has.
so why on earth would he need a robin? and how the hell am i going to argue that each of them is a more interesting character than bruce wayne? let's start with Robin I: Dick Grayson
Dick Grayson
the first robin, actually debuting just a year after batman debuted himself in comics. so dick has been around for a long time. we are going to focus on the post-crisis continuity of him, because i just don't have the time or energy to get into the silver age stuff.
now, because he has been around so long, and was even featured in not one, or two, but three hollywood movies, most people know this to be robin. most are at least vaguely familar with his story. circus performer, that watched his parents die. bruce wayne took him in and adopted him. he became the sidekick. pretty simple. so simple in fact, that one could easily argue it is as accessible as bruce wayne's origin story. loss of parents, and he wants to right the wrong done to him. but that is where Dick becomes a more interesting character than bruce. dick doesn't stay on the path of vengeance. he moves on.
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this is dick as batman. i know it can be hard to tell, but trust me on this, okay? |
Jason Todd
the second robin, jason todd, for years and years had to fight to get out from under the first robin's shadow. and he was a great robin in his own right, being the upbeat character to batman. Jason also led the Titans for a while, during Dick's absence. no one can deny that Jason Todd was a good robin. but he was different. he had a different sense of humor than dick, and was a bit more crass. he could be reckless, but only if he truly HAD to do something. many people know that he died, and think it was because of his defiance of batman. that was not the case; he was lured to a trap, by the joker, to save his mother. what person wouldn't go to try and save their mother? he was a very unfortunate casualty of a DC comics stunt that many people didn't believe would actually happen.
However, in recent years he has been reborn. As the Red Hood, an anti-hero in his own way. he does not share batman's strict "no-guns" policy, but that is perfectly okay for the type of vigilantism that Jason Todd takes part in. he can be a wonderfully fun and interesting character to read when written well. he holds a grudge against batman for not killing the joker, in response to his death. having such a layered persona, of once being a happy-go-lucky robin, to now not trusting your former mentor? that is some deep and dark stuff. and that embodies jason todd perfectly.
so, this became longer than anticipated. i will have robins III through V next week!
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