Superheroes usually get the short end of the stick. They are made fun of and called useless, but there is a whole separate class of heroes that fall below superheroes: the sidekicks. Now, Batman may be one of the most beloved heroes of this day and age – he’s got tons of gadgets, mastered several martial arts, is a billionaire playboy, and has one of the best secret lairs of all time. However, his sidekick is always outshone by his mentor, but does anyone really know who Robin is? Robin has had four different incarnations over time, however the original stands out from the rest – Dick Grayson.
Grayson, unlike most sidekicks, suffered a traumatic loss in his life much like Batman’s. When he was only 12 years old, Grayson’s parents were murdered by a mafia boss who was extorting Grayson’s parents for money. Batman apprehended the mafia boss and adopted Grayson as his son and heir apparent. After becoming Batman’s adopted son, Grayson began training.
Grayson received the exact same training as Batman. It took Batman sixteen years to learn everything he needed to know to fight crime, whereas it took Grayson eight times less to learn the same, and in some aspects he is even better. Grayson has mastered fourteen different martial arts, rivalling Batman in every form and even surpassing him in aikido. Grayson also has a vast array of skills ranging from stealth and disguises to criminology and computer expertise. As far as gadgets go, Grayson may not have a vast array like Batman, but his arsenal still consists of his personal version of bat-o-rangs, gas pellets, tranquilizer darts, brass knuckles, smoke bombs, and eskrima sticks (made of an unbreakable polymer). Even though Grayson has significantly less equipment he still pulls half the weight. Not to mention, as Batman’s sidekick, he’s still in his teenage years and fighting the worst that Gotham has to offer. Grayson is also an athletic prodigy, known as “The Best Acrobat Alive”. He’s able to pull off impossible stunts such as quadruple somersaults and jumping from rooftop to rooftop, not by some sissy grappling hook, but by climbing and scaling walls with ease. In essence, Grayson pulls off what Spider-Man does, but without the radioactive spider bite. Finally, on top of all that, he is a master of languages knowing English, French, Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, Spanish and Russian.
After a few years of being Batman’s sidekick, Grayson decided to become a full-fledged superhero and watch over his own city, Blüdhaven. Blüdhaven is very similar to Gotham City, only worse off because it hasn’t had a hero watching over it. Grayson entered a worse-off city, made it a safe place to live, and lowered the crime rate to be lower than Gotham’s. Overall, Robin turned out to be a better protector than Batman. When Batman got his back broken by Bane, Batman asked Grayson to take up his mantle and he ended up watching over both cities. In addition, when Batman was believed to be killed by Darkseid, Grayson again took upon the mantle of Batman and trained Batman’s estranged son Damien as the new Robin. However, becoming Batman wasn’t easy; not because he had big shoes to fill, but because Jason Todd, the second Robin, became a homicidal sociopath bent on hunting Grayson down and killing him. And fun fact, Todd knows exactly where Grayson is at all times because he knows his secret identity. This example is just one of the many villains that Grayson has faced on top of Batman’s entire original cast of villains, alien kings, Dark arts mages, and the mob.
It’s a known fact that when it comes to superhero teams, the most reputable is the Justice League, with Superman as the leader. This is true, but Robin has in fact also led the Justice League for a while under his Nightwing persona. He has also led two other teams, the Teen Titans and the Outsiders. He was also the only one without superpowers on either team and when questioned about his “weaknesses”, Robin challenged them to one on one battle without equipment and allowing full use of powers. Needless to say, he never lost his leadership status. Also, if you think Batman got game, Grayson has got ten times the amount! He has been with countless women, such as Batgirl and Starfire. Grayson had one of the only aliens on Earth fall in love with him, and this is no easy task considering Starfire has weak short term memory where she can not even remember the names of her fellow allies. So, next time you want to make fun of Robin for being a wuss or useless remember he’s better than the Bat himself and has got more game than Captain Kirk.
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