Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson dynamic

[Micael]

So we all know Dick Grayson's relationship with Bruce Wayne and how it has developed over the decades. I've read stories where they clearly have a father/son bond even though never clearly acknowledged by both and there other stories where they seem more like siblings with Bruce being the older more experienced one and both sharing Alfred as a father figure. Now how do you interpret their relationship and how much does the age gap between them factor into it?

Does a younger Batman who's not that many years older than robin give you more of a big brother/little Brother vibe or do you believe age doesn't matter when it comes to someone looking up to another as a father figure? Do you think a bigger age gap is necessary to reinforce the father/son dynamic? I want to hear your opinions based on what you've read and how you interpret their relationship.

[Frontier]

I've legitimately never gotten the big brother/little brother vibe, at all.

[Rac7d*]

I've legitimately never gotten the big brother/little brother vibe, at all.

Yes he’s a 10-12 year old boy and Bruce after training and year on is 25
Dick needed a parent

[bat39]

So, Bruce is typically in his mid-20's when he first meets Dick, who's usually around 10-12 years old (sometimes as young as eight, or so I've heard). The age gap between them is usually around 10-15 years at most. So I don't really think a father-son relationship makes sense in that context. And frankly, I don't think their relationship has traditionally been depicted as one. Bruce is either an older brother or a mentor figure, and the idea that he's a father to Dick is relatively new, but really not that common in the stories themselves across media.

It makes more sense for Bruce and Tim to have a father-son relationship, since Bruce is actually old enough to be Tim's father (except in the New 52 of course). And of course, Bruce actually legally adopted Tim (though I don't know if that's still in continuity).

[Godlike13]

It’s both father/son and big brother/little brother. And more. It’s multifaceted. They wear many hats for the other.

[Micael]

It’s both father/son and big brother/little brother. And more. It’s multifaceted. They wear many hats for the other.

This is how I view it too. Their relationship is very different from all the other robins. With them I see Bruce leaning heavily on the father figure dynamic.

[SiegePerilous02]

It’s both father/son and big brother/little brother. And more. It’s multifaceted. They wear many hats for the other.

I think this is closer to the truth. Older siblings can double as parental figures.

I lean more towards older brother/little brother though. BTAS was my gateway into the Bat-verse, and that had a 20 year old Dick and a Bruce that didn't come off as being much older than the 29-32 range (he had only been active for about 10 years or so, and he's either still in college or only recently graduated when he meets Andrea). And since the show was mostly based on the Bronze Age, the dynamic was similar to that in those comics. No early 30s person has a son old enough to be in college, so Dick looking to Bruce as only a father figure doesn't make much sense for them at all.

We have emphasis on Dick being 10-12 as Robin (and thanks to Frank, I lean towards 12 lol), but did the Golden Age comics cement Bruce's age? Or, much like how media depicts high school students while being played by 20 somethings, was he fresh out of college and just being depicted as behaving/drawn as older than he was? Like a vague "he's in the adult stage of life" without a firm age number. Julie was even his college sweetheart, wasn't he? Bruce could be 21-22 when he first becomes Batman and Dick joins him fairly quickly, even before Alfred, so the age gap being around a decade seems to suit them the most. Most of the father-son stuff seems like post-Crisis retcons that established Bruce as being 25 when he becomes Batman and being active for a couple years before Robin showed up, which alters their dynamic to how it was originally.

[Ascended]

It’s both father/son and big brother/little brother. And more. It’s multifaceted. They wear many hats for the other.

This.

In the early days there was definitely a father/son dynamic at play, but sometimes (especially as Dick got a little older but Bruce functionally stayed the same age) a sibling-esque dynamic would rise to the surface, and a lot of the time I don't think you can really put Dick and Bruce in a "family" box at all; Bruce was a mentor but not exactly a father or a brother, he was something that was similar but not truly familial.