Preferred duration of Dick Grayson's Robin career?

[Schumiac]

DC's best asset was their long and storied history--so Didio flushed it down the pipes.

That, and the fact they had the one major comic book death that stuck - Jason.... I like Jason fine, and I don't wish him death or anything (now that he is back, he should remain), but I still maintain he should have never been revived in the first place... It is a cheap trick of comics to kill characters and then revive them back, and it happens so much that it loses all meaning... Once they revived Jason, there was no stopping of repeat "death & revival" of other Bat-family members... How many times in recent decade did Bat-family members died and got revived now?

There isnt much realism in Batman, but death still had some meaning and they made it lose its meaning. I think in a comic book where one of the interesting aspects of the character is his mortality, the fact that he is just human and this is all very dangerous to him making death loose all meaning was a bad move...

and reboots in general are horrid... Hard to care for what DC says is canon or in continuity when you have a feeling in a year or two it will all be erased.. Then there is the fact they try to "rewrite" history and tell you what you have known about a character for 10+ years (let's say) no longer applies... Like that will ever hold...

[Aahz]

So for me Dick's parents die and he is taken in by Bruce at age 8

age 9-10 he is in training... maybe occasionally taken out to the field as Robin when Batman isn't going against psychos like Joker but rather regular patrolling or Condiment King :P
age 10-11+ he is regularly coming on missions and his name is starting to get known...
age 16 - Teen Titans
age 18 - College
age 19 - Nightwing (Jason is Robin at 14/15)
age 20 - Jason Dies
age 21 - Tim comes aboard (Tim is 13/14)
age 22 - Prodigal, 1st time as Batman
age 25 - Batman with Damian as Robin (who is 10)
age 26- Back to Nightwing
age 28 - current timeline


If Dick was 8 when Bruce took him in and Bruce was 22 and Dick is now around 28, that would make Bruce 42 years old, which is just fine IMO.

( I voted 8, taking 10-11 as the age he is Robin.. but could easily be 10)

Btw. thats also something I find wired, many fans want Dick become Robin super young, but than have Jason become Robin at an older age than in the original comics.

In the comics back than, they stared as Robin at about the same age.

[byrd156]

Btw. thats also something I find wired, many fans want Dick become Robin super young, but than have Jason become Robin at an older age than in the original comics.

In the comics back than, they stared as Robin at about the same age.

Jason has generally been depicted or at least looked older in flashbacks and the like throughout the 2000s so I think that's one of the reasons why.

[Aahz]

Jason has generally been depicted or at least looked older in flashbacks and the like throughout the 2000s so I think that's one of the reasons why.

Not really. I mean he might not have ben drawn as cute as in the 80s, but he usually still pretty small, even in the beginning of Red Hood: Lost Days, which is set after his resurrection.

Und in the UTRH movie he looks really Young in the earliest Flashbacks.

[Schumiac]

Btw. thats also something I find wired, many fans want Dick become Robin super young, but than have Jason become Robin at an older age than in the original comics.

In the comics back than, they stared as Robin at about the same age.

I think between his "criminal past", his attitude, his tragic death and the later depictions one just remembers him as being older than he is. (there may even be a psychological factor where him dying as a 14/15 years old is more acceptable than him dying as 12/13- which really isnt). Another factor is probably Tim being Robin at 13, and Jason being the "older" Robin one just automatically adds a year to him too.. Whether he is 12 or 14 makes no big difference to me personally so fine to accept him as 12... But this is supposed to be what we "personally" see the ages and years etc as, so normal that at points it differs from DC...

[KC]

I voted for 8 but anywhere between 6-8 years would be ok.

[byrd156]

I think between his "criminal past", his attitude, his tragic death and the later depictions one just remembers him as being older than he is. (there may even be a psychological factor where him dying as a 14/15 years old is more acceptable than him dying as 12/13- which really isnt). Another factor is probably Tim being Robin at 13, and Jason being the "older" Robin one just automatically adds a year to him too.. Whether he is 12 or 14 makes no big difference to me personally so fine to accept him as 12... But this is supposed to be what we "personally" see the ages and years etc as, so normal that at points it differs from DC...

I think you're right.

[FS7]

Parallel question: how far was Bruce into his Batman career when Dick became Robin?

If we go by Golden Age continuity, Dick became Robin about one year into Bruce's Batman career. If we go by Post-COIE continuity, Dick became Robin in Bruce's third year as Batman.

I think in another continuity (possibly the Adam West TV series), Bruce and Dick decided to start the Batman and Robin thing at the same time.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

Kinda depends on whether you consider The Long Halloween and Dark Victory cannon. In that case, I'd say Year 5. If we're throwing that out the window, then preferably it should happen around late Year 2 or Year 3.

[FS7]

Indeed. It is a more important determining factor for his age than "what age is appropriate and believable for a kid be out at night fighting crime" because, well, the "realistic" answer to that is a kid has no business fighting crime and should be sitting at home... Robin "the boy wonder" as a hero requires me to suspend belief; if he is aged 8 or 9 or 12 or 13 doesnt make much difference in that regard...But what his age is matters for the story and how the character's relationships are defined. So I will go with the age that works best for that aspect.

Suspension of disbelief is exactly the issue here. I have a much easier time suspending disbelief when it comes to a 12/13 yo fighting crime as opposed to an 8-year-old.

[FS7]

On the other hand h has iirc 13 or 14 candels on his cake and gets his own Batplane in that story.

Than a few issues later in Batman #18, you see Dicks report card where he has classes like Latin and Chemistry, that's probably not stuff they usually teach at elementary schools.

Dick's age during the Golden Age doesn't make a ton of sense. Not even worth going into all the ways it doesn't make sense, really.

And overall I'd rather just ignore it.

[FS7]

Honestly, I don't get how some of you have an easier time buying an 8-year-old fighting crime then the idea that Bruce could identify with a kid who lost his parents at an age other than 8. Dick's age when he lost his parents doesn't really matter for Bruce. Personally, I think it's the loss that matters, not whether Dick was in the exact same place Bruce was in terms of losing your parents at a very specific age.

I mean, it's not like if he had lost his parents when he was 9, Bruce would've been all like, "Ah, because he lost his parents a little later than I did I don't identify as much with this kid. Y'know now that I think about it I'm not gonna make this kid my sidekick. Ah, but if his parents had died just a few months earlier..."

[Aahz]

I mean, it's not like if he had lost his parents when he was 9, Bruce would've been all like, "Ah, because he lost his parents a little later than I did I don't identify as much with this kid. Y'know now that I think about it I'm not gonna make this kid my sidekick. Ah, but if his parents had died just a few months earlier..."

Honestly even Bruce origin works a little bit better when he is older. He deciding to become Batman at age 8 is also a little young.
In the Gotham TV show they made him 12, that worked imo quite good.

[bat39]

Honestly even Bruce origin works a little bit better when he is older. He deciding to become Batman at age 8 is also a little young.
In the Gotham TV show they made him 12, that worked imo quite good.

As iconic as that scene of 8 year old Bruce making that vow is, I kinda prefer the way Nolan handled Bruce's decision to become Batman. Its not just the trauama of losing his parents that causes Bruce to vow to wage a never-ending war against crime. Its growing up and realizing that the real evil that plagues Gotham is not Joe Chill, but the criminal infrastructure, structural corruption and sheer apathy that breeds thousands like him.

It just makes more sense to me that Bruce would grow up wanting revenge against Joe Chill and entertaining a childish fantasy of being the heroic saviour that he couldn't be for his parents. But once he's in his mid-to-late teens, he's confronted with the sheer scope and scale of Gotham's corruption and that's when he makes a mature decision that he wants to dedicate his life to fighting it.

[Coatl]

For Dick as Robin I think that 6 years is enough time since a beginning as a naive child to a late teen/young adult sick of the strict rules of batman and wanting to become his own man, I think that from 12 to 18 is a good amount of time.

As iconic as that scene of 8 year old Bruce making that vow is, I kinda prefer the way Nolan handled Bruce's decision to become Batman. Its not just the trauama of losing his parents that causes Bruce to vow to wage a never-ending war against crime. Its growing up and realizing that the real evil that plagues Gotham is not Joe Chill, but the criminal infrastructure, structural corruption and sheer apathy that breeds thousands like him.
.

I agree, that make him look less as a traumatized child seeking revenge who never group up from his trauma, and more as a young man aware of his decision.

[Schumiac]

Honestly, I don't get how some of you have an easier time buying an 8-year-old fighting crime then the idea that Bruce could identify with a kid who lost his parents at an age other than 8. Dick's age when he lost his parents doesn't really matter for Bruce. Personally, I think it's the loss that matters, not whether Dick was in the exact same place Bruce was in terms of losing your parents at a very specific age.

I mean, it's not like if he had lost his parents when he was 9, Bruce would've been all like, "Ah, because he lost his parents a little later than I did I don't identify as much with this kid. Y'know now that I think about it I'm not gonna make this kid my sidekick. Ah, but if his parents had died just a few months earlier..."

There are several aspects to it:

1) Dick being a "special" case (who ends up opening the way for future Robins, of course): Obviously, Dick isnt the first and definitely not the last kid Bruce ran into who has been orphaned at an early age, or who lost his parents to crime. I am sure he feels for all of them and tries to help them out the best way he can through his foundations, by making sure they get placed in good homes etc. But Dick was a "special" case where he actually took this boy in himself. Being the same age as Bruce gives that special touch. It would hit Bruce even deeper and make him feel an even more personal connection, to the point where he would make an emotional decision rather than a logical one (because logically he would consider himself rather unqualified to be a father, IMHO, and would think a kid would be better served in a loving home with preferably two parents who could devote all their time to him, and who don't spend most of their time fighting crime. And when you are trying to keep a secret identity and your base of operations is the caves just beneath your house, very inconvenient -and not the brightest move- to bring a kid in to your house to live with you permanently.).
2) The father/son bond: Whether Bruce took Dick in when he was just 8/9 or 12/13 makes a difference here too. The former means there is a greater age difference between them and a longer time they spend together, meaning Bruce would be that more influential in raising Dick, thus has every right to be proud of how he turned out and how he did a good job as a father... It also adds to the rough patch they hit later on in their relationship. I think having Bruce know Dick as a “kid” longer adds to how Bruce couldn’t really handle it as Dick started to grow up and wanted to assert his independence more and went his seperate way...
3) Can’t have all the Robins enter Bruce’s life when they are around 12/13… It becomes very generic. I like that their ages vary a bit, as do their backgrounds…