THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD #60, 1964, Robin, Kid Flash, Aqualad, and Wonder Girl appear as the Teen Titans. Comics are forever changed.
The phenomena of the Superhero Sidekick, aside from the very notable example of Captain American and Bucky, is nearly exclusive to DC Comics amongst the “Big Two”. DC Comics most titular teens were gathered together in Teen Titans, not all as permanent members at first, and some only as guest stars. The original run was 3 years, give or take 40 issues. Teen Titans was picked back up shortly after this cancellation in 1976, and it then ran until 1978, when all the heroes together realized they were 20 years old, and that it was time to recognize they had outgrown the moniker of “Teen Titans.”
So, you might think, thats it then. They had their developmental time, they were friends, compatriots, and they come to amicable decision that they have outgrown the period of their lives where it was proper to call themselves “Teen”. But, at DC Comics, this was not to be so. 1980 sees the launch of the New Teen Titans, with all the same characters, this time everyone is actually on the team full time. This is the Teen Titans run that everyone has some peripheral knowledge of from its adaptions in television or later comics. Deathstroke, Brother Blood, Raven, all happening here and in full color. At some point, it was changed to “The New Titans”. Perhaps, they should have led with this. None of it ends up mattering, because of Crisis.
I would like to talk about the continued infantilization of the first generation of superhero sidekicks, by extension the direct editing of timelines and characters to accommodate this behavior, and its effect on the quality of the story that can be published, no matter how skilled the writer, artist or editor, or how legendary the character.
Robin is the first and best example of the phenomena of putting a character in Neverland. Dick Grayson is alone, of the four male Robins, to get a life after Robin in a meaningful way, and he is still caged though in different ways. Dick Grayson goes through the tumultuous but understandable and interesting arc of realizing that he wants to do different shit with his life than be Batman when he grows up. He moves out west, goes to college, has hobbies with his friends, has sex with an alien, becomes the mortal nemesis of a legendary assassin. He is followed as Robin by Jason Todd. Jason Todd is an interesting character in inception, very much NOT Dick Grayson in many ways that matter. A brave choice frankly, considering the popularity of Dick Grayson, and how important even at the time “Robin” was as a character to DC Comics readership. Let us not forget that as Robin, Jason is implied to have killed a guy. (Batman #424).
BATMAN #427, 1988, Jason Todd is beaten badly by the Joker, and left to die in an explosion. Batman comics are forever changed. Unfortunately, sidekicks, will also never be the same. Where Dick Grayson, at least nominally, gets to move on with his life as Nightwing, Jason Todd is killed. The vote- infamous as it is- which decided Jason’s fate only gathered SIXTY FIVE (65) odd votes. 65 votes across thousands of readers. Tells you about what percent of the fan population cares enough to indulge an active role in their interests, and furthermore leads me to speculate the number of people who care enough to produce an original thought on the matter, probably is still a number in the middle 60’s. Regardless, DC Comics stands by their decision to kill this character for years.
From Wikipedia:
Despite the poll results, O'Neil noted, "We did the deed, and we got a blast of hate mail and a blast of negative commentary in the press."[[8]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Todd#cite_note-8) A few comics creators voiced their displeasure at the event. Writer/artist [Frank Miller](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Miller "Frank Miller"), who had worked on _[Batman: The Dark Knight Returns](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman:_The_Dark_Knight_Returns "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns")_ and _[Batman: Year One](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batman:_Year_One "Batman: Year One")_, said, "To me, the whole killing of Robin thing was probably the ugliest thing I've seen in comics, and the most cynical."[[9]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Todd#cite_note-9) However, DC stood behind the outcome of the poll. O'Neil was quoted on the back cover of _A Death in the Family_ trade paperback collecting the story with Todd's death as saying, "It would be a really sleazy stunt to bring him back."[[10]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Todd#cite_note-10) O'Neil would later regret his comment.[[11]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jason_Todd#cite_note-11)
I direct your attention to what the venerable Denny O’Neill’s comment: “It would be a really sleazy stunt to bring him back.” How right he was. How right he still is. How right he will doubtless continue to be. I disagree with Frank Miller on the matter of killing Robin (I dont even think he seriously has this opinion anymore), and I am not even here to strictly condemn the results of the poll, the polling population, or their handling of how Jason Todd actually died and how retarded the invention of Joker’s circumstance for that was. I think Jason should have stayed dead. I think the most awkward thing was them not addressing the fact that he was dead in strict fashion for many issues afterwards. It makes sense to almost any modern Batman fan, who have probably been exposed to Batman primarily by Hollywood that a Robin could die in the line of duty. Gotham is dark, and evil, and the villains there are out to kill the Dynamic Duo at whatever cost may be incurred. In (God Forbid, I know) a linear retelling of the history of Batman, Jason’s death having permanence and being a fixture of failure in Batman’s career, does more for me than Jason Todd returning from the dead to be a really shitty version of the Winter Soldier who has now been softened to the point that he is basically, and I hate to use this phraseology but it is appropriate “Deadpool-esque” in his appearances.
Jason is the first entry point for us to explore seriously what I refer to as the “infantilization” of the comic book sidekick. What I mean to say by that term is that these characters are trapped in feelings and actions that are decades old, have often been explored and re-explored and rebooted and re-explored over and over, and we still find them somehow in A.D. 2026 grappling with the same tired circumstances. The various “Crises” as they did to the Teen Titans and many other heroes, have only exasperated this issue for these characters. Jason Todd is resurrected for Batman: Hush, infamous for many reasons, but is not explained until a semi-parallel issue of Nightwing, whereupon he starts to haunt Batman comics in a completely non-sequitur manner, until we finally come up with Red Hood and the Outlaws. Jason Todd, now as Red Hood, becomes a Gotham villain and manages to solo the Teen Titans (why? how? what is the fucking point of the Teen Titans if they cannot beat a normal guy? Didn’t they take on Trigon? Or did they. Crisis. Always.) And whatever dramatic tension there was once was, is now entirely gone. Jason Todd is interacting with characters I truly do not understand him being around, he is now buddy-buddy with Red Arrow, Bizarro (yeah) and Starfire who for all my bitching, is at least literally just there as a bikini model for the first issue. This run is of course entirely inconsequential for any of these characters and nothing of note even comes close to happening, as Red Hood is given a minor romantic arc with Artemis of Bana-Mighdall. Nothingburger through every bite. Rebirth has the balls to revisit this and call it “The Dark Trinity” this is of course, short lived and similarly empty of literally anything.
Jason Todd had meaning as a dead kid in a grown man’s war. Jason Todd is absolutely nothing when given dual .45’s and tasked to do literally nothing with other nothing characters because it is impossible to purport that either he or Batman would not just get over the whole thing after their third of fourth fight and exposition encounter.
With Jason Todd covered, we are ALMOST halfway through Robin. Now for Tim Drake, perhaps the most devilishly undone character of all by the infantilization phenomena. Driven by the perceived unpopularity of Jason Todd as Robin being an asocial rebel with no regard for Batman or his methods, Tim Drake is a Batman appreciator. He is singularly intelligent, a competent detective before he ever meets the Dark Knight who prostrates himself before the first born son (Dick Grayson) asking for permission to take up his mantle.
With Tim Drake, we venture bravely forth- beyond Teen Titans, into Young Justice. Young Justice is more literally a Junior Justice League than Teen Titans is, but has its own merits. Tim Drake’s tenure is dominated in part by his part in the rediscovery of Bruce Wayne, who had been “killed” previously- as well as Batman Inc. I am not a fan of this whole thing, but its sort of whatever for the purposes of this article. None of this matters of course, because NEW 52 happens. NEW 52 is similarly complete crap for him, and absolutely nothing developmental happens there. 5 years down the drain.
Infinite Frontier: He loses the lone interesting development in his life, Stephanie Brown AKA Spoiler, and works on a houseboat and is bisexual. In a stunning revisitation of something no one ever asked for, he helps resolve Batman Zur-En-Arrh part 2 or 3, which is a 60 year old story by this time.
So, the best he gets is Red Robin. Which is crap. That is Robin 2.0 and literally anyone looking at it can tell that simply put, they needed to move to Damian Wayne and didn’t really have a place for Tim to go when Dick took the mantle in Battle for the Cowl. But, he is bisexual, still Robin, unresponsive entirely to really any other stimulus, because even Red Robin isn’t really a thing anymore, and his time with Young Justice however well it demonstrates his proficiencies and individualities that distill him from Dick Grayson- it is looked at as “Oh Yeah, Robin leads the Teen Titans.”
The greatest injustice to me, is a hidden thing: The great Chuck Dixon once planned to have Tim take over as Blue Beetle, which I think would have been grand. Obviously, never happened.
Alright, Damian Wayne and then we are done with Robin. Damian Wayne to me is the one true Robin, the one true successor to both Dick Grayson and Bruce Wayne, fully Robin and fully Batman, fully Squire and Knight, Mordred and (potentially) Arthur. Damian is the dynastic inheritor to Batman, literally designed that way, created for and with this purpose in mind. The lone governance of his actual fate lies with his will to either succeed or exceed his father in his role as crimefighter. The issue with Damian at this point, is that he has been 9 years old since 2006. 20 years at the time of writing. 2 decades at the time of writing. In concept, as old as Batman: Son of the Demon in 1987.
I like Damian, I like what Damian is about and I like what he represents as a figure of the mystic darkness of The Batman, a child born of rape and alchemy and forbidden passions (familiar to Arthurian scholars who have read my post on Batman: Batman, Anglo Saxon Prince of New England - #4 by HAIRCUT ) who is nonetheless his own person. For this sin, he is of course killed in short order by Grant Morrison, and, you already know, resurrected. His resurrection, I dare to say, is at least more sensibly crafted than being punched back into reality by Superboy prime more than 30 years after his death. Of course this is still nothing because Rebirth happens. He gets to lead the Teen Titans, because, as I have gone over, this is something that Robins do. The cast is insanely eclectic, and not at all interesting. You will be glad to know Jason Todd as Red Hood is also forcibly inserted into his life on the Teen Titans. Super Sons is an admirable attempt at exploring one of the great friendships in comics on a generational scale, KGBeast is returned and defeated, and finally we return to talking about Teen Titans as the team follows Damian directions to Nightwing.
In 2021, the Titans roster is as follows:
Nightwing, Cyborg, Raven, Starfire, Beast Boy, Troia (Donna Troy aka Wonder Girl), Crush, Roundhouse, Red Arrow, and Kid Flash. Two new characters, almost zero character evolution, 5 Robins, 3 Kid Flashes, 57 years and we are basically back to square one of the Titans roster. This, is the infantilization of the Superhero Sidekick. No one must grow old, no one must become someone new, no one gets to have an ending, no one gets to have their OWN stories, no one gets to leave the Team for their own reasons or be affected by anything going on in the world long term.
But let us not cast undue aspersions, surely, there must be someone out there who has gotten the chance to grow up!
Indeed, if only temporarily. Aside from Nightwing, who it seems is doomed to return to a basic state no matter how many secret agent arcs he has, his best friend Wally West the Kid Flash of the OG Teen Titans team does in fact grow up. Wally is so popular as Flash that he makes it onto JL and JLU, Wally was my Flash growing up, I read older Flash stuff only after I had been exposed to him. The Flash is your favorite Superheroes favorite Superhero, and Wally is to me the greatest of all time in nearly every aspect, he joins the cause for love of the game and sticks it out through thick and thin and bullshit all the way and makes it as the Flash and isn’t just the Flash he is the best most powerful Flash. But this too shall pass. Wally is made Black in New 52 before that was so quickly unpopular it was retconned from existence in all substance in Rebirth. Wally must of course, still return to the Titans.
The pattern I am attempting to display here, what I am trying to communicate, is that every character from OG Teen Titans should have been able to go off on their own and have a life. If they wanted to come back and team up again I have no issue with that, if they want to be a partner with another team member I have no issue with that. But something has to stick. It cannot be that we force Nightwing, a totally inspired and interesting character, into the slavery of having to share panels with a dead guy who he barely interacted with as Robin and must now suffer as a quasi-anti-hero periodically while also repeatedly being committedly uncommitted to the Titans, or Teen Titans, or New Teen Titans, or New Titans, or Titans Academy, for seemingly no reason other than to keep him in print. I said this in my second Wonder Woman article, but a dictatorial authority is needed, these characters need beginnings and endings. It is not a coincidence that Young Justice (the TV show) was so popular. While it was a re visitation of the adolescence of these characters, and many of their major story beats, the linear flow of time and how the characters changed in its passing was a central theme and aesthetic of the show. A longer piece on how bad Young Justice became is forthcoming, along with several other Capeshit examinations.
All superhero sidekicks are like this. Even Wally West, venerable as he is, is not exempt from the fact that they will not let him just BE the Flash. They will not let the new generation of heroes they set up for Gen X be the heroes for millennials, or for Gen-Z, or for Gen-A. We are trapped forever in the paradigm that supports Batman as Bruce Wayne, Clark Kent as Superman, Hal Jordan as Green Lantern, and Barry Allen as the Flash. Frankly, I get it. That is where the money is. Can’t really hate Warner Brothers on the commercial front for that. In terms of actually getting a story told of course, we are in complete chaos. We live in hell. It’s dust, as they say. Completely dust.
The people yearn for change. The people yearn for a world where time passes and something actually happens. Alas.
Below: Completely retarded crap.
