Right, when I was reading comics as a young’un, Batman was Bruce Wayne, and Robin was Dick Grayson.
That was it. (Except for that weird adult Robin in a combo bat-robin suit from Earth-2 in the annual JLA/JSA mash-ups, but we can ignore him as a figment of someone’s fevered imagination).
But I understand things have changed. Apparently, Bruce now goes through Robins like Homer through a six-pack of Duff beer.
This change in the mythos was brought home to me the other day when I was watching “Teen Titans Go” with the Cub. In one episode, Robin of Teen Titans (wearing a Robin costume but with leggings, boots and a black cloak with a yellow lining) summons three others to help him: one brooding hunched-over Robin who could be Goth; one wearing the original Robin costume with scaly shorts and Peter Pan slippers (and, to be frank, an … effeminate lisp); and a third one with a sort-of classic costume, but with wavy brown-red hair and googly eyes. (I since have seen the googly-eyed Robin in the trailers for the upcoming Lego Batman film, which is high on the Cub’s list of theatrical events which ARE NOT TO BE MISSED!)
So, please, enlighten me - who were all these weird Robins? and especially, what the heck is happening with googly-eyed Robin?
I depend on you to allow me to keep up my knowledge in all things Bats, in order to have at least one area of apparent omniscience to impress the Cub.
Carrie’s a girl-type person, from the always-ten-years-from-now story where an aging Bruce Wayne comes out of retirement. And the goth-looking one is Tim Drake: the young sleuth who deduced that Dick Grayson had been the original Robin, and that Batman (a) must therefore be Bruce Wayne, and (b) tends to go real dark real fast without a Robin around – prompting Tim to reluctantly take up the role.
Dick Grayson. Everyone knows him. In the early '80s he was in his early 20s and starring in the Teen Titans book, which was a best seller. Everyone agreed that it was kinda creepy to have a 19-20 year old guy running around in short-shorts and pixie boots. So he became Nightwing.
Meanwhile, Jason Todd (Earth 1) was a circus acrobat and his parents were replacements for The Flying Graysons. The then brand-new villian Killer Croc was involved with shenannigans at the circus and Batman decided to have Mommy and Daddy Todd spy on him for reasons that were…hey! look over there! Anyway, Croc killed Mr. & Mrs. Todd and Bats adopted Jason. Who was about 7 or 8 years old…way, waaaay young for a Robin. He went on a few dozen adventures with Batman when suddenly…
The “Crisis on Infinite Earths” happened. The universe was rebooted (Byrne’s Superman, etc) and Jason-Earth 1-Todd disappeared out of existence. and Jason-Post Crisis-Todd replaced him. (Nobody in the DC Universe, or the real world, pretty much remembers the Earth One version any more, so unless I refer to the Earth One version, all future mentions are of the Post Crisis version). The new Jason was about 15 or so and is known for
A) Meeting Batman by stealing the hubcaps off the Batmobile
B) Being written to be as obnoxious as possible
C) Being beaten to death by the Joker (and a tacky 1-900-SNUF-ROB) line was set up to vote for his death. (Allegedly the idiot editor of the Bat-Books decided unilaterally that Robin was a stoopid concept and told the writers to make the kid as obnoxious as possible so people would vote to have him killed)
Eventually he comes back from the dead as “Red Hood” because the Superboy of Earth-Prime punched reality. (I’m not making this up.)
DC’s Marketing people found out about this editor and ordered him to bring Robin back (at the time, he was in the top 4 of most merchandised DC characters–> Superman/Batman/Robin/Wonder Woman (in that order) ). So they had a new kid, Tim Drake, created. Tim’s daddy was Bruce’s next door neighbor and Tim (being the smartest of all Robins) put all the stuff about the Flying Graysons, Jason Todd, Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, etc together and more-or-less walked into the Batcave with a filled-out job application to be the new Robin. (I’m exaggerating, but not a lot). This is my favorite Robin–he became Robin because it was the right thing to do, not because of trauma. This was later “fixed” so Tim’s dad was brutally murdered so Tim could have some angst too.
Eventually Bats/Tim had a falling out and Bats (due to either magical brain-damage from Zatanna (don’t ask) or because he was being a petulant douche) hired Tim’s girlfriend Spoiler (Cluemaster’s daughter) to be the next Robin. This lasted maybe 10 issues before she was killed because of Stupid Writer syndrome (the death didn’t stick and nobody ever mentions that she was a Robin once).
A writer, Grant Morrision remembered an old (and out of continuity) graphic novel where Talia Al Ghul drugs and “date-rapes” Bruce. Morrison moved it into continuity and the now-current Robin-Damian is Batman and Talia’s son and Ras Al Ghul’s grandkid. He’s poorly socialized, arrogant as hell, obnoxious and is probably the best fighter among the various Robins. He also has a Bat-Cow.
In the future story “Dark Knight Returns”, there’s a girl Carrie Kelly who will become a Robin if that future happens. If she’s wearing the classic short-pants/pixie boots Robin outfit and yellow (?) goggles, that’s your mystery Robin.
Fascinating. I will need to write crib notes on my wrist when we go to the Lego Batman movie. Thanks, all!
Two points about Fenris’s post:
?!? as in a cow wearing a cowl and cape, or fits of anger similar to Kylo Ren?
No, the short pant/pixie boots is different from the googly-eyed one. I wonder, given the effeminate voice and original costume, if that one is meant to be a take-off on the speculation that Dick Grayson was gay (it’s not like Teen Titans Go is particularly canon or even serious), and therefore the Teen Titans Robin might be Todd or Drake?
A-ha! doing some intensive wiki-research, Tim Drake uses a bo-stick. The Robin in TTGo also uses a bo-stick, which perhaps supports the hypothesis that TTGo Robin is Drake, and the one in the original costume is Grayson.
Yeaaah, but the TTGo Robin is shown to have grown up at a circus, and is apparently bent on eventually switching out the ‘Robin’ persona for a ‘Nightwing’ one. I wouldn’t go looking for proof of anything beyond “they’re just playing around.”
Sssort of. She’s got a bat-shaped mask-like marking on her face, and has been given a cape. But most of Damien’s pets (Bat-Cow, a dog named Titus, a cat named Alfred) don’t fight…the only exception is his Dragon-Bat, Goliath. (Though Bat-Cow can hold her own if she has to, as can Titus.)
Stephanie Brown, a.k.a. Spoiler, was briefly a Robin, and got killed on the job. As part of the New 52 shake-up, she’s alive again and possibly was never Robin.
There was a short-lived title, We Are Robin, where dozens of Gotham teenagers dressed up as Robin, but I don’t think they ever actually worked with Batman.
Those hints seem to be for the Teen Titans series; the OP was watching Teen Titans Go!.
However, in the latter the Titans occasionally travel to the future and meet Nightwing - who used to be Robin. So that would make TTG! Robin = Dick Grayson.
Er, wut? Dick has always been portrayed as a serial womanizer, if anything (Huntress, Batgirl/Oracle, Starfire, even Catwoman IIRC). He’s more of a playa than speculatively gay.
Tim Drake has been speculatively gay, due to his close friendship with Superboy/Connor Kent. However, Tim is objectively the best Robin, since as he says: “Dude, I lie to Batman.”
I saw that episode of TTG! with my daughter, and it was obviously Carrie Kelly to me. IIRC she said a few things that made it clear who she was (though I don’t remember what they were).
Did any of the other Robins have unusually small hands? It’s been thoroughly established in the show that TTG! Robin has baby hands.
