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Everyone knows that Batman fights crime with his trusty sidekick Robin. Every incarnation of Batman until the Christian Bale version has fought with a Robin by his side, beginning a mere two years after Batman’s creation. But not everyone knows that there has been more than one person to hold the title of Boy Wonder. Since 1940, five different characters have fought for justice with the Dark Knight: Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown and Damian Wayne, or, as I like to refer to them: the First One, the Bad One, the Good One, the Girl One and the Son.
The First One
As a way to boost sales, the DC editorial team gave Batman a kid sidekick in 1940. Dick Grayson was a child circus performer, an 8-year-old acrobat (though some reboots change this age to twelve) alongside his parents. Because his circus had some run-ins with a Gotham mob, the Graysons' act was sabotaged and the Grayson parents fell to their deaths, but luckily Bruce Wayne was in the audience that night. He took the boy under his wing and brought him into his hero-ing life as Robin the Boy Wonder.
Despite his laughable name, Dick is known as the best of the Robins. He set the bar for what it means to be Batman’s sidekick. While Batman is dark and brooding, Dick is happy and quippy. He founded and led the Teen Titans for years and dated some of the hottest redheads in the DCU. Everyone who meets Dick loves him, and after years as Bruce Wayne’s ward he was officially adopted into the Wayne family. But by the early '80s he had finally grown to college age and was a little too old to wear the short-pants. So Dick left the nest to fight crime solo as Nightwing, leaving an absence that needed to be filled.
The Bad One
While patrolling Gotham one night, Batman returned to the Batmobile to find a young street urchin boosting the tires. And that was how Bruce Wayne met Jason Todd. Batman took in the redhead from the streets of Gotham and trained him to be the new Robin, even going as far as to dye his hair black to help him look the part.
But Jason was not much of a replacement. He was angry and violent and bad at following orders. He was also not as popular with readers. So, in 1988, DC had a phone poll to vote on whether the latest Boy Wonder would live or die. After a close vote it seemed that Jason was doomed, and after being beaten with a crowbar by the Joker and then caught in an explosion, Jason Todd was no more.
Of course, since death means nothing in comics, a few years ago the “bad Robin” returned from the grave. Now a vengeful and violent adult, Jason patrols Gotham as the Red Hood, a vigilante who goes farther than Batman ever did by actually killing his victims. Needless to say there is not much love left between Jason and his former mentor.
The Good One
After Jason’s death, a grieving Batman tried fighting crime without endangering any child heroes. But Batman has never been known for mental stability, and, left on his own with his grief, he became even more grim and erratic. Luckily, he happened to be neighbors with a child prodigy, Tim Drake, who, after a run-in with a young Dick Grayson as a child, was able to deduce the identity of the Batman. He saw the downward spiral of the hero and demanded to become the new Robin in order to help him.
Tim was not as acrobatic or physical as his predecessors, but was known for being the smartest and the best detective. He followed Dick’s footsteps by joining the Teen Titans and acted as a little brother to the original Robin. But tragedy followed Tim through his life. Though he had both parents when he became Robin, a few years into to the gig he was left an orphan and was adopted by Bruce. All the loss in his life has led to Tim following in Bruce’s grim footsteps, and he now fights crime on his own as Red Robin.
However, long before he became Red Robin, Tim’s father discovered his son’s crime-fighting secret and forced him to quit for a time, leaving the job wide open for someone new.
The Girl One
With Tim out of the picture, Batman still needed a sidekick. Luckily there was another teen vigilante in Gotham. Stephanie Brown started fighting crime to stop her father, the Cluemaster, but she fell in love with “justice-ing” as The Spoiler. She was also Tim Drake’s ex-girlfriend and jumped at the chance to replace her former boyfriend.
There is some controversy to Stephanie’s time as Robin. The editors at DC gave her the role knowing that they would kill her off soon after in an event called War Games, a decision that has led some editors to claim she was never “really” a Robin. Stephanie’s time as Robin was short; Batman feared that she was a loose canon like Jason and fired her. While trying to prove herself she accidentally started a gang war and in the ensuing events was tortured and killed by a villain called The Black Mask. In her final moments, Batman assured her she had been Robin. Despite the vocal minority who swear she was not a Robin because she was fated to die, the fact that she wore the costume and fought by Batman’s side make it very clear that she was, without a doubt, a Robin.
Thankfully death does not stick and Stephanie recently returned to Gotham to fight crime as Batgirl (until the recent reboot where she was replaced and has yet to make an appearance), and after her death, Tim returned to his job for a second time.
But Tim also moved on eventually to become Red Robin, making room for the last Robin.
The Son
Did you know that Batman had a son? Neither did he. That is until Damian Wayne showed up at his door as an angry ten-year-old looking for love. Damian had been raised by his mother Talia, daughter of the villain Ra’s al Ghul, and al Ghul’s League of Assassins. Violent, proud and disdainful, Damian is unlike any of the previous Robins. He was taken into the Wayne home as a way to try and undo the years of villainy instilled by his mother, as well as a way to stop him from killing anyone. When Batman was lost in time and presumed dead, Dick Grayson took over his role with Damian as his Robin. Together they inverted the Batman and Robin dynamic with a light-hearted Batman and a moody Robin. Since his father’s return from the grave, Damian has been partnered with the elder Wayne, but the two are far from close. Wayne men are certainly not known for their warm and loving nature.
There you have it, folks: all five Robins, from Dick to Damian. In a world as dark and grim as Batman’s Gotham, it helps to know that there is a symbol for hope fighting alongside that brooding embodiment of vengeance. Sound off in the comments: who is your favorite Robin?