Welcome to Part 2 of my Sidekick Spotlight on Robin. In Part 1, I covered the first three decades of Robin in animation, from the first Filmation Batman series to Super Friends to the second Filmation cartoon.
A Period With No Robin For Batman
After that, there was a lack of Robin in animation… and everywhere else. For a brief period, there was even a lack of Robin in the COMICS! Dick Grayson matured into Nightwing and was replaced as Robin by Jason Todd. Todd was originally just a clone of Dick, right down to his dead circus parents’ background. But after Crisis on Infinite Earths, the character was overhauled as a street thug who tried to steal the Batmobile’s hubcaps. He also had a snarky, cocky attitude.
Readers hated him. So, in an unprecedented move, DC invited fans to vote whether he would live or die in the storyline “A Death in the Family.” They voted death. So suddenly, there was NO Robin.
Which was just dandy with most, it seems. Before this, comics took a turn for the mature and dark, aiming squarely at the adult audience. One of the most famous books from this period was Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns. This colored how The Dark Knight would be depicted for decades. Tim Burton’s 1989 Batman movie drew heavily from Miller’s interpretation. It seemed modern readers weren’t too fond of the “Holy This” and “Holy That” Robin of days gone by.
Robin Returns In Batman: The Animated Series
Burton’s two movies, Batman and Batman Returns, which were Robin-free, led back to animation with one of the best and most beloved cartoons of all time, Batman: The Animated Series. This show didn’t draw as heavily from Miller’s take, but it did incorporate elements from Burton’s movies, including music by Danny Elfman.
Eric Radomski and Bruce Timm created TAS. Radomski was responsible for the show’s eye-popping “Dark Deco” visuals, while Paul Dini designed the characters, giving them a sleek, stylized look. The show aired in 1992 on FOX on weekday afternoons, although it debuted in primetime with the pilot episode “On Leather Wings.” It would later also air on Saturday mornings.
The series was mostly an homage to the earliest Batman comic books, with a gritty noir style. And very little Robin.
But he was there. Loren Lester voiced the character, and this was the Dick Grayson version. He wore the then-current outfit created for the third comic book Robin, Tim Drake.
Much like the late ’60s comic books, Robin’s lack of appearances was attributed to the fact that he was away at college for most of the series.
There were 85 episodes of TAS, and Robin only appeared in 30. Among them was the two-part “Robin’s Reckoning,” which was the first time the character’s origin was presented outside of the comics. In the episode “Batgirl Returns,” it is revealed that Dick and Barbara Gordon attended the same university and were friends, but neither knew the other’s secret identity.
Over its run, TAS won four Emmy Awards and was nominated for several more. Even though the first season consisted of 65 episodes, the minimum required to go into syndication, the acclaim and popularity led to FOX ordering a second season of 20 episodes. Robin’s popularity led to him being featured more heavily in those episodes, going so far as to have the show’s title card changed to The Adventures of Batman & Robin, although this wasn’t “official.” Technically, the show was still called Batman: The Animated Series.
Robin Becomes Nightwing In The New Batman Adventures
Meanwhile, Warner Bros., which owns DC Comics, launched its own network, The WB. As a result, FOX lost the rights to Batman. Most of the original cast and crew of TAS transitioned over to a new cartoon, The New Batman Adventures, which launched in 1997.
The art style of TAS was already sleek and stylized, but the art designs for The New Batman Adventures were simplified even further. Nearly every character was majorly overhauled.
Lester returned to voice Dick Grayson but with a major twist.
Mimicking the comics, Dick adopted the solo identity of Nightwing. The character design on The New Batman Adventures deviated from the comics, giving his chest motif — just a plain chevron in the comics — a more bird-themed look with notches to simulate wings and adding a bird’s head at the top. A similar design was later given to the comic book version.
Infamously, Dick also had a sweet ’90s mullet that did not age well, but everything comes back around. People are running around with “ironic mullets” now, so maybe he was ahead of his time.
The show was originally conceived of as Gotham Knights and would have been more of a team show with Batman working more closely with his allies, Nightwing, Batgirl, and The Creeper, plus one other new addition, but I’ll get to that in a second.
But for whatever reason, this idea changed to keep the focus more closely on Batman himself. The Creeper made one appearance in the episode “Beware The Creeper,” this series’ penultimate installment, but did not play the major role that it seems the creators originally planned.
Another Robin Emerges In TNBA
However, even though Dick became Nightwing, The New Batman Adventures was not Robin-free. This program introduced a new Robin, Tim Drake, voiced by Mathew Valencia. There was never any mention of Jason Todd, the second Robin from the comics. Tim wore a completely original costume that hadn’t previously been shown in the comics. Although to match the cartoon, Tim did adopt this uniform in the comics.
This costume consisted of a red bodysuit with black short sleeves, black gloves and boots, and a short black cape with a yellow inner lining. There were no green elements, which was a first for the character in any medium.
While Jason was not part of this continuity, Tim’s depiction blended elements of the comic book versions of Tim and Jason. His origin was even altered. In the books, Tim’s father was still alive, and he lived with him. But the producers wanted to play up the “family dynamic” between Bruce, Tim, Barbara, and Dick. So they made him an orphan that lived with Bruce, like the other two Robins.
Due to the art style, with Tim being so short, with a big head and eyes, it was implied he was much younger than Dick had been when he appeared in Batman: The Animated Series. Then again, on the prior program, it was clear that Dick had been Robin for years by that point.
While Batman: The Animated Series had aired on Saturday mornings, it was mainly a weekday afternoon show. The New Batman Adventures, however, was concocted primarily for Saturday mornings. 24 episodes were crafted, but it did not go past a single season. (Although, 24 is a hefty number of episodes for a Saturday morning show, which usually only features 13.)
A Change In Robin
The creators wanted to move on to a new original project that was connected but… not that connected. Batman Beyond, which was set in the distant future of… er, 2019, featured a grizzled, retired Bruce Wayne mentoring a new teenage Batman, Terry McGinnis. There is no Robin in this series until the tie-in, direct-to-video movie Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. It was revealed in the video that back in the days of The New Batman Adventures, The Joker and Harley Quinn kidnapped, tortured, and brainwashed Tim and turned him into the “son of the Joker.” The insane Tim, looking like a pint-sized Clown Prince of Crime, appears to kill The Joker. Harley also dies during the encounter.
But what does it mean when The Joker apparently returns — bearing a resemblance to a green-haired Hannibal Lecter — years later during the time of Batman Beyond? Uhhhh, SPOILERS! (It means that Tim Drake was so destroyed by The Joker and Harley, that he BECAME The Joker.)
Yay, let’s hear it for child torture! And what’s really bizarre, is that Warner Bros. realized that this was maybe too dark and edited the movie down before its release. And people were PISSED! So pissed that, in shades of the “Release the Snyder Cut” movement, they pressured WB into releasing the original uncut version.
Justice For Robin?
Following Batman Beyond, the creators moved over to perhaps the show viewers most wanted to see– Justice League. And initially, Robin was meant to be part of that cast. When the show was conceived, it would have featured the adult members of the League mentoring younger characters. This would also have included Impulse and a female version of Cyborg. Ultimately, that was scrapped in favor of the classic version of the show we all know today.
Aaaaaand… there’s still so much to talk about. I had no idea when I decided to write this animated history of Robin that it would be so long. (Or maybe I’m just too longwinded.) But there are still several programs to discuss, and like last week, this is already running incredibly long. So stay tuned for Part 3 of this Sidekick Spotlight next week!
