All Six Robins of Batman

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Batman is considered as one of the major founding pillars on which DC universe is standing today. He is also one of the very few superheroes who is identified by most of the people across the globe, no matter if they like superheroes or not. When Batman was first introduced in the comics in 1939, he was portrayed as a masked crime fighter who punished the criminals of Gotham city without losing his moral code. But, as the popularity of Batman started growing, the writers thought of adding more characters with Batman who could help him in his crime fighting job and hence the character named Robin was formed. With time, there were total 6 characters who took the mantle of Robin and helped Batman in the comics. Let’s check the details of all the Robins of Batman.

Six Robins of Batman

Before checking out the names, please keep in mind that some of the Robins portrayed in this article are not described in much details because the extra details are not that important, and also, the post would have become much lengthier if we have done so. So, keeping this in mind, let’s begin our list of Batman’s Robins

The first person that comes to our mind when we talk about the Bat-Family is ‘Robin’, or we should say ‘Robins’. Robin is one of those characters of DC comics who is not only portrayed as a regular sidekick of Batman, but he is much more than that. Batman considers all his Robins as his sons, and hence all the Robins together are referred as ‘Sons of Batman’. Robin also plays a very important role in the life of Batman, rather than just being a sidekick. In the 1940s, when the writers introduced Robin in the Batman comics, then the sales of the Batman comics reached sky high. The team up between a serious and masculine character with a childish character started attracting a larger base of audience. But the position of Robin also changed a lot with time. The old Robins grew up and the new ones took the mantle. Now let’s talk in brief about all the Robins of Batman.

1) Dick Grayson

The first and the most loved Robin of Batman is Dick Grayson, who is currently known as Nightwing in the comics. He was introduced in 1940. Dick Grayson was introduced as an acrobat, who used to perform with his parents in Haly’s Circus. The wonderful trio was popularly known as ‘The Flying Graysons’. Their life was running smoothly and they were very happy. But, one day while performing, some mishap took place and Dick’s parents died in the accident. Later it was revealed that it was not an accident but a planned murder, which was done by a local gangster because the owners of the circus declined to give them money. But, between all this social politics, Dick Grayson became an orphan. Coincidentally, Bruce Wayne was also present at that circus on the day when Dick’s parents died. Bruce felt sympathy towards Dick, and he brought him home.

Dick Grayson was already an acrobat, so his body was very flexible. After receiving the required training from Batman, Dick was given the costume of Robin and hence, ‘Robin- the Boy Wonder’ was born. Dick Grayson remained as Robin for almost 40 years and within this period Batman’s bonding with Dick Grayson became stronger. Also, within this time frame, Robin created his own separate team of teenagers named ‘Teen Titans’.

The reign of Dick’s Robin came to an end when he grew up and decided to go on his separate path and become ‘Nightwing’. Till date, Dick’s Robin is not only fans’ favourite, but he is also the favourite Robin of Batman himself. Batman has stated it himself that Dick is the only person who deserves to take the mantle of Batman in future.

2) Jason Todd

He is the second Robin of Batman, who took the mantle of Robin after Dick Grayson left. He is also very famous within the fans as the Robin who died. After being a Robin for 40 years, when Dick left and Jason became the new Robin, the fans started hating him because they were habituated of seeing Dick Grayson as Robin.

The origin story of Jason Todd’s Robin in comics was very similar to that of Dick. His parents were also acrobats. But, after the events of ‘Crisis on Infinite Earths’, Jason Todd’s origin story changed. One day Batman found a boy trying to steal a tyre of his Bat-mobile. After two more encounters with that boy, Batman decided to take him home and train him. After training, Jason was introduced as Batman’s second Robin. But unlike Dick Grayson, Jason Todd had a cruel mindset and he was full of rage. He even didn’t follow the morals of Batman and started using guns while fighting criminals. Due to this reason the audience started to hate Todd even more. Finally, due to the increasing hate towards Jason Todd, DC decided to take a poll in which DC asked the audience that either Jason should be left alive or should he be killed.

The audience voted for the killing option, and ultimately in the ‘Death in the Family’ storyline, the Joker killed Jason Todd brutally by beating him with a steel crowbar before Batman reached the spot for his help. This incident left a deep crack in Batman’s heart and mind.

But suddenly in 2005, Jason Todd made his return in the comics as an anti-hero and with a new name ‘Redhood’. This new attire of Todd was loved by the fans. Hence, Jason Todd became the only Robin of Batman who betrayed him and became a villain. Flashes of this incident are also featured in the Batman vs Superman movie of DCEU.

3) Tim Drake

While Batman was sinking in the sorrow of losing Jason Todd, Tim Drake came forward to take him out from that. When Batman lost his hope and started acting violently after Jason’s death, at that time a boy named Tim Drake found him, reached his Batcave and requested to become Robin. At first Batman declined him, but after Tim’s parents died in a brutal accident, Batman decided to train Tim both physically and mentally and make him his new Robin. But this time Batman was extra careful with Tim as he didn’t want Tim to pass through the same path on which Jason Todd went.

Now the surprising case with Tim Drake is that, he was the one who found Batman’s real identity and the location of Batcave before and approached him to become a Robin. This is even an impossible task for very powerful supervillains to find out Batman’s real identity, but Tim did that at a very small age. This was all because Tim was also very much of a detective, just like Batman. Tim Drake is the only Robin who is identified more for his detective skills rather than his fighting skills. Tim Drake proudly holds the title of ‘World’s second Greatest Detective’ in the DC universe. Also, Dick Grayson admitted it himself that Tim is a better Robin than him.

But just like the case of Dick Grayson, Tim Drake also left his mantle as Robin after some years and started working alone under the superhero name of ‘Red Robin’.

4) Stephanie Brown

After Tim Drake left his position as Robin, his girlfriend Stephanie Brown took his place in the comics as Robin.

She was previously known by the superhero name ‘Spoiler’, but after Tim left she took the mantle of Robin for a very short period of time. She is the first female Robin of the DC universe.

But after working for somedays as Robin, she left the mantle and took a new title of ‘Bat-Girl’. After the New 52 event, she again took her role as Spoiler.

5) Damian Wayne

The current Robin of Batman in the comics is Damian Wayne, his own biological son. Damian’s mother is the head of the League of Assassins and the daughter of Ras-al-Ghul, Talia-al-Ghul. One night Talia met Bruce as Batman while on a mission in a desert, she drugged Batman and did the stuff whose result was Damian Wayne. Batman didn’t know that he had a son unless Talia told her.

Until the time Batman knew that he has a son, Damian had become a teenager and a great fighter too, due to his hardcore trainings with the League of Assassins.

Damian was a skilful warrior already, and after meeting Bruce, he learned the detective skills as well as business skills too. Overall, Damian was the perfect Robin in every aspect. But, due to his childhood time among criminals, his mind was also filled with rage and anger, which was even higher than Jason Todd. He believed that killing the criminals was better than just punishing them, which was against Batman’s morals.

But in a recent storyline, Damian Wayne got killed while in a fight with his own clone Heretic who was created by her evil mother Talia-al-Ghul as a killing machine after Damian started following Batman’s footsteps.

6) Carrie Kelley

She is the last Robin in our list and also in Batman’s life till now. Carrie is not an official Robin of the main timeline, but she is the Robin of a possible future. Once Batman saved her from an evil gang, and inspired from that, Carrie decided to become a superhero so that she could help Batman.

She saved her lunch money and brought a costume for herself. She even saved Batman from the traps of an evil criminal, and hence she became Batman’s new Robin.

So these were all six Robins who had played a very important role in the life of Batman. We hope you liked it.

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