Why aren't Batman (Bruce) & Robin (any Robin) as frequent as they used to be?

[phonogram12]

Just curious. I've noticed since the death of Jason Todd and the introduction of Tim Drake that actual stories that feature Batman (Bruce) & Robin (any Robin) as a crimefighting duo like they used to be pre-Jason's death aren't anywhere near as common as they used to be. When Tim made his debut in his new costume, Bruce was almost immediately replaced by Azrael and he was shunted off to his own solo series. Sure, there was that Detective run with Dixon and Nolan, but other than that, I don't recall a whole lot of regular team-ups besides.

Admittedly, I never followed Damien as closely, but other than his time with Dick, the only other time he regularly teamed up with Bruce is during Tomasi and Gleason's B&R series, which has long since been canceled. And now it seems as if Bruce and Damien are on the outs.

Am I the only one who's noticed this?

[Frontier]

I think it has something to do with the main Batman writers not wanting to use Robin for one reason or another and Robin having obligations to other books (his solo or the Titans).

[MajorHoy]

"Batman" and "Robin" as a "crime fighting duo" didn't seem all that common when Dick was still Robin back in the early 1970s.

[Aahz]

It stared actually far earlier, after Dick went to collage in the late 60s Batman was mostly a solo character, with him and Dick only teaming up very rarely.

Having a regular Batman and Robin team became only really a thing again after pre crisis Jason became Robin (and even than than they had iirc occasional solos stories without him), I think already post crisis they reduced Jason's appearances with him being I think only in about half of the Batman stories from that era (I think he stopped to appear in TEC once his new origin was published).

And I think Tim was also only in roughly half of the stories before he got his solo.

[hairys]

Yeah, not sure that in the comics it was ever as frequent as on the Adam West TV show.

[Superboy-Prime]

I guess it just makes for more interesting stories. I don't think Bruce's Batman is gonna work with sidekicks for some time. I mean, Ghost-Maker seems to be the guy he's working with on a consistent basis now. Now the Next Batman gets to be the one who endangers kids! What a legacy, right?

[MajorHoy]

It stared actually far earlier, after Dick went to collage in the late 60s Batman was mostly a solo character, with him and Dick only teaming up very rarely.

It looks like Batman #217 (cover-dated December 1969, on-sale date of October 21) was the issue when Dick headed to college.


I remember it being grouped in the "1970s" section of Batman from the Thirties to the Seventies.

Yeah, not sure that in the comics it was ever as frequent as on the Adam West TV show.

It was a lot more frequent back when that Batman TV show originally aired (1966-1968).

[Vordan]

Whole reason Starlin was gung ho to kill off Jason was because he hated Robin as a character, and most of the DC higher ups did as well. Robin is supposed to be a brighter, kid-friendly character, and he doesn’t work at all in a “realistic” world, so a lot of Batman writers don’t want to write him. They want Batman to be the solitary brooding Dark Knight.

[JBatmanFan05]

DC higher ups . . Robin is supposed to be a brighter, kid-friendly character, and he doesn’t work at all in a “realistic” world, so a lot of Batman writers don’t want to write him. They want Batman to be the solitary brooding Dark Knight.

Yeah, in a macro sense, the shift to more "adult" "mature" "realistic" Batman comics (featuring a genius orphaned non-CTE-brained skyscraper-swinging billionaire) are why Batman and Robin work together not so often anymore.

Robin now seems condemned to sidekick with Batman mostly only when other BatFam heroes (Nightwing, etc) are also in the helping mix in a "all hands on deck" situation.

[phonogram12]

Yeah, while (admittedly) I wasn't really reading in the '70s (born in '76), I actually really enjoy that story where Dick goes off to college.

IDK, I guess it just seems like a missed opportunity. While I wasn't a huge fan of Damien, I really did enjoy that Batman & Robin series. My ideal Batman & Robin style series would probably be really similar to Mike W. Barr and Alan Davis' all too short Detective run back in the '80s. They just kind of reminded me of my favorite Dick Sprang stories updated for the times (which, if I remember correctly, was kind of what they were going for).

[Bat-Meal]

Robin now seems condemned to sidekick with Batman mostly only when other BatFam heroes (Nightwing, etc) are also in the helping mix in a "all hands on deck" situation.

Batman has a small army of underlings now - he doesn't want to play favorites!

9 kids/students (Dick, Jason, Tim, Damian, Babs, Cass, Steph, Harper, Duke), and 5 peers/family (Selina, Helena, Kate, Luke, Azrael) all vying for his attention. And that's not even including all the new characters that have been introduced lately.

Okay, with the adults he mostly only teams-up with Selina and Kate, but that makes sense since one is his lover and the other his cousin. But with the Robin and Batgirl types, the fans of each respective character probably wants their one to get most of the team-ups, so playing favorites does become a bother.

[Frontier]

I read a lot of 90's stories where Tim was generally a big factor and we saw him and Bruce together frequently, but I guess that was kind of the exception rather than the norm.

I guess it just makes for more interesting stories. I don't think Bruce's Batman is gonna work with sidekicks for some time. I mean, Ghost-Maker seems to be the guy he's working with on a consistent basis now. Now the Next Batman gets to be the one who endangers kids! What a legacy, right?

Isn't Harley trying to be the new Robin (shudder)?

[Superboy-Prime]

Isn't Harley trying to be the new Robin (shudder)?

She could be my Robin.

[Restingvoice]

Just curious. I've noticed since the death of Jason Todd and the introduction of Tim Drake that actual stories that feature Batman (Bruce) & Robin (any Robin) as a crimefighting duo like they used to be pre-Jason's death aren't anywhere near as common as they used to be. When Tim made his debut in his new costume, Bruce was almost immediately replaced by Azrael and he was shunted off to his own solo series. Sure, there was that Detective run with Dixon and Nolan, but other than that, I don't recall a whole lot of regular team-ups besides.

Admittedly, I never followed Damien as closely, but other than his time with Dick, the only other time he regularly teamed up with Bruce is during Tomasi and Gleason's B&R series, which has long since been canceled. And now it seems as if Bruce and Damien are on the outs.

Am I the only one who's noticed this?

Each writers have their own plans, also sometimes the publisher
Snyder wasn't comfortable with writing Damian because he's his kid's age and he writes a more horror-leaning Batman stories but that's covered by Tomasi who likes writing Damian because he's his kid's age.
King was more interested in BatCat and at that time the publisher's plan was to make Damian leaves the Bat fam for 5G so they made him rebel.
Tynion is more interested in his original characters but I think he would use Damian if he's in Gotham, since he uses everyone in Gotham except the ones already have a different author like Huntress, but Damian's not in Gotham.

[bat39]

The heyday of Batman and Robin as the inseperable Dynamic Duo in the comics was from 1940 to 1969. Once Dick went to college, you still occasionally had Batman and Robin team-ups, but Batman started to move towards being more of a solo character. Despite this, Robin still remained a crucial part of the Batman mythos, and in fact, the Batman editors wanting to make the Dynamic Duo a thing again in the early 80's was what led to the creation of Jason Todd as the new Robin, and Dick (now firmly a Teen Titans character) becoming Nightwing. In the meantime, other media adaptations of Batman (which was mainly the Superfriends cartoons and the short-lived ''New Adventures of Batman'') continued to feature the Dynamic Duo.

1989 was the real turning point which sounded the death-knell for the Dynamic Duo concept. You had Burton's Batman movie which forever transformed the way wider audiences perceived Batman and his world, and which notably did not include Robin (probably the first-ever adaptation of Batman to do so). And you had Jason being killed off in the comics.

Sure, we had Tim introduced as Robin in the comics not long after, but Tim soon became a more solo character and certainly wasn't glued to Batman the way Dick was in his heyday as Robin. Then you had BTAS which mostly focused on Batman as a solo character, though it did feature Robin (increasingly more so later in its run). The Schumacher movies destroyed the appetite for Robin in live-action. And then you had the Nolanverse which made it a point to exclude Robin.

Today, the Dynamic Duo is more of a nostalgic idea that its brought back on occassion, but by no means a centerpiece of the Batman mythos. Alfred, Gordon and the Joker are far more significant characters to the mythos today than Robin. The first live-action adaptations of Robins that we've gotten in over 20 years have been in a Titans show. The closest we've gotten to Robin appearing in a movie since 1997 has been the mention in BvS of him being dead (and his defaced suit in a trophy case).