DC History Club, March 2020: Robin, the First Great Golden Age Sidekick, Week 3 Quiz & Polls

Robin with banner
This month for the DC History Club, we join the DCU Community wide crossover celebrating 80 years Robin. Sidekicks have existed in literature since the Iliad . As long as there have been stories about heroes, sidekicks have followed them into danger. Sancho Panza rode with Don Quixote as he tilted against windmills; Dr. Watson marveled at Sherlock Holmes’ mind; and Cheetah the chimp screeched warnings of danger at Tarzan. Robin, as the first great superhero sidekick, did all this and more.
For eleven issues, Batman was a dark knight of vengeance. He carried his thirst for revenge to the ultimate penalty killing his enemies. Like Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson’s career began with the tragic murder of his parents. But unlike Batman, Robin the Boy Wonder would fight crime with a laugh and pun dressed in bright primary colors. He became the template for decades of teen superheroes who could more directly appeal to young readers, play off their older mentors, and actually age and grow as time went on. More importantly, he helped changed the fundamental nature of Batman. Their fight was for justice. Batman and Robin. Two characters that became a single idea.
You will find our normal research wiki directly below to add articles, interviews or videos from reliable sources. Special shoutout to our senior historian @TurokSonOfStone1950 for much of the deep dive research for building this entire month. And don’t forget to check out the Robin crossover activities happening all across the DCU Community.

Stay tuned for more coming this month :

  • Polls: Week 2 adds will include polls on Golden Age Robin’s impact on Batman and comics in general
  • Quiz: Week 3 will see a quiz as you can test how much you know about the history of Golden Age Robin.

Recommended Reading:

  • Detective #38: Story 1(pg. 2) Robin’s debut
  • Batman #1: Story 2 (pg. 4) Joker’s debut and story 4 (pg 29) Catwoman’s debut
  • Batman #255: Crazy-Quilt Comes Back reprinted from Star-Spangled Comics #123 (December, 1951)

Deeper Dive Reading :

  • Detective #444: Dick Grayson Detective reprinted from Star-Spangled Comics #111 (December, 1950)
  • The Brave and the Bold #76: The Man Called 50-50! Reprinted from Star-Spangled Comics #128 (May, 1952)
  • Batman #156: Robin Dies at Dawn
Comic Issue Links

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History Challenge:

  • Real Robin Facts: Found something interesting about Golden Age Robin you want to share? Post your Real Robin Facts. See an example below.
  • Robin, Dick Grayson History Timeline : Below you’ll find the beginning of a Dick Grayson ultimate history timeline wiki. If you have an event whether from the pages of the comics or the real world for Dick Grayson from his introduction in Detective to his kicking off the green pixie boots add it to the wiki.

Discussion Suggestions

  1. How do you think Robin changed Batman as a character? What do you think are Robin’s most important contributions to the Batman mythos and comics in general?
  2. Although Robin’s original costume of yellow cape, green and red tunic and shorts, and pixie boots would become something of punchline in later years, they were critical in immediately establishing the character. What are your thoughts on the costume?
  3. What do you think about other Golden Age sidekicks. This includes not only the kid sidekicks, but the bumbling sidekick as well. What purpose do you think they serve?
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Robin’s greatest impact on Golden Age Batman stories is (pick 2)

  • Lightened tone of stories
  • Acts as ‘Dr. Watson’ listening to Batman’s exposition
  • Appealed to young readers
  • Provides Batman a fighting partner
  • Allows Batman to process grief through Robin
  • Comedic relief
  • Voices the reader’s excitement, admiration, fear for Batman
  • Acts as “Boy Wonder in Distress” for Batman to save
  • Adds father/son or older/younger brother dynamic

0 voters

In the Golden Age stories, what do you believe Batman’s two most important motivations are for taking in Dick Grayson and training him as Robin?

  • Get the revenge he never had
  • Empathy for the orphan
  • He’s lonely in his life and mission
  • He knew he needed someone to ground him before he was lost to the darkness
  • It would force him to be more careful so as not to put Robin in danger
  • He could experience the childhood he never had through Robin
  • He wanted someone to act as undercover spy

0 voters

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Welcome to the DC History Club Golden Age Robin Quiz. Good Luck?

1 What comic did Robin debut in?

  • Batman #1
  • Detective #27
  • Detective #38

0 voters

  1. Robin works undercover as a what during the Cat’s (Catwoman) debut story?
  • Newsboy
  • Ship steward
  • Shoe shine

0 voters

  1. From 1938 until 1950, who appeared in more DC comics?

0 voters

  1. Robin solo starred in what comic during the Golden Age?
  • More Fun Comics
  • Robin
  • Star-Spangled Comics

0 voters

  1. What move are Dick’s parents performing just before they are killed?
  • The Lindy
  • The Triple Spin
  • The Double Back Spin

0 voters

  1. Who is the mob boss who kills Dick’s parents?
  • Maroni
  • Zucco
  • Falcone

0 voters

  1. What does Robin do while Boss Zucco murders a henchman for ratting him out in Detective 38?
  • Says “Nice rat trap!”
  • Leaps in to save the henchman
  • Takes a photo

0 voters

  1. Bill Finger and Bob Kane were originally credited as Robin’s creators. What artist was later acknowledged as a co-creator?
  • Jerry Robinson
  • Bob Haney
  • Jack Kirby

0 voters

  1. Crazy Quilt is considered a member of Robin’s rogues gallery and appears in Star Spangled Comics #123, but who did Crazy Quilt fight before Robin?
  • News Boy Legion
  • The Boy Commandos
  • Jimmy Olson

0 voters

  1. Which of these actors did not portray Robin in the 1940s?
  • Ronald Liss
  • Robert Lowery
  • Johnny Duncan

0 voters

  1. Bonus Question: What is the name of the woman who has her jewels stolen by the Cat under Robin’s nose?
  • Sarah
  • Gertrude
  • Martha

0 voters

Robin Ranking
0-3: See Alfred for tea and scones, you need energy to read more comics
4-7: Grab a batarang, Ace the Bat-Hound is ready to play fetch
8-10: You’ve earned the keys to the Batmobile for Saturday night on the town in Gotham, try not to scratch it

Answer Key 1) Detective #38; 2) Ship steward; 3) Robin; 4) Star-Spangled Comics; 5) The Triple Spin; 6) Zucco; 7) Takes a photo; 8) Jerry Robinson; 9)
News Boy Legion; 10) Robert Lowery; 11) Martha

1 Like

https://www.dcuniverse.com/news/should-child-protective-services-take-robin-batman/

https://www.dcuniverse.com/news/many-faces-joker-golden-age-beginnings/

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The Definitive Dick Grayson as Robin History Timeline

Format: Date/Title/Issue/Event

  • 1940 April, Detective #38, Dick Grayson is orphaned, joins Batman as Robin

  • 1945, February 28th, Batman and Robin (Ronald Liss) make their first appearance on The Adventures of Superman radio program

  • 1947-1952, Star Spangled Comics, #65-130, Robin cover solo stories

  • 1949 Batman and Robin 15 part movie serial with Johnny Duncan as Robin shown in theaters

  • 1964 July, The Brave and the Bold #54, Teen Titans debuts

  • 1969 December, Batman #217, Dick leaves home for Hudson University

  • 1984 February, Batman #368, Dick passes Robin mantle to Jason Todd

  • 1984 July, Tales of the Teen Titans #44, Nightwing debuts

3 Likes

Adding Robin, Speedy, Bucky, Toro, and Sandy was one kind of sidekick, designed to attract parents into buying more comics for the kids. But what was the purpose of the bumbling sidekick like Woozy Winks and Doiby Dickles?

Did you know that “Robin, the Boy Wonder” in Detective Comics #38 and “The Giants of Hugo Strange” in Batman #1 were swapped to debut Robin a little more spectacularly?

5 Likes

Really nice points. Did not know that about the stories, now I need to look at them both again.
The bumbling sidekick (also known is the irritating idiot sidekick) is a good question. I need to think about that, but definitely adding it to the topic suggestions.

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Wanted to move this exchange over here as both @RyanSteele0311 and @TurokSonOfStone1950 make some good points I didn’t want people to miss.

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turok’s reply

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@RyanSteele0311 That is a very good example of the father-son type story. I started reading Detective from the beginning last year here on DCU, and you get this story that start off so nice with Bruce and Dick taking a break from crime fighting to take a vacation, visit the zoo, go fishing and it never works out. They always find some criminal plot. Maybe, they should give up on relaxing. But, throughout this run there’s these moments of Bruce acting as a surrogate father to Dick.

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So, the bumbling sidekick. I’m looking through B movies of the 40s thinking we would find a similar type character working for the detectives. But, it seems that most of those detective movies that used humor did it with the wife or secretary. As a story telling device, they do what you expect falling backwards into trouble, saying spunky things, and backing up the hero. There’s actually a pretty good example of this being used to good effect in Green Lantern #10 DC Universe
with Dickles tangling with Vandal Savage in his debut. Just read this for the Villain Pysch Club and it really holds up as a story and an example of the characters.
Then of cours, there’s the sidekicks who were used for “humor” at times that traded on racist stereotypes. The article from Priceonomics above gives a thoughtful examination of this, including some DC characters.

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The Dick Tracy RKO movies had the bumbling sidekick in Pat Patton. I apologize, I cannot remember the exact movie but there was one where Pat had to continuously make phone calls from numbers that were scratched in a phone until he found the bad guy. Once he found the bad guy he didn’t remember the number he dialed. This would go along with Bob Kane’s appreciation for Gould and Dick Tracy that was mentioned elsewhere in the DCU community.

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That’s actually pretty funny. That’s the direction my memory was taking me just couldn’t come up with anything

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The original Robin costume is credited to Jerry Robinson.

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Agreed

From book Caped Crusade

Robinson recalled an illustrated Robin Hood storybook he’d loved as a child, with paintings by N. C. Wyeth. He sketched a boy in a boldly colored and vaguely medieval outfit—tunic, shoes, tights—and designed a logo for him in a typeface that approximated Old English script: Robin, the Boy Wonder.

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Robinson and the Joker

CLOWN PRINCE

It was then-eighteen-year-old Jerry Robinson who came up with the idea for a new and terrifying villain, a chalk-faced mass murderer with a grisly sense of humor. Robinson was taking creative writing courses at Columbia University at the time and offered to write the story introducing his killer clown, whom he called the Joker.

Finger and Kane, worried that Robinson would miss the deadline on what would have been his first comic book script, persuaded the young inker to let Finger write the story instead.

The ensuing tale is pure pulpy goodness, and it fits squarely in Finger’s whodunit style: a mysterious villain robbed the wealthy of the city and somehow, amid rooms teeming with protective cordons of police officers, managed to dose them with a lethal venom that left them with a “repellent, ghastly grin, the sign of death from THE JOKER!”

Readers watched victim after victim die panicked, horrible deaths as the vicious Joker gloated.

Despite his misgivings about such violent imagery, Whitney Ellsworth stepped in to make sure Finger and Kane didn’t bump the Joker off at story’s end as they had planned to do; he knew they’d struck upon a villain who was too good to lose.

Even in this first tale, so much of what will forever define the character was already set in stone—the white face, green hair, and red lips; the impossible rictus grin; the Joker venom; the maniacal laughter; and the riverboat-gambler couture: tails, vest, spats, and hat.

For the first two years after this debut, the Joker would remain a cold-blooded killer, cavalierly slaughtering both innocent victim and criminal colleague alike.

Ellsworth believed that while Batman must resist lethal force—and even had him give up his role as vigilante to become an honorary member of the police department in Batman #7 (Fall 1941)—it only made sense for the villains to remain villainous, even homicidal.

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Jerry Robinson’s from Paul Levitz’s 75 Years of DC History:
“I recall adding the final touch on Bob’s sketch of Robin. A small ‘R’ monogram on his vest.”

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Robin’s first non-comics appearance? Radio! Portrayed by Ronald Liss,

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Dang, I’m gonna have to source that and find the backstory

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From.Caped Crusade

On February 28, 1945, Batman and Robin put in the first of their many appearances on the Superman radio serial.

As the years went on, several episodes at a time would be given over to the Dynamic Duo (who, for the purposes of the drama, made their home in Metropolis), which served to give Bud Collyer, the voice of Superman, some much-needed downtime.

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