Bermejo Expands Robin Concept Beyond "Teenage White Kids Who All Look the Same"

[The World]

Damn son, Steph gets no respect.

[SkyMason21]

I hope this book heavily uses social media's potential role in vigilantism. Batman could never be everywhere at once but an army of incognito Robins, that could be at the park or at the bus stop, or looking out their window, or really anywhere all getting a tweet that says "#wearerobin 16th and Plymouth" is a pretty clever approach for addressing how different the world we are in is compared to older stories.

As scary as batman is to street level criminals think about them starting to realize that Robins are everywhere and can actvate in a moments notice. That's cool.

As much as I hate twitter hashtags that sounds really cool, I love to see that.

This just became a must buy for me. I've been waiting to see where Duke was going to pop up next, and this seems a fresh take on the Robin idea. I just hope we see him officially interact with Bruce at some point.

That might be happening in Detective Comics Endgame this week. This is the solicitation

The city is overrun by Jokerized victims, but a small band of teenagers unites to take a stand. Their secret knowledge of Gotham City’s streets helps them survive, but will Batman take help from this young group of upstarts? And what could it mean for the future of the young heroes in Gotham City?

Sounds like a We Are Robin prelude to me.

[Raph84]

'White kids who all look the same.' That's kinda racist, dude.

[Carthaginian60]

'White kids who all look the same.' That's kinda racist, dude.

If he'd actually said "White kids who are all DRAWN the same", that would be more accurate, at least as far as Dick, Tim, Jason and Damian go.

[Raph84]

If he'd actually said "White kids who are all DRAWN the same", that would be more accurate, at least as far as Dick, Tim, Jason and Damian go.

I hope that's what he meant.

[Nite-Wing]

I like that this is going to be a bit of a political socially relevant title. I imagine a young black kid like Duke would have a much different worldview than someone like Dick or Damian
Also Bermejo is right DC has basically designed Robin the same way for 4 generations now
Not every Robin needs to be a teenage white kid and Gotham is a lot more diverse than the current Bat family represents

[KurtW95]

"Teenage white kids who all look the same"

Literally replace white with any other race and this guy would be crucified.

[Claude]

"Teenage white kids who all look the same"

Literally replace white with any other race and this guy would be crucified.

This forum and it's predecessor are thick with complaints that Dick, Jason, Tim and even Damian were drawn to the same model. Jason lost his red hair to the standard black, Tim and Dick have the same physique, and especially in Batman #1 Capullo drew them all with the same face.

This was three years ago. It has been a consistent comment during those three years.

But talking about this is suddenly a problem today?

....


Right, guys.

[Rahul]

Robin as a social movement mascot is a real innovative concept. They are also probably inspired by the Dark Knight Rises version of Robin.

[Maverick]

Could be interesting, could be a disaster with the intricacies of socio politics and all.

Haven't read anything DC in a while, but this could change that.

[andersonh1]

I won't begrudge Bermejo for writing it, nor will I begrudge people for enjoying this book, but I think that this interview really turned me off it.

When central MO for an entire book is race and diversity, when that's the biggest motivating factor and story element behind a book, it's just not something I'm interested in reading.

Yeah, same here.

[DIVINITY]

I'm interested in Duke's adventures post Convergence, so, I'll check it out..

[The Kid]

The problem is that he's often not DRAWN that way. So if they don't spell that out for you in dialogue, then you'd never know just by looking at him. That's a problem with comic book art a lot of the time, character tend to look the same.

Very true point. I wish they would distinguish Damian's looks from the other Robins

[godisawesome]

Disappointed it's not immediately confirmed to feature Tim, Steph, Cass and the rest. I still think there should be one dedicated sidekick book. I wouldn't mind if Duke is the leader and protagonist and Harper takes precedence over my generation's teen heroes, but:

1) Nothing positive has happened to Tim involving a Titans book since they first cancelled Young Justice (and PAD's character centered approach) and shuffled him off to that book and the constant attempts by creators to recapture the chemistry and magic of NTT.

2) I've had 20 plus years of Tim Drake solo books and about 10 years of Steph and Cass books combined. I got addicted. I'm going through withdrawls, man!

On the other hand, as a Missouri resident, and as a person who is greatly annoyed at the homogenization of the Robins instead of even basic diversification in skills, backgrounds and types (one reason I dislike Tim as a Titans member is he almost always gets the Nightwing scripts the writer wants to use), I do applaud the direction the book seems pointed towards. The Batamily seemed to slowly settle from a genuine stab towards diversity (Dixon writing Tim with a Jewish background even if not officially, Babs as an incredibly empowered disabled representative, Cass as a triple threat minority, and later with Morrison giving Jason back red hair, Batwoman's debut, Steph as a disadvantaged female Robin, Damian as mixed race), into the almost ludicrously cut and paste group of elite WASPs they are now, with the exception of Batwoman.

Diversification is needed, not just in implementation, but also in perseverance. And hey, if you want a ground level book, like Simone was trying to make Batgirl, then making a Robin INC style from the streets up is actually kind of awesome. Of nothing else, it provides a heck of a context in which Cass has an interesting chance of appearing in!

...and great, now I'm thinking it would to have been awesome to have Duke take over the Neon Knights group from Red Robin, maybe even in a hostile fashion.

[Kurisu]

'White kids who all look the same.' That's kinda racist, dude.

Dick, Romani, white-washed.
Jason, white.
Tim, white.
Stephanie, white, blonde and blue eyed. (*replaced an Asian character)
Damian, Middle Eastern, frequently white-washed.
Carrie, white.
Helena, white.

Seven white or white-washed Robins in seventy-five years and this is racist? LOL, dude. OK.



(Not to imply that DC is racist for this necessarily, but it certainly reflects who writes these comics and who they are marketed to.)