10 Insane Alternate Robins You Won't Believe!
Birds of a feather don't always flock together.
Robin, the Boy Wonder, is one of the original sidekicks in comics. Bob Kane, Bill Finger, and Jerry Robinson, the primary creative team behind Detective Comics, made a business decision that Batman needed a junior counterpart to attract more kids to their books and introduced Dick Grayson's Robin in April 1940.
It worked exceedingly well, almost doubling the sales of the Batman titles.
In the seventy years since, the character of Robin has been a mainstay of the Batman world. While the name may have stayed the same, the face behind the mask has changed constantly. Some of the Robins aged out and moved on to other roles, some died, some quit, and, with DC's convoluted multiverse, some of them only existed in alternative universes or timelines.
While the original Robin Dick Grayson, and most who followed him, were fairly straightforward young kids, many others to carry the mantle of Robin have been a little more off the beaten path, often making for delightful (or delightfully creepy) changes to the DC status quo.
Let's explore the vast universe of DC and take a look at ten alternate Robins that are far more than a red, yellow and green costume (and weird green ankle boots.)
10. Bruce Wayne Junior
Long before Damian Wayne came along to shake up Bruce's world as a new dad, several older storylines explored the idea of Bruce having a son and training him as Robin.
Starting in 1960, a series of in-universe stories written by Alfred Pennyworth told a story of Bruce Wayne marrying Kathy Kane (that era's Batwoman) and having a son named Bruce Jr. When Bruce retires, Dick Grayson steps up to become Batman 2, while Bruce Jr. (Bru Ju?) becomes Robin 2, completing a new duo.
An Elseworlds story from 1997 lays out a future where Bruce marries Catwoman. They have a son, again called Bruce Jr., who was trained from birth to be a superhero and eventually become Robin to Tim Drake's Batman.
In a story full of comic book fan-service, a 1996 Captain America / Batman crossover envisions Batman and Cap teaming up in the 1940s to take on Joker and Red Skull. Cap is subsequently frozen and wakes up in the '90s to find that Batman has aged and retired, Dick Grayson has become Batman, and Bruce Jr. is the new Robin.
Given Bruce's playboy persona, who knows how many other potential Robins may be out there?