10 Worst Things Batman Has Done To Robin
The not-so-dynamic duo.
Transcript
00:00 There's no denying that Batman and Robin are the most iconic duo that comics have ever
00:03 produced.
00:04 However, there is a downside to this team-up.
00:06 The pair are defined by their friendship sure, but as with most friendships, they fight,
00:09 hurt and disagree every so often.
00:12 In fact, it's proven to be a constant source of drama in the comics, so much so that writers
00:16 find themselves revisiting this well, time and time again.
00:19 So with that in mind, I'm Josh from Wockulture.com and these are the 10 Worst Things Batman Has
00:23 Done To Robin.
00:24 Number 10 - He Made Damian A Zombie Pretty Much Anywhere
00:27 Initially, it's difficult to see how Batman saving his son is anything but a classic example
00:31 of superhero bad-assery.
00:32 However, while bringing Damian back to life is a heroic move, and fighting Darkseid to
00:37 be able to do so is uniquely compelling, there's something undeniably spooky about the process.
00:42 In trying to bring his son back, Batman basically risks the lives of the whole of Earth by angering
00:46 Darkseid who is one of the most powerful villains in the DC Universe.
00:50 More importantly, he clearly doesn't know how the Chaos Shard used to bring Damian back
00:54 actually works, and has no idea about its side effects, meaning that there was a decent
00:58 chance the whole plan could have failed, or even done awful things to his zombie son.
01:02 Batman also lies to, experiments on, and actually betrays the Justice League in order to carry
01:06 out said plan, and luckily this is somehow completely forgiven, as otherwise Damian could
01:11 have found himself brought back to life just to be the Justice League's enemy number one.
01:14 When Frankenstein himself tells you not to bring someone back, it might be time to just
01:18 move on.
01:19 Number 9 - Not Telling Them That He Was Getting Married
01:22 Batman and Catwoman's announced wedding in 2016 was the subject of much excitement
01:26 between fans and in-universe characters alike.
01:28 However, between these celebrations there is one panel in particular that stands out,
01:32 namely the one where we find out that Bruce actually didn't tell any of his collective
01:35 wards that he was even considering marrying the ex-villain.
01:39 Sure, nobody wants to hear about their dad's love life, especially when it involves him
01:42 repeatedly arresting said love interest, but giving them a heads up seems like the very
01:46 least that the caped crusader could do.
01:48 The best part of all this though is that Alfred is the one to let the team know that their
01:52 father/mentor is getting hitched, which means that Bruce somehow didn't think anyone else
01:56 needed the memo.
01:57 Keeping up the secretive nature of Batman is one thing, but when there is a very real
02:00 chance that a Robin or ex-Robin could have incarcerated their new stepmother, you'd
02:04 probably think that at the very least, Batman could have texted them or something.
02:08 Number 8 - Not Telling Them Anything
02:10 Practically every Batman comic contains the hero keeping something hidden from one of
02:14 his sidekicks.
02:15 Admittedly, sometimes these things need to be kept secret, because keeping secrets, well,
02:19 is the only reason that Bruce even gets to be Batman.
02:21 That said, there are also times where Batman keeps vital information to himself just for
02:25 the sole motive of being able to continue to brood over keeping secrets.
02:29 Regardless of which Robin it is, every single one has thrown themselves blindly into danger
02:32 through this, either to find out what's being hidden, or because they have no idea
02:36 what dangers haven't been explained to them by the one guy they are supposed to trust
02:40 to keep them safe.
02:41 Although Batman's dark nature means that he is naturally secretive as I've mentioned,
02:45 there is a huge line between him not revealing things unless he absolutely has to, and him
02:49 actively keeping secrets that result in various Robins almost dying.
02:52 Number 7 - Being a Terrible Father
02:55 Balancing being a businessman and also secretly being Batman is a lot of work, especially
02:59 when you have to take care of the kids on the side.
03:01 But given Bruce's motivation to adopt all of those Robins is to help them, allegedly,
03:05 then his often unstable behaviour around them isn't really excusable.
03:08 Although everyone wants to learn sweet ninja moves from Batman, he is also supposed to
03:12 be helping them with their issues, which often go ignored.
03:15 Admittedly, this ranges between writers, as some have Batman in the role of total team
03:19 dad, whereas others have him be as much of a threat to his sidekicks as the villains
03:23 themselves.
03:24 Usually we see that Bruce genuinely cares about his wards, but for all this we see little
03:28 of him actually taking care of them.
03:30 Maybe because this would be considered less interesting than watching him beat people
03:33 up, but still, a little variety never hurts.
03:36 Batman isn't the worst dad in the DC universe by a country mile, I mean he even kinda beats
03:40 Superman in most continuities, but it has to be said that every Robin has at some point
03:44 needed him to be a father figure, and he often fails at living up to that.
03:48 6.
03:49 Making Dick beat Batman
03:50 Being Batman is kind of a thankless job.
03:52 You get cool powers, sure, and some solid cardio in, but it's also kind of the worst
03:56 job of all time and leads without fail to an untimely death.
03:59 That said, the fact that Batman so often insists that Robin #1, Dick Grayson, take his place
04:03 should he go missing or die is actually kind of a Dick move, as it's more or less a death
04:07 sentence for his eldest child.
04:09 The whole reason Dick left Gotham and his mentor in the first place was to attempt to
04:12 gain some independence away from Batman, and so making him come back to take the role takes
04:17 a steel crowbar to any freedom that he did gain while away.
04:20 Now yeah, it's clear that Gotham needs a protector, but given that Dick has been protecting
04:23 it since he was in green boy shorts, it probably seems only fair that someone else takes one
04:27 for the team, or at the very least, that he at least gets to choose to, instead of Batman
04:31 volunteering him for the pointy-eared death sentence.
04:34 5.
04:35 Basically everything with Jason Todd
04:37 While many, many comics pay tribute to the fact that Jason Todd's death was a large
04:40 event in Batman's life that he gave many, many monologues over, it's also worth noting
04:44 that when Jason did come back to life, it was Batman's duty both as his mentor and
04:49 his legal guardian to help fix his broken mental state.
04:52 And yeah, again, attempts are made, but Batman basically gives up with the excuse that Jason
04:56 has always had an untamable dark side.
04:58 This would be fine from any other hero, but given that this is from the same man who manages
05:02 to deal with not only his own inner darkness, but also the murderous instincts of his son,
05:07 it is a poor excuse.
05:08 This isn't to say that Batman is totally in the wrong, I mean a large part of Jason
05:11 Todd's anger could only be fixed by killing the Joker, which would of course go against
05:14 the principles that made Bruce Batman.
05:16 However, since Red Hood became a hero again, the two have repeatedly saved and clearly
05:20 cared for each other, meaning the bad blood between them could have been patched up if
05:23 the Dark Knight devoted but a second of the time that he puts into literally anything
05:27 else.
05:28 4.
05:29 Beating him up
05:30 Almost every other comic with Batman and Robin includes a scene where the dynamic duo turn
05:33 on each other.
05:34 From a plot perspective, it's a great way to get fans invested, as nobody wants to see
05:37 either of the heroes lose, especially at the hands of their former ally.
05:41 From a logical point, however, some of these fights are sketchy as hell, as Batman has
05:44 more than once hurt his wards who are children over some minor things, such as enjoying punk
05:49 music.
05:50 Though his questionable behaviour was more of a problem in the Gold and Silver ages of
05:53 comics, when apparently beating your children up was only a morally grey area I guess, it's
05:58 still apparent in a lot of modern comics too, meaning that we can't completely peg this
06:01 weirdness on older comics' crazy shenanigans.
06:04 Between fights where Robin is just trying to calm Batman down before he hurts somebody,
06:07 Batman White Knight and Superman/Batman is two prime examples, to Bruce basically disowning
06:12 him for not supporting his paranoia in the ironically named World's Finest #153, all
06:16 examples serve to show us that even Batman's closest allies aren't safe from his wrath.
06:21 3.
06:22 Torturing him
06:23 There has been genuine speculation by fans that Frank Miller's all-star Batman and
06:26 Robin was actually a parody comic.
06:28 Although it seems unlikely to be true, there is something about watching Batman kidnap
06:31 Dick Grayson, immediately put him into a life or death car chase, and then trap him in the
06:35 Batcave, making him eat rats to survive, that makes you hope that yeah, maybe that's true.
06:40 As it stands, it's not sadly, and so the treatment of Robin in the series is possibly
06:44 the worst thing within it.
06:45 Which is impressive when you remember that this is the comic where one of Joker's minions
06:48 has literal swastikas tattooed on her literal breasts.
06:52 Oh my lord, what a sentence.
06:54 Comics are weird.
06:55 Worse yet, Robin is still 10 in this series, and so every awful thing done to him is being
06:59 done to a boy who is just old enough to learn to tie his shoelaces.
07:03 All this in mind, it makes complete sense that in this comic, the Justice League are
07:06 actually after Batman, and we can only hope child protective services are as well.
07:10 Blowing him up
07:12 Batman Odyssey is one of the weirder Batman comics to date.
07:15 Containing a man who can turn into bees, several domesticated dinosaurs, and a wizard who speaks
07:20 in 1940s slang, to name but a few parts of the wild read.
07:23 Let me put it this way, if you've ever wanted to see Batman unironically use the phrase
07:27 "Jazz Magician", then now is your time to shine.
07:29 It's entirely possible that this comic was written by just picking words out of a
07:33 hat and making them into a story, which is the only logical way that the writers would
07:36 have Batman knowingly kill Robin in an explosion, and then feel literally zero remorse for it
07:42 afterwards.
07:43 Honestly, the whole interaction is absolutely hilarious, as the speed with which Batman
07:47 goes for the detonation button makes you wonder if he'd just been looking for any excuse
07:50 to get rid of his ward up until now.
07:53 Robin appearing in the next issue doesn't even excuse this by the way, as he literally
07:56 states that he wasn't sure if Batman would blow the place up before he could escape,
08:00 showing us that the fact that he isn't dead is more down to lucky timing than anything
08:03 else.
08:04 Number 1 - Making the role of Robin
08:07 Although the physical and psychological damage carried out on various Robins over the years
08:10 has at points been downright abusive, the worst thing Batman has ever done to any of
08:14 them has been the one thing he can't prevent, namely from taking the role of Robin.
08:18 While many storylines have shown that practically every Robin would continue to fight crime
08:21 without the Caped Crusader's consent, even this is his fault for creating the role in
08:25 the first place.
08:26 And while yeah, Batman does want them, but it's in a sort of classic brooding manner
08:29 that actually makes the whole thing look a lot cooler than it did in the first place.
08:33 Every Robin does a good job in their role, but at the end of the day, they're still
08:35 kids and teenagers, who are essentially becoming child soldiers, and Batman, despite the fact
08:40 that he knows they'll get hurt, doesn't stop them.
08:43 Essentially Batman has convinced a series of children to fight convicted serial killers,
08:46 and while yeah, they may be good at it, you can't help but think that people who aren't
08:49 old enough to drive maybe shouldn't be placed in intensely dangerous situations, all because
08:54 a man with parent issues and a cool cape has decided that they're ready.
08:58 So that's our list, I want to know what you guys think down in the comments below,
09:00 are there any other crazy Batman/Robin moments I missed off here?
09:03 And while you're down there could you please give us a like, share, subscribe, and head
09:05 over to Wockulture Comics for more lists like this on the regular.
09:08 Even if you don't though, I've been Josh, thanks so much for watching, and I'll see