Robin's 80th Birthday

“The Sensational Character find of 1940” the blub across the cover of Detective Comics #38 read. March 6^th, 1940, it was the first appearance of Robin the boy wonder. It is unusual for a blurb on a comic cover to be so accurate. Robin would go on to arguably become the fourth most recognizable characters from DC comics and inspire a fresh wave of character in the way of teen sidekicks.

The first Robin was the secret identity of Dick Grayson but would go on to be considered such and essential part of the Batman mythology that four other characters would be created to fill the role at different times.

Not that Dick Grayson was the first Boy Detective in fiction. The Hardy Boys predate Robin by thirteen years, and the Baker Street Irregulars from the Sherlock Holmes stories appeared fifty-five years earlier. Even before that there were significant boy characters like Huck Finn and the Artful Dodger. The most significant thing about the character of Robin was that he was unique in comics. Before that heroes in comics were adults based on the heroes of pulp magazines, detective and adventures. For the first time in comics a hero, even a sidekick to the main hero, was a young boy. Someone that the target audience of comics could relate to and see themselves having adventures alongside Batman.

Soon DC comics would realize what they had on their hands when sales of Batman comics doubled; other teen sidekicks started to appear alongside other DC heroes. Speedy with Green Arrow, Kid Flash with the Flash, Wonder Girl with Wonder Woman, Aqualad with Aquaman, even The Sandman got his teen sidekick in Sandy. Timely comics jumped on the bandwagon when they introduced Bucky Barnes as Captain Americas sidekick.

By the time Batman was translated to the movies in 1943 the idea of Batman and Robin as a team was firmly engrained in the popular culture. In fact, Batman would not appear without Robin in film or television for the next fifty years. The same would not be true for Robin, starting in 1964 Robin became the leader of his own team with the introduction of the Teen Titans. A role that he would fulfill consistently from 1966 until 1978 in comics, and in three animated adventures made by Filmation in 1967. In fact, between his appearances in the Batman Comics, his own feature in Star Spangled Comics, and later Teen Titans, some estimate that Robin has appeared in more comics than Batman for most of their history.

In the eighty years since the creation of the character in Detective Comics #38 in March of 1940 Batman has only been without a Robin for seven months between the death of Jason Todd (Robin II) in Batman #429 and the first appearance of Tim Drake (Robin III) in Batman #436. It doesn’t matter which version of the character you are talking about Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown, or Damien Wayne Robin has become one of the greatest character finds of all time. Happy 80^th Birthday Robin the Boy Wonder.