Preferred duration of Dick Grayson's Robin career?

[Aahz]

I didn't know he was 16. I thought he'd aged up a bit with Damian. Not quite as much, but some. I haven't been reading, but did know he and Steph claimed to headed to a college (rather than visit or something), so I just assumed he was 18 and pretending to go start college. Yeesh. I really should pay more attention.

No they have retconned that Tim (due to being a super genius) has finished high school at an very young age.

[TheRay]

if you have him start out when he's 16, you might as well skip forward to Nightwing and forget about him being robin.

I don't have a problem with this.

[twincast]

Regarding Batman's starting age: The one age I'm adamant about is that Bruce and Clark both start right after fake college and real college, respectively, so 22. I prefer Dick joining after about two years, maybe four, certainly no later than that.

Btw. I also find it wired how they handled the ages of the Robins in the Titans streaming shows.

The actor they casted to plays Jason is almost 7 years older than the one who plays Dick in the Flashbacks.

Past!Dick needs to look considerably younger than Present!Dick. Robin!Jason gets fight (and maybe love) scenes. This is "think of the children" at work in the U.S. film industry. Water is wet.

I didn't know he was 16. I thought he'd aged up a bit with Damian. Not quite as much, but some. I haven't been reading, but did know he and Steph claimed to headed to a college (rather than visit or something), so I just assumed he was 18 and pretending to go start college. Yeesh. I really should pay more attention.

Became Robin at age 13.
Got solo series at age 14.
Co-founded Young Justice at age 15.
Co-revived Teen Titans (and became an orphan) at age 16.
Became Red Robin (and an emancipated minor) at age 17.
New 52 aged him back down to 16 (and had him already graduated for a number of years).
DC Rebirth aged him back up to 17 (and had him admitted to Ivy University one year early).
By rights he should be turning 19 right about now, but I'm just happy that he's finally back on track.

[Tzigone]

Got solo series at age 14.

I see that a lot. Where is it sourced (I don't doubt it; just would like to know)? I know in the first issue he already had his driver's permit. I am aware of his "special license" but was unaware of the permit being equally special. FTR, I like old school, where he is intelligent, but not a super-genius (no more genius than any of the others).

[Confuzzled]

About 5.5 years is ideal for Dick's tenure as Robin I think. He had to be at least 14 to be an established part of the Flying Graysons, giving him enough years of experience as an acrobat pre-Robin. And I think 19 is the perfect age for him to get disillusioned with Bruce's ways and decide to strike out on his own.

[Aahz]

I see that a lot. Where is it sourced (I don't doubt it; just would like to know)? I know in the first issue he already had his driver's permit. I am aware of his "special license" but was unaware of the permit being equally special. FTR, I like old school, where he is intelligent, but not a super-genius (no more genius than any of the others).

The age back than is a little tricky imo.

He iirc started in 9th grade in his second mini series (which would have made 14 at that time), but was not officially said to be 15/10th grade untill No Mans Land. And in the Latter Section of Robin #27 it was also said that he was still 14.

Even if just by the time that passed in universe schould have probably been 15 arround the start of Knightfall and turned 16 when it ended.

[Güicho]

Indefinite, same as Batman.

Grayson is still, and will always be the most significant Robin, aging him served one (ok) story arc, Nightwing has since been pretty forgettable, the most interesting thing about him will always be that he was Robin. And we've been stuck with a bunch of derivative crap Robins, all trying to recapture that, ever since.
Inconsequential poll (and the fact the OP and all, contrived ( 14 pages of) meaningless "time-lines" , and left off the most significant option), actually highlights that mistake.

[byrd156]

Indefinite, same as Batman.

Grayson is still, and will always be the most significant Robin, aging him served one (ok) story arc, Nightwing has since been pretty forgettable, the most interesting thing about him will always be that he was Robin. And we've been stuck with a bunch of derivative crap Robins, all trying to recapture that, ever since.
Inconsequential poll (and the fact the OP and all, contrived ( 14 pages of) meaningless "time-lines" , and left off the most significant option), actually highlights that mistake.

Nightwing is totally forgettable, that's why he's been around since '84.

[Aahz]

Past!Dick needs to look considerably younger than Present!Dick. Robin!Jason gets fight (and maybe love) scenes. This is "think of the children" at work in the U.S. film industry. Water is wet.

The actress they cast for Raven is 15 (iirc she was 12 or 13 when she was casted), so I don't really see why they didn't cast a younger actor for Jason (and Beast Boy).

[twincast]

The actress they cast for Raven is 15 (iirc she was 12 or 13 when she was casted), so I don't really see why they didn't cast a younger actor for Jason (and Beast Boy).

Oh yeah, I totally forgot that - at the time seriously surprising - exception. Maybe 'cause Dick, Kory et al. are serving in guardian roles? Still an exception. And I don't see why any of the U.S. film industry is doing silly Dawson's Casting, but them's the breaks.

[Güicho]

Nightwing is totally forgettable, that's why he's been around since '84.

Yet his Robin persona (and time as robin) still has more cachet.

[TheRay]

It is difficult for me to give Nightwing too much time as Robin. I want Damian to build the name up and keep it. Too many people still think of Robin as a sidekick persona.

[twincast]

It is difficult for me to give Nightwing too much time as Robin. I want Damian to build the name up and keep it. Too many people still think of Robin as a sidekick persona.

"Build the name up"? "Build a name for himself", fine, but Dick and Tim already more than "built up" the Robin name as team leader and solo hero, respectively.

Anyway, Bleeding Cool reminded me of the existence of this:
DC timeline.jpg

This gives us four years of post-Crisis Dick Grayson as Robin, starting about two years after Batman, and like I said, I'd be fine with both of these numbers. However, I have some issues with this old official timeline when it comes to a couple of female characters, which would end up giving Dick two extra years as Robin. They are pretty much the only major problems I have with the above - and beyond baffling, to boot, as they affect all three of DC's most iconic female super-heroes (at least until the Harley Craze two decades later, and I'd argue also today). (Knowing editorial's reasons makes these no less inane.) First of all, Diana's debut should've been "10 years ago" (and her creation preferably 33), but that's a bit of a digression. More importantly, the Linda Lee/Kara Zor-El Supergirl shouldn't have been erased, she should've debuted around the same time as the Barbara Gordon Batgirl, and both should've had enough time to make a big name for themselves before their respective death/crippling, so starting with "5 Years Ago" everything before on this timeline until "35 Years Ago" (including the "10 Years Ago" mentioned above) should be pushed back another two years (to "37~7 Years Ago"), extending Dick's tenure as Robin to six years, which, again, sounds at least as good to me.

Now, extending this to the present day (and only looking at the Batman Family), we should be fine just adding five years to this, but we are not - mostly because DC de-aged Tim for the nEw 52. Damian jumping up a couple of years in the DC Rebirth Special doesn't really matter, doesn't give him a longer tenure (which should be about two years at this point), just makes him debut a year or two older (but still way too young, so no major change). So far, so good, but this would mean that Tim was only fifteen when Bruce was being a douche (what else is new) - meaning he either gets reduced to only two years of being Robin or already started at the tender age of eleven, both options being terrible. There are two potential ways to fix this: The easier (and IMNSHO better) one would be to give him back the two years of age DC took from him, which wouldn't really change anything other than him likely no longer having graduated early, which had always been a bad editorial decision, anyway. The other one (which they seem to be going for) would be to have his last couple of years of Robin overlap with Damian's first couple of years as Robin, which requires many, many small retcons to whatever stories they keep, but since they clearly dropped all of nEw 52 Teen Titans (thank god) and Tim wasn't doing much else during the time, shuffling things around shouldn't be too hard (adding ten years of Jonathan Kent the Younger to the merged background is a much larger endeavor). I shall await with wary curiosity what DiDio et al. decide on for their new timeline of the DC Metaverse in regard to this matter and all others. At the very least he won't induce a rewhatever this time. (For the sake of - relative - completeness, Kate's career as Batwoman should be spanning about three years now.)

[Aahz]

I think if they are now trying to make a new logical timeline the biggest problems with the Batfamily will be:

- Dukes Origin, since Zero Year only works with the New 52 timeline
- Damians and Tims age
- when Kate made her debut, since if you keep the original order of events and compress the timeline to keep the characters young she would have still stared very recently

I really hope they don't do dumb stuff in the new timeline like having Damian become Robin when Tim was only 13 or 14 (which necessary to explain their current canon ages), or have Jason as the only Robin start at a much older age then then rest, to have him close to the age of Roy and Dick.

[nhienphan2808]

Yet his Robin persona (and time as robin) still has more cachet.

I agree. Different writing style aside, He did NOTHING new as Nightwing. Golden Age Robin made more appeareances than his Batman due to his solo series. Both TT and NTT are at their rise with Robin not Nightwing. even now, the only reason Didio cant kill him is because of his 40+ years being Robin. Being Robin is the reason for his competence and longevity, so the time is better long than short.