For one of the most famous superheroes in the world, Robin has featured in big screen Batman movies a surprisingly small number of times. It’s almost as if there’s something about our modern idea of Batman that’s at odds with a wise-cracking teenager wearing primary colors.
The perception that Batman spent most, or even any significant part, of his career as a lone vigilante simply isn’t true, and this week’s episode of Issue at Hand, Polygon’s show about the weird world of comics, is all about busting up that myth.
There are really only a handful years in of Batman’s more than 75 year history where there wasn’t some kid or another serving as the Dark Knight’s kid sidekick, from Dick Grayson to Jason Todd to Tim Drake, Damian Wayne and Stephanie Brown. And if you’ve never heard of some of those names, look no further than the video at the top of this very post.
